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1999 vintage report for Padthaway (South Australia)

The long dry summer experienced this season was ideal for grapegrowing. Even temperatures and lack of rain has produced good quality grapes in most cases. Ian Ward, president of the Padthaway Grapegrowers Association, said that frosts in late October and early November left isolated areas of damage; however overall damage in the area was slight and had little effect on yields. Ian said cool weather was experienced as harvest began and some problems were encountered getting Baume levels sufficiently high enough in white grapes, particularly Chardonnay. This had the effect of bringing the red and white grape harvest together, more so than normally. ‘The lack of rain at harvest and warmer weather in early April meant that grapes came off in good heart,’ said Ian. ‘The bad experiences with botrytis in some northern areas of South Australia did not occur in the south-east as we did not receive the high summer rainfall. Some botrytis showed up earlier than normal in white grapes but was not a great problem.’ Ian said growers in Padthaway have, in the last few years, been reducing yields in an effort to produce higher quality grapes. This has mainly been achieved by using deficit irrigation. The result has been a continuing improvement in grape quality in the area and a lower water usage. ‘Overall it was a very good season where yields have been up to expectations and quality excellent. Area tonnages will probably be in the vicinity of 32,000 tonnes. We can look forward to some excellent wines from the Padthaway region from this harvest,’ said Ian.Padthaway had a very dry year, with only heavy rains in September breaking the pattern. November continued very dry, yet with cool days and nights. Southcorp’s vineyard manager Kym Ayliffe said the high number of sunshine hours had encouraged unusually big vine canopies. ‘We went through some very hot weather after Christmas, but the vines held up well and we’ve had no disease to speak of.’ January and February remained very dry — ‘The driest I have ever seen the region,’ said Lindemans’ Phillip John — but Padthaway escaped the March rain and has, once again, had a wonderful vintage. Whites are excellent, with Chardonnay and Riesling the stars. The reds, too, are excellent, in a wonderful run of vintages for Padthaway. Both Cabernet and Shiraz have good, strong flavours and Merlot is also very good.