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2002 vintage report for Hunter Valley (New South Wales)

Trevor Drayton, president of the Hunter Valley Vineyard Association, said the region experienced an excellent vintage in terms of quality, and yields were about average.
The Semillon crop was about 20 to 25% up on last year while other whites were about average. Shiraz and other red varieties were down by 10 to 15%.
Harvest began on 23 January and there were periods of rain in early February, but it fined up in mid February and the harvest was generally unaffected by the weather.
Trevor said the quality of reds in lower yielding vineyards, and those on better soil types, was good to very good. But reds in higher yielding vineyards lacked structure.
He said the quality of the white varieties was excellent.
Winemaker Bruce Tyrrell told the Wine Journal that some great wines would be made in the Hunter Valley this year.
‘It’s been a long time since we’ve picked reds with the sugar levels we have picked at this year,’ he said.
‘There were amazing sugars that we normally don’t expect here. The Chardonnay is looking good too.
‘The white crop is up considerably while the red crop is down a bit on what we expected but still up on last year. The growing season was good and then we had the bushfire period and heat over Christmas; it was bloody hot but it didn’t cause that much of a problem.
‘We had a big crop sitting there and not enough soil moisture to ripen it. Then we had heavy rain and within five or six days of that rain the sugars, and more importantly the flavours, took off and we started to get fruit ripeness rather than just sugar ripeness.’