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2005 vintage report for Gippsland (Victoria)

A grape harvest of about 1,100 tonnes is generally down on the ’04 vintage and there were particular problems in some sub regions. In general, there was little disease pressure in vineyards although East Gippsland had patches of bad botrytis. Others had heavy bird attacks at vintage time which lessened crop levels and quality. Since the tonnage was low to start with this compounded the effects of the drought. Only the later red varieties did well. Central Gippsland had a long, slow autumn maturation and again the reds have been outstanding. The heavy crop coupled with a lessening demand from wineries meant that a lot of grapes went unpicked. Wineries with known specialties were well placed. South Gippsland had lower cropping levels than usual but the fruit quality was higher and wines are generally above their usual price point in flavour.
Gippsland wineries report that this has been one of the great vintages in terms of fruit quality.