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2005 vintage report for McLaren Vale (South Australia)

After a reasonably wet winter across the region the vines burst well with good early shoot growth. As a consequence there were large canopies which played a part in the faster-than-usual ripening period. McLaren Vale had a milder-than-usual summer with very few days of extreme temperatures, resulting in an excellent, even ripening period. Consequently, vintage started up to two weeks earlier with the first whites coming off very early in February.
Semillon and Riesling were particularly affected by a rain event mid veraison. Overall, wineries are reasonably pleased with the quality of the fruit and some have commented that the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are looking particularly good this year. Grenache was also of a very high standard too, despite multiple reports of botrytis infections as the Baumes climbed.
Attaining sugar ripeness was not an issue, with very high Baumes being recorded before the onset of flavour ripeness. Some were caught out by the rapid rise in Baume finding that their fruit was far more advanced than they expected. Wineries were also put under pressure with the fruit appearing to ripen all together—particularly Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon which makes up in excess of 70 per cent of McLaren Vale’s planted area.
Current estimates put the total crush for region 10-15 per cent down on last year. After last year’s record crush (71,595 tonnes) and the current state of the market for some cool-climate varieties, this is a very welcome decrease. There was a quantity of uncontracted red varieties left on the vine this year too, as well as the odd row left behind due to strict winery contract stipulations.