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2009 vintage report for Currency Creek (South Australia)

Contributed by Nathan Shaw and David Watkins

Growing season: The 2009 growing season commenced with cool spring weather and, surprisingly, after average winter rainfall, very dry deeper soil profiles. While early spring growth was somewhat inhibited by cooler conditions, a warmer start to summer soon produced well-balanced canopies. Red varieties showed excellent fruitset and bunch numbers while white varieties other than Chardonnay exhibited below average bunch numbers.

Vintage: The unprecedented heatwave in the last 10 days of January brought the whites forward in fruit ripeness and resulted in a record early start for the sparkling varieties.

The maritime influence over the Currency Creek wine region leads to low average summer ripening temperatures, thereby making it a late-maturing district. Fortunately, this factor meant the later white varieties and the reds were just entering late veraison when the heatwave hit, resulting only in some vine stress while leaving the fruit relatively unaffected.

After this burst of early heat, the vintage did, in fact, return to ‘normal’. The perfect cool and dry early autumn and cold nights that followed created optimal fruit-ripening conditions, thereby allowing flavour development while holding the acid. These conditions enabled the later varietals, such as Merlot, Grenache and Petit Verdot, to be harvested up to three weeks after Easter.

Yields and quality: Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon ferments all looked outstanding with the best white varieties this year being Sauvignon Blanc (below average yield) and Chardonnay (above average yield).