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2010 vintage report for Padthaway (South Australia)

Supplied by the Padthaway Grape Growers’ Association
Growing season: Rainfall for the 2009-10 growing season was slightly above the long-term average (LTA). This had all growers excited as the past two seasons had been between 85-90mm below the LTA. Minimum temperatures only produced one or two frost events, depending on where vineyards were situated in the Padthaway region, and no major losses were recorded. Maximum temperatures were relatively mild until November, when a nine-day heatwave occurred. Some varieties were susceptible to this heat at flowering, causing poor set, but the majority of vineyards managed to avoid this. The good winter rainfall saw the development of good, healthy canopy growth early in the growing season. The warmer November temperatures kept the pest and disease risk to a minimum during the growing season.
Vintage: Harvest commenced on 4 February, approximately one week earlier than average. Vintage concluded in the first week of April – a week earlier than average. During harvest, March rainfall events caused some splitting to occur to Shiraz but the majority of growers were up-to-date with their spray programs and there was only minimal botrytis incidence occurring in isolated pockets of vineyards. The combination of adequate rainfall and warm weather caused most phenological events to be up to two weeks in advance of LTA. Late-season rainfall and average temperature events caused ripening to occur at a steady rate, leading to good flavour development and promising fruit quality in the vineyard.
Yields and quality: Chardonnay yields were down by around 15-20% on average, while Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon were all around LTA levels.
There are some early signs of some excellent quality Chardonnay wines from the region as the growers strive for improvements to quality for the region’s most consistent white variety. Red grape varieties also had mixed yield results with Shiraz yielding slightly above LTA and Cabernet Sauvignon slightly down on LTA. All other red varieties were around LTA. The average temperatures in February allowed for a lengthening of the ripening period which then allowed for an extended period to develop the regional flavour characteristics for, in particular, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Numerous growers received ‘super premium’ field assessments from winemakers on their premium parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.