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2011 vintage report for Mount Barker (Western Australia)

Supplied by Kim Tyrer, operations manager/owner, Galafrey Wines; president, Mount Barker Wine Producers’ Association Inc.
Growing season: It’s been such a weird year with all the disasters in the eastern states. All the state’s vineyard stocks of sulfur, copper and fungicides were shipped east, so in the west we were left short. With January characterised by small showers followed by humid weather the diseases began to creep in. Luckily for us at Galafrey, our vineyard is dry grown and canopy management aids our disease control. The winds helped dry out the vines daily reducing the risk of disease. However, other vineyards lost their whole Riesling crop to botrytis.
Vintage: Because of the very dry year, vintage started early. Thankfully, we got 30mm in December otherwise we would have been be carting water to the winery as our water tanks would have been empty. All the whites were ready at once for the first time for as long as I can remember. Usually, we pick Chardonnay and a week or two later the Riesling, and a week after that the Sauvignon Blanc. Not to mention vintage usually starts in the second week of March. This year, all the white grapes came off over two nights over the long weekend in March. The Graze Mount Barker festival was also on that weekend. We had bookings all weekend, and it was great to see so many people in the area enjoying themselves, but by the time Tuesday came we were all exhausted!
Yields and quality: All the fruit tastes amazing and we are always reminded how great our dry grown vineyard is. The Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot looks fantastic. All the reds came off at the end of March. It was a battle with the birds as there was no blossom about. The volume is down this year which is to be expected from a dry grown vineyard in a very dry year.