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2011 vintage report for Riverina (New South Wales)

Supplied by Kristy Bartrop, industry development officer, Riverina Wine Grapes Marketing Board
Growing season: Riverina grapegrowers experienced an abundance of rainfall and moderate temperatures in the 2011 season. The wet weather and high humidity was experienced over the entire region from October to February, bringing risks of downy mildew, powdery mildew, lightbrown apple moth and botrytis. The region’s vineyard managers kept the chemical resellers on their toes trying to keep up with the ever-increasing demands for options to protect valuable crops from disease. With the breaking of the drought there were more perennial crops planted than in recent years, which put a strain on chemical availability at the optimum time for vineyards as soybean and legume farmers bought up the available fungicides.
Vintage: The Riverina harvest returned to the late January/early February start time as a result of the cooler ripening conditions. The wet weather continued throughout February, which caused unrelenting disease pressure and delays in vineyard access for harvest machinery. Vineyard managers juggled their harvesting and spraying operations to ensure their crops were not downgraded or rejected.
Yields and quality: Whilst many in the region predicted reduced tonnages, this did not eventuate when the official tonnage reports were issued. The 2011 harvest was 290,000 tonnes, which is 11% higher than the 2010 harvest. The abundant water availability due to flooding rains caused heavier and larger-than-normal berries. Riverina growers also had wineries purchasing diseased fruit to produce concentrate. This unexpected move by wineries meant that the total tonnes purchased was much higher than previously predicted, as this surprisingly sizeable concentrate market bought up fruit that the industry had predicted would be unsaleable.