Australians wines : a quality vintage 2020

Quality will out-score quantity!

A historic 2020 vintage, marked by extremes, from a cold winter to a scorching, windy summer and a year when bushfires ravaged the East Coast of Australia.
The micro-climate of the Pyrenees spared this region, but not Heathcote, smothered in smoke and a nearzero crop.

Vine growth began slowly at the end of September, when the weather was particularly dry in Heathcote with only 100mm of rain compared to 300mm the previous year. On the Pyrenees, the climate was milder, bringing a reasonable quantity of rainfall (380mm), propitious to good plant development.

October was hotter and drier, heralding an early vintage, already a week ahead of the averages of recent years. Vigorous vine growth began to slow, like in 2016: a vintage that would speak more of Quality than quantity.

The blossom came, not without difficulty, in November, in warm winds particularly affecting the Heathcote and Malakoff vines, causing coulure (sap dripping). Average cell multiplication explained the small size of the berries and subsequently of the bunches observed at harvest. Foliage work, and de-budding in particular, is a key factor in the management of hydric stress, and allows the grapes to ripen under very good conditions, favourable to
concentration.

The hot weather gave way to the cold in January and February, as rainy as in 2019. This slowed the growth of the vine, allowing it to develop homogenously, with the grapes filling out and continuing to ripen in the shade of the canopy while retaining all their freshness.
The harvest began on March 12th in the vineyards of the Pyrenees, resulting in highly-concentrated wines in tannins and acids, after more than five weeks’ fermentation and maceration.