Wine industry looking forward to strong vintage after hot spell dries out vineyards
SOUTH Australia’s sweltering heatwave has grape growers thanking the weather gods.
SOUTH Australia’s sweltering heatwave has grape growers thanking the weather gods.
The hot, dry weather helped dry out vine canopies and grape bunches, which have suffered from the earlier unusually high rainfall and cooler temperatures.
The unseasonal weather has delayed grape harvests across the state by three weeks and provided suitable conditions for disease to flourish.
GrowCare plant pathologist Peter Magarey said last week’s scorching temperatures, while painful for most, was “good news” for viticulturists.
“It’s the best thing we could have to help grape harvest across the state,” he said. “While everyone is feeling poorly about the heat, there is a little bit of sun shining for the grape growers.
“They’re pleased because it will dry out the bunches that have started to rot.”
South Australia last week struggled through a heatwave of above 40C in the city and up to 45C in some regional areas.
Mr Magarey said the weather was a welcomed change from the previous tropical conditions, which had given fungi time to grow.
“There is not a good fungicide that can control (bunch rot) at this time of year, once it’s started. So it’s very good to get hot weather,” he said.
Wine Grape Council of SA chairwoman Heather Webster said representatives from each growing region met on Friday to discuss the late harvest and quality of predicted crops.
“The general message is, while there is a lot of crop around, there probably is not a large increase in the average yield,” Ms Webster said.
“Because of the coolness during flowering and fruit set, it’s not going to be a particularly large harvest.
“However, the quality is looking excellent but there is variability and it’s still early.”
Bremerton Wines winemaker Rebecca Willson expected to start picking at their Langhorne Creek vineyard next week but, if the hot weather continued, it might begin sooner.
“The thing we hope will happen is we won’t have too many more tropical pressure systems,’’ she said.
“If they continue, there will be more challenges for us but at the moment it’s looking good.”
In the Riverland, the harvest started last week at Treasury Wine Estates Markaranka vineyard, at Taylorville, corporate affairs manager Sue Rana said.
“At this very early stage, it’s difficult to predict how the vintage will unfold but we’re on track to achieve our forecast yield and quality expectations,” Ms Rana said.