Good things come in small packages.
Tuesday 13 April
Yields in Marlborough will be down significantly in 2010, if things at Jackson Estate are anything to go by. The crop here is down 25-30% on initial estimates. Ask around the region and the story seems to be the same.
A really cool spring limited the potential crop size and with little rain since mid-January, the average bunch is much smaller than expected. Geoff Woollcombe, chief viticulturalist at Jackson, explained that Sauvignon Blanc bunches were picked at around 150 grams last year and just 110g this year; it’s a similar story for Pinot Noir, falling from the usual 120g per bunch to less than 100g.
But it seems good things do come in small packages: the Pinot Noir heading into the destemmer looked really healthy, and they were tasty. Unfortunately, there were a few pesky earwigs, which made their way from the bunches and down my top: it was certainly a safer place than the destemmer.
The small crop has brought vintage ahead of estimates and the winery should finish picking this week: a fortnight ahead of 2009.
Predictions are that the 2011 harvest will be small again: buds destined for next year’s cane have been hit by the cold spring.
The word on Blenheim’s streets is that nature could resolve the region’s oversupply situation in the next 18 months in Marlborough.
Hi Rebecca, this is interesting information. If it were only to apply to Marlborough, producing 75% of expected crop levels, the national crop could come in under 160,000 tonnes, below NZW’s national estimate.
As I have been hearing of small bunch weights in other drought affected areas to the north (and allowing for a few areas where vineyards have been pulled up or mothballed), it may not be unreasonable to expect even lower.
Using a few simple assumptions I get a national production guestimate of 177 mil litres, approx 29 mil litres (14%) below the current volume of domestic and export sales. A “muted” 2011 harvest, for plant biological reasons, may even allow the industry to shift back to (dare I whisper the words) a shortage. Shouldn’t count our chickens should we! Nature is still the boss…
- by Hugh Ammundsen
Hi Hugh,
If this is the case throughout the country, then it would be a real turnaround. I’ll be looking into that next week when I’m not knee deep in grapes!
Great to hear from you,
- by Rebecca