2009 Australian Vintage report

Few vintages of the last 25 years have been greeted with as much gloom and doom as 2009. At a glimpse, the season was little short of diabolical, with a drought-stressed continent further affected by ongoing blasts of extreme heat and wind, which led to the devastating bushfires experienced across Victoria. Prior to the fires, South Australia experienced a withering burst of ongoing heat that broke every undesirable climatic record. In the middle of this spell I drove myself through a number of regions, feeling little short of physically unwell as I went past mile after mile of drooping, bedraggled vineyard.

Fortunately, reports of the total demise of the vintage have indeed proven premature. While nobody will ever rate it as one of the country’s finest, there are indeed enough positive signs – or ‘green shoots’ in the modern vernacular, for it not to be dismissed entirely out of hand far from it, in fact.

The vintage was smaller than 2008’s but not small enough to ease the pressure on Australia’s oversupply. Drought, water scarcity and heat combined could not reduce the intake below 1.71 million tonnes against 1.83 million in 2008, although we have to learn how many tonnes were left unharvested on the vine.

Shiraz accounted for 23.6 of the total crush, ahead of chardonnay’s 23.4 and cabernet sauvignon’s 14.5. While semillon’s crush declined by 20 to 76,900 tonnes and colombard by just 1 to 63,600 tonnes, sauvignon blanc’s crush increased by 3 to 63,300 tones – 4 of the total – placing it comfortable ahead of pinot gris 40,500 tonnes and riesling 36,900 tonnes.

These figures reflect the fact that the warmer inland areas, which are themselves no strangers to heat, actually performed better from a quantity and quality perspective than many cooler regions. Given the recent and ongoing exodus by growers from the warmer South Australian regions, those remaining are generally those with the ability and resources to produce good crops in most seasons. Whether or not their fruit has a market and is being bought from them at a realistic price are different issues entirely, but from the farming perspectives, many did very well in 2009.

Australia’s high quality regions tended to face the biggest challenges in 2009. Many winemakers encountered the possibility of smoke taint for the first time. In my experience, this suggests that a significant number of smoke-tainted wines will indeed be released despite efforts not to – simply because prior experience with this issue is almost a prerequisite to understanding how to identify it and how it behaves.

Broad, and I believe typically blunt and honest assessments from some of the chief winemakers in our largest companies are more optimistic than might have been expected. Many winemakers have assessed their 2009 production fearing the worst, to find that in enough cases at least, there has been a reprieve, even some genuine highlights.

For the time being at least, this is a hard vintage to call, harder even than 2008. But despite much of the negative coverage filling the airwaves, don’t right it off just yet. Again it appears that the key factor – provided the vineyard avoided the bushfire smoke and excessive drought – was vineyard maturity and management. Well-operated mature vineyards located in the best sites will, as ever, rise to the top this season.

New South Wales



What was shaping as potentially the greatest vintage in Hunter history again? has indeed perhaps delivered on at least 50 of its promises. No doubt about this – it’s a signature vintage for Hunter semillon, one of the greatest ever. And then it rained, for a week. What happened to the reds is then very much a case-by-case issue. Those able to harvest before the onset of excessive mould will make some good wine, provided they sorted their fruit adequately. Those who waiting for a couple of weeks after the downpour before harvesting shiraz will face considerably greater challenges.

Orange had a good season for whites, but did experience some of the rain that affected the Hunter. The best vineyards will have the region’s best reds, by some margin. Cowra’s crop, well down in volume thanks to the three-year dry, could surprise from the quality perspective. Like Canberra, another continental region, the cool nights after the hot days will certainly have helped fruit retain flavour and freshness. Canberra itself has enjoyed a signature red vintage that also produced deeply flavoured whites likely to mature a little more quickly than the more austere and classical styles from 2008. Hilltops also enjoyed a good to very good season, especially for shiraz.

Griffith’s crop was adversely affected by the two weeks of extreme heat in February, although the sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot sparkling base harvested prior to then was exceptional. While the yields of botrytis semillon were low, autumn rains did encourage the development of some small, but high-quality crops.

South Australia



For several weeks during the early part of the ripening season, South Australia was not a pleasant place to be. Adelaide sweltered beneath six blistering consecutive days of 40+ degree heat. It was impossible for vineyards in nearby regions not to have been affected to some extent. While the early-ripening white varieties of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc might have been taken off before the heat became too extreme, red grapes, cabernet varieties in particular, took a beating.

Despite early reports bordering on a wipeout, it has emerged that regions like the Barossa, which did become cooler later in the season, have produced some fine shiraz, which typically outperformed cabernet in South Australia in 2009. Of course it’s a site by site proposition, but it’s a better proposition than anyone imagined at the time. The older, better McLaren Vale sites have produced some surprisingly good wines although as expected, when sugars ripen so fast, there are issues with tannin ripeness. Tempranillo is emerging as a potential dark horse in this region. So while it’s highly unlikely that 2009 will produce the more robust, long-living South Australian red, it should, deliver some of restraint and suppleness.

While the drought and heat have certainly inflicted themselves on the Eden and Clare Valleys, it still appears that 2009 might actually be the finest season for riesling since 2002. Prior to the heat it was very cold, and after the heat departed it became cool again. The sites able to handle the spell have made exceptional wine, just as a number did in 2008.

While the southeast experienced a cool end to the season, the best cabernets from Coonawarra are likely to be very good, although perhaps not as good as the finest shiraz. Further north, Langhorne Creek defied some low expectations with some pleasing red, with less salinity issues than anticipated.

Tasmania



A sequence of drought, November rainfall, a cool December, late flowering and frost in some parts decimated the size of Tasmania’s 2009 harvest, but has helped what remained to ripen fully develop some wine of exceptional potential. With a crop up to 70 less than 2008, 2009 was actually the coolest vintage in Tasmania for several years, particularly in the south, but the low crop loads enabled it to be harvested a little earlier than normal. A hot spell in late January pushed ripeness along, developing intense flavours and ripe skins.

Dark-skinned small berries of pinot noir should produce some interesting, deeply flavoured and robust wines perhaps atypical to Tasmania’s typical style. Expect rieslings from the Coal River Valley and Lower Derwent to be very aromatic but slightly more robust and long-living than usual. Chardonnay could be exceptional, with pleasing intensity and acidity. If growers were prepared to leave pinot gris on the vine, it has rewarded many with pleasing richness and varietal quality.

Victoria



Victoria really experienced the extremes of the season, especially from January 28-30 with temperatures in the mid to high forties. A second, shorter heatwave on 7 February lasted just a single day, but the temperatures and wind speeds were even higher. Virtually all vineyards and their crops in the state suffered some damage at this time. The severity of the heat damage varied considerably, but some crops were completely destroyed, their berries simply turning to raisins on the vine.

It’s very difficult to be optimistic about Victoria, since many of the regions that were not directly affected by the worst bushfires in the state’s history had their crops ruined by the smoke that drifted over their vineyards. Growers and makers will have worked harder than ever to remove the smoke-affected wine from their blends, and will be thankful of some prior experience with these issues in 2007. The wines will very much a case by case, region by region affair.

Western Australia



Again, our Western Australian cousins could be forgiven for thinking they were living in another continent not that they would! for while the east sweltered, the west experienced a late, cool but reasonably mild season. Flavours developed nicely, although it took a long time for sugar levels to follow suit. The real stars are likely to be the chardonnays from Margaret River and the Great Southern, along with riesling from Mount Barker. Frankland River riesling displays fresh green apple flavour.

Margaret River semillons were strong, while its cabernet has produced a more restrained, softer and more supple array of wines than usual. Winemakers will need to be careful not to overburden them with oak.

There should be some delightful peppery and spicy Frankland River shirazes, and while the Mount Barker;s reds were developing some attractive flavours, they were probably harvested before optimal tannin ripeness was achieved, cabernet especially. Winter was coming, so growers had little choice. Please login to post comment