Baileys 2020 Vintage
“The early 2020 Vintage conditions were similar to those of 2009 with plentiful sunshine, little rainfall and relatively cool growing conditions. The canopies in March were balanced, matched crop load, and the fruit sat at around 10 Baume having just completed veraison.
This vintage we trialled one new organic yeast and had hints of smoke from nearby bushfires. Baileys finished up the last fruit intake for vintage 2020 just before Easter with a total of 2,140 tonnes processed.
With generally lower crops, but good ripening conditions, this year’s crush passed very well and we are looking forward to producing some great wines.”
- Paul Dahlenburg, Chief Winemaker
Brand’s Laira 2020 Vintage
“The weather in Coonawarra began windy and cool, followed by heatwaves and a warm dry summer leading into cooler ripening conditions and a later than normal start to harvest. Nevertheless, Vintage 2020 was off to a good start, having overcome extreme heat events and early downpours.
Veraison started at the beginning of February with warm days and cool nights. All varieties exhibited great varietal flavour, with Cabernet being the stand out variety.
The 2020 Vintage ranks as a reasonably good vintage, and saw the team trial true barrel ferments with Stentiford’s, Tall Vines and 1968 Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, we utilised a greater level of leaf plucking to increase fruit exposure.
The final crush was 1,150 tonnes.”
- Peter Weinberg, Chief Winemaker
Morris 2020 Vintage
“The ancient Rutherglen region endured an interesting vintage this year, with a late but much-needed downpour combating the raging bushfires. Mild conditions throughout the growing season with low rainfall and a couple of warm weeks following Christmas led to less canopy growth causing the grapes to be two weeks behind with the crush starting in late February.
Overall, it was one of the coolest vintages on record, giving excellent conditions for flavour development and the slowing of Baume helped to further concentrate these flavours for world class grapes. We didn’t do anything differently this year, instead sticking to our well-tried methods and proven techniques.
Our final crush was around 250-270 tonnes.”
- David Morris, Chief Winemaker
Peter Lehmann Wines 2020 Vintage
“Extreme weather conditions leading into Vintage 2020 saw the region battle drought and produce low berry per bunch numbers. However, the vines were resilient with low to moderate canopy growth, which led to well developed and intense fruit flavours. Veraison was earlier than normal in most red varieties and we found that longer time on the vine was needed to reach physiological ripeness due to temperature fluctuations over the ripening period.
This year, more time was spent in the vineyard assessing each individual parcel of grapes, giving the winemaking and viticulturist team a better grasp of fruit intake and quality control, which we hope to build on in coming years. We also have several new open fermenters which were well utilised with our super premium bundles of fruit. Brett Smith – aka The Grenache Master – is working on some small super premium batches of Grenache that were hand-picked in the vineyard, and is experimenting with some carbonic maceration.
Overall, Peter Lehmann Wines’ total crush was 17,800 tonnes finishing on the 24th April. Pragmatism, hard work and a positive attitude throughout the community in the face of such adversity ensured the 2020 vintage was one to be remembered.”
- Tim Dolan, Senior Winemaker and Jade Rogge, Viticulturist