Quality vintage but low crop for Mahi Wines

View my tasting notes for the excellent Mahi Pinot Noir 2019.

Vintage 2021 report from Mahi:

With the last of our Pinot pressed off we can pretty well say that the vintage is over and as usual it was a very distinctive one; with the earliest start that we have had, March the 4th, and our earliest finish being April the 4th.

The quality was great, but it will also be remembered because of the very low crops that the vines carried, caused mainly by rainfall at flowering, added to by a frost event, both of which will have an effect on the industry for the next couple of years. Marlborough had already run out of wine so assuming we are down by maybe 30% there will be a flow-on effect in particular for some of the lower end wines that are sent in bulk for ‘buyers-own brands’.

You will see in the following chart that we did not have high temperatures through the season, especially after flowering in early December, so the fruit characters were retained and if crops had been ‘normal’ vintage would have started and finished much later but when you have Pinot Noir bunch weights, from a monitored site, of 43gms., as against 70gms. last year, you can see why the vines did not struggle to ripen the fruit.

Rainfall is obviously another key factor with long spells of no rain and a total being about 85% of normal it again made picking decisions very simple as there was no disease or upcoming rain pressure. It is always a good vintage when a Botrytis-affected berry is a serious oddity and when the bees turn up as the fruit is nice and ripe!

Our 21st vintage for Mahi, and again Covid had an impact in that for the first time for many years all of our vintage staff were from NZ. A great team which was special to me in many ways. Firstly there were a couple of connections to my first vintage in 1989 at Coopers Creek and it was great to have our son Max back from a winery in NY to do his first full crush here at the winery.

The third exceptional vintage in a row and I look forward to sharing these wines from this season with you, especially if the borders slowly open so we can get back out into the markets.

I know it is a bit of a cliché regarding wines being like children, but you do get attached to them and it is always a little sad, and a little exciting, when they run out of one vintage and you move in to the next.

This is happening with the Mahi Chardonnay and we are moving through the 2019 over this month. You will see in my vintage report of 2019 that it was a great one, and especially for Chardonnay, was nearly as small as 2021. The same vineyards and winemaking but a different vintage so for those who have chosen these packs make sure you have a good taste and we would love to hear what you think of it. Slightly riper and richer but still with good acidity, we are pretty happy with the new model!