Excellent quality despite a challenging vintage for Grasshopper Rock

2021 vintage, in summary, was a cool spring and January followed by a warm dry autumn which perfectly ripened a smaller than average crop. The grape volume was down by 20% as was the average bunch size. We picked a week earlier than normal due to the excellent ripening period and a smaller crop.

Covid-19, and changes in the availability of skilled vineyard staff, made vineyard work more difficult. In previous years we have had a stable and experience work force of both people from NZ and Ni-Vanuatu who are familiar with our vineyard operation. This vintage, with borders closed, many people joined the vineyard teams with little experience and although keen to learn it meant we needed more people than were sometimes available and some of the jobs did not get done in the way we would normally.

Despite the challenges, fruit quality was excellent.

Monthly

September. Temperatures dropped on the evening 27 September with a very cold southerly front brought snow to the hills and sleet showers to the vineyard. The cold stayed for three days and the three-day average temperature in the vineyard was only 4 degrees. Fortunately, buds were only starting to emerge and our frost fighting systems worked well. Apart from this extreme event, temperatures were good earlier in the month.

October conditions were good conditions for bud growth and flower development.

November was also a month of good growing conditions. Growing degree days (GDD) for both October and November were average with no major weather events.

December decided not to give us such a smooth run of weather. Weather conditions changed to be cooler than average with some cold southerlies in the middle of flowering.  Fruit set was mixed with some blocks setting less fruit than average and others closer to average. The vineyard layout means the risk at this time of year is spread and it paid off this vintage. The range of soils, aspect, clone, and root stock spread around the vineyard means not all vines are flowering at the same time and means only those vines at a critical flowering stage will be negatively affected by a cold wet weather event.

December was a cool month and ended with a frost on 28 December which is rare but not unheard of.

January opened with one of our largest rain events ever with 115 mm in the first week of January. To put this in perspective, our total rain from the start of the growing season to harvest was 233 mm. January was a challenging month with abundant soil moisture for growth but cool air temperatures. It was the was coolest January we have experienced since the very cool 2017 vintage and contributed to slow berry and bunch development and the loss of some berries. Crop assessments in late January projected a smaller than average crop would be harvested.

February and March weather was a return to more normal warm and dry weather conditions to ripen a smaller than average crop.  Only 1 mm of rain was recorded for all of February and March.

With autumn approaching temperatures dipped below zero on 18 March and 3 April getting as low as -2 degrees but fortunately not enough to cause problems.

Grapes were hand-picked from 9 to 14 April over four days. Overall, our crop was down 20% on average. Average bunch weight 87g and 16% below average.

The table below highlights the temperatures were lower than average in December and January (blue). Even though in 2021 total growing degree days are the same as the mean, what really matters is the weather events within the month. For example, a very cold week during flowering in December (which is what we experienced) and two days of near frost conditions is not obvious in the table when days and weeks are averaged.