We can reflect

We can reflect

Now that the 2019 red and 2020 Fiano are in bottle, we can reflect a little bit on what they actually deliver and how they compare to previous wines and vintages. 2019 was generally speaking a pretty good year. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a great vintage, but it was pretty good. I’d say similar to maybe 2015 and 2013. The one hiccup in 2019 was a prolonged heat spell late January that affected some of the fruit in some of the region, depending on variety and maturity. Looking back I definitely saw this heat wave manifest itself in the quality of the Fiano grapes when they were harvested, and to some of the other Shiraz sites that we harvest a bit earlier. The cooler Shiraz sites and the Grenache were relatively unharmed by the heat, as they were still immature at that point and just shook it off. That’s good news for most of our wines, as (other than the Fiano which comes from only one source) all our wines are made of multiple vineyards, and the cooler Vale sites really shone in 2019. Our two Blewitt Springs Shiraz vineyards and Grenache from Clarendon and Blewitt as well all excelled in 2019. The 2020 Fiano was a breeze, with the grapes coming into the winery at the perfect ripeness and maturity. The only problem with 2020 was that there wasn’t any crop! Overall the 2020 vintage is excellent quality wise, but it’s terrible quantity wise. Our reds will be in short supply, but for now we have 120 cases of the 2020 Fiano ready to go and couldn’t be happier with the quality.