Vintage 2009

Thankfully some timely rain at the start of March perked up the vines and saved the vintage, but those days of searing heat still pushed harvest weeks forward. Sam believes the fruit tasted better as soon as the rains came, but it remains to be seen whether the heat has taken its toll by not allowing the fruit to ripen and develop deeper, more complex characters before harvest. Overall Sam predicts the harvest from 2009 will be about 30 per cent lower than 2008 and that the 2009 year might be a better one for dry whites picked early compared to reds which prefer long, slow maturation on the vine.

The harvest began with a burst of activity to bring the crop in early. Sam and the rest of the 20-strong crew at the Plunkett Fowles winery feared that the grapes might turn to sultanas in the heat, but the early madness settled back into an unusually relaxed routine after the rains. The winery ran 24 hours a day, as usual, but once the imminent threat was gone the crew worked shifts of eight hours rather than 12 hours, which helped to calm nerves. Keen young wine buffs from Argentina, UK, New Zealand, Bulgaria and Ukraine filled out the numbers at a time when many of the crew had to rush off to fight the fires.

The local Upton Hill fire brigade saw a lot of active duty over the fire season. Sam’s brother Matthew Plunkett had to drive the truck through walls of flame several times on Black Saturday, at the fires around Kilmore and Wandong. We are proud to say that out of 19 active members in the Upton Hill brigade, nine of them work at Plunkett Fowles, so changing shifts on the fire truck turned out to be much like changing shifts at the winery.