Growing Season & Vintage Conditions

2000 was a vintage that was dominated by the heavy rains in mid-November of 1999 that caused extreme flooding in the towns of Queenstown and Wanaka. This saturated the vineyard soils back when we did not have the cover crops to assist in diverting this excess moisture from the vines. December was dry and just when the vines were getting on top of the excess available moisture we had a very wet January (117mm). We did not irrigate at all during the 1999/2000 growing season. Surprisingly, we already had very small berries (these are pre-determined), and the corresponding low to moderate yields resulted in wines with wonderful depth and concentration. Harvest started on April 12. The 2000’s are admired for their concentration and mouthfeel. They have a wonderful forest floor, mushroomy, briary complexity to them with the texture on the palate being their hallmark.