Winter now has a firm hold in Central Otago with morning temperatures down to -6°C and occasionally even colder. Fortunately, we usually have clear and sunny skies making the cold temperatures more bearable for the pruning team; which is now in full swing. The structure of each vine is carefully considered as last year’s wood is pruned and new canes are selected and tied down to the fruiting wire for next season’s crop.
It’s a relatively quiet time in the winery as the young wines in barrel sleep their way through the cold temperatures in the underground cellars. Barrels are topped, records and bookwork are updated, machinery maintained and there is some well-deserved time off for the winemaking team. The previous growing season and new vintage wines are carefully examined and questioned on what worked and what improvements could be made. We only get one shot at making wine each year so it’s important that we thoroughly investigate all the variables.
