Vintage 2024 Update from Liam McElhinney

3 March 2024

Vintage has officially begun with our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit harvested for our sparkling base wine last week. 

The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for our still wines are ripening on the vine at the same rate, and we are expecting fruit to be harvested from the end of next week. This will indicate the start of our split vintage shifts, where we stay open 24 hours a day to closely monitor our fermentations in the winery. 

Quality thus far is excellent. Although it's very early days, Mother Nature has been very kind to us this year and the fruit is looking beautiful.

30 January 2024

With fruit currently going through the crucial period of veraison in the Lowestoft La Maison vineyard, we speak to Chief Winemaker Liam McElhinney on his thoughts for the upcoming 2024 vintage in Tasmania:

"We’ve had a really settled spring and summer period, which has really set the vines up for what looks like a great season!

"Crops are about average, and the Pinot Noir at Lowestoft has just started going through veraison. Actually, at a very similar timing to last year. 

"We’ve had a couple of nice rainfall events since Christmas, which couldn’t have been timed better, giving the soil much need replenishment after some really warm and dry weeks!

"We are excited to see fruit coming on stream from our Strelley Farm and Gillingbrook vineyards too. Gillingbrook in particular has some fantastic looking Chardonnay and Pinot Noir which we think could make some very special parcels of wine. This vineyard is significantly cooler than Strelley Farm and our Viticulturist Christian de Camps has done an amazing job this year in keeping the pests and diseases at bay.

"We commenced the 2023 harvest on the 10th of March last year, and I’d say were on track to potentially commence a week earlier this year…mother nature permitting!"