Grape growers will discover in the coming days how much damage recent rain has caused their crops and how this year’s wine vintage will be affected.
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While white wine grapes have already been picked at many Hunter Valley vineyards, the majority of red wine grapes are only just ripening and have not yet been harvested.
This week’s downpour of rain has put red wine grapes at risk of splitting, which could lead to the fruit becoming mouldy or rotten.
Following the outstanding 2014 yield, which has been labelled strong enough to be a contender for vintage of the century, this week’s weather could mean much less red wine will be produced in the Hunter in 2015.
This includes the shiraz grape, which would affect the wine for which the Hunter is most renowned.
Briar Ridge winemaker Gwyn Olsen said there had been 91mm of rain fall at her vineyard between January 26 and 28.
But she said the impact of the wet weather would not be known until the rain stopped.
There had been 12mm of rain at Briar Ridge before lunch time yesterday.
“The vineyard is like a river at the moment,” Ms Olsen said.
“A five per cent split is still manageable but the main problem is we have no idea when the rain is going to stop.
“Life would be much easier if it stopped raining.”
Ms Olsen said a similar downpour occurred in early 2012.
“There was not a lot of shiraz made that year,” she said.
“We can’t quite make a call yet on what effect it could have on business [this year].”
Margan Premium Hunter Valley Wines vigneron Andrew Margan said he had picked all of his white wine grapes but no red wine grapes had yet been taken from his vines.
He said he usually picked his red wine grapes during the first two weeks of February.
“The next two days, with the vines sitting in all this water, that will determine whether we have a crop or not,” Mr Margan said.