The nervous tweets started on Wednesday night as the rain continued to pound down.
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It was the Hunter Valley winemakers – they’re a very active bunch on Twitter and social media – and they weren’t happy.
It was an age old problem for people who make their living from the land – the weather.
It seems these days if it’s not a farmer in drought forced into the heartbreaking position of watching his animals starve, then it’s grapegrowers and winemakers cursing the rain that just won’t stop.
For the current vintage – vintage 2015 – there was a genuine sense of optimism after the white wines were brought in a few weeks back.
The grapes were ripe and sweet: nature had done its bit – now it was up to the winemakers to fine tune those Hunter chardonnays and semillons. No problem.
And coming on the back of the
stellar 2014 vintage which Hunter old timers insist is as good as any in memory, everything was looking rosy.
Even the occasional heavy downpour a couple of weeks back wasn’t seen as much of a problem.
But now things have changed – the 2015 red wines are on a knife edge.
If it stops raining now, they might be OK. Maybe. Then again, it might be too late. Until the rain stops, it’s impossible to know.
They were so close.
The general figure was just over 90 millimetres of rain in 48 hours, at a time when picking was due to start.
But we live in an area with strong agricultural roots.
This sort of thing has been going on for generations, and will continue into the foreseeable future.
But sadly for our wine fraternity, it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.