Hunter winemakers 'thrilled' with vintage 2019

The high quality yield makes the third outstanding vintage in a row for the local wine industry, coming on the back of stellar 2017 and 2018 crops.

"It's early days but the fruit is really good," Andrew Thomas of Thomas Wines said. 

"With no rain to worry about we are able to pick at optimum ripeness right across the board.

"Personally I think the semillon is probably the best of the three vintages. It's classically styled and has a terrific future.

"On the other hand - and I know there will be debate about this - I would think the reds are marginally behind 17 and 18. Having said that, it is still very, very good and is more of a testament to how outstanding the others were."

The now all too familiar summer heatwave was again a factor.

"It was important to get water to the vines at the right time," Thomas explained. "I saw one or two parcels where that hadn't happened and it had certainly showed. The quality of the fruit suffered. But to those who got it right, it's a seriously good vintage."

Over at De Iuliis Wines, winemaker Mike De Iuliis agreed.

"Very happy with the whites … semillon very good, clean and fresh just as you want. The chardonnay in particular was terrific, lovely white peach and citrus flavours," he said.

"I think the jury is out a bit more with reds. They're good, but it's a bit hard to pin down at this stage just how good. We'll see how they come up in barrel."