2012 VINTAGE
Another cool spring with plenty of rain has given our dry-grown vines the boost they need to produce full flavoured wines. The cool weather has carried on into the Summer months, with no major extremes in temperature to stress the vines. The grapes are being picked earlier than the last few years, and the yields are down on spur-pruned vines, a natural balancing-out to their vigour of past years. Two days of rain in early March did not affect the bunches as the daily temperatures have been cooler than average.
2011 VINTAGE
A cooler year which was a great relief after the long hot decade of drought. Incessant rains caused mildew and botrytis to grow in some regions, but with careful vineyard management and selective hand harvesting, the vintage was not as bad as news reports suggested. A vintage of lower yields but good quality fruit.
2010 VINTAGE
The Barossa experienced the best rains in five years in late winter and spring. Early 2010 started with mild ripening conditions and cool nights, which meant that vintage started only slightly earlier than average, but the healthy vines, generally below average crops and the warmer weather experienced brought vintage on very quickly.
2009 VINTAGE
An early heatwave caused a moment of stress, mainly due to the drought of the previous five years. The Barossa suffered very little from this hot blast, and as the dry-grown vines on the Veritas Estate are much older, they are a lot tougher and it had little impact. The short heatwave was followed by occasional rain spells which cooled the fruit and the earth, and made the vintage, and the ripening, slower and more steady. This is looking to be one of the great vintages.
2008 VINTAGE
The 2008 Barossa vintage started early and was predicted by wine growers and makers alike to be a great vintage. In many instances this prediction has proved to be true. Late in the season came the unprecedented March heat wave. This split the 2008 vintage into two parts – pre and post heat wave. Due to the unusually early start to the vintage much of the Barossa fruit ripened before the heat hit. The post vintage tastings showed how great many of the wines of 2008 are. Particular standouts are Riesling from the Eden Valley, Shiraz and Grenache.
2007 VINTAGE
Dry. Dry. Dry. The Winter and Spring of 2006 leading up to vintage was the driestrecorded since 1914. Spring and summer temperatures were up by a couple of degrees, bringing the harvest period of whites forward by approximately threeweeks. This extra heat enhanced the flavours in the grapes although with lower degrees Baume overall.
2006 VINTAGE
The Barossa experienced a wet winter followed by ideal spring conditions. Rainfall was moderate to high producing strong growth and good fruit set after flowering. From the middle to the end January the Barossa experienced extremely hot summer weather. This hastened the ripening process. During February and March the conditions were much milder, thus allowing the grapes to complete their ripening process.
2005 VINTAGE
Winter 2004 produced above average rains, followed by a warm spring with good flowering weather in late November. Summer started with a cool December, rains in January and a dry February. A warm autumn caused an early vintage. The quality of the 2005 vintage is sure to be ranked as one of the best on record, after 2002, with all varieties showing strongly.