MEDIA RELEASE - 18 April 2008

Perfect Summer, Perfect Fruit

Great news for Martinborough wine lovers the driest, hottest summer in over 20 years according to locals, is expected to yield a bumper vintage of high quality wines.

Wines From Martinborough chairperson Janine Tulloch, said wine makers were picking earlier than normal as a consequence of the warm summer and dry autumn.

Due to the warm weather at the end of November and early December during flowering and the follow on of a great summer most wineries have found themselves coming close to capacity. Continued good weather, and having fruit in good condition has allowed those at capacity to empty tanks to make room.

Escarpment Chief Winemaker, Larry McKenna said the signs were particularly good for his red varieties.

"The fruit is very ripe, there's plenty of colour and so we expect lots of depth, concentration and ripe fruit flavours," Mr McKenna said. "The 2008 vintage will cellar well with good longevity the fruit just couldn't be better."

Neil McCallum, Chief Winemaker from Dry River says that while you can never tell it's a great vintage until the public are enjoying it from the bottle, it's fair to say people are excited about the potential.

"Two episodes of rain in the last 10 days have done nothing more than restore the moisture in the soil to normal levels," said Mr McCallum. "Everybody's smiling round here", he said.

Ms Tulloch said the vintage will be a great relief for the market which has been desperately short on Martinborough wines. "The early whites will likely be ready between September and November. We know that's news that will really round off this perfect season"

ends

© Scoop Media