Jack Frost paid us an unwelcome visit on the 16th of September. It was unprecedented (in 55 years!) in its severity and scope. The Chardonnay, Pinot and Shiraz vines were quite advanced, and they all suffered significant damage. 

Frost damage is a heartbreaking process that unfolds in slow motion. First comes the sickening sight of the ice crystals on green leaf and inflorescence. They look fine. They're not. 3 hours later, the affected leaves and stems start to droop - ice crystals have damaged the cells (Photo 2). Over the next 24 hours, the new growth shrivels and dies (Photo 3). 

Vines will re-shoot as a rule. Best case, producing 1/3 of the fruit, worst case, the new shoots will not be fruitful at all - and it's not simply a question of the vines having the energy or the time to reshoot. 1-year old canes (e.g. previous season's growth) produce the buds that produce the fruit. Each bud has 1 x primary and 2 x secondary buds within. These 3 sets of buds are the only source of fruit for the year after pruning. 

A severe frost can potentially knock out all the buds within the buds as well as the exposed shoots and leaves. When that happens, the vine goes into survival mode and starts to shoot from everywhere - trunk, old wood etc. Unfortunately, these shoots seldom lead to fruit (Photo 4).

The other big challenge after frost is managing uneven regrowth which happens because not all the buds get smashed, and some Blocks are partially protected from the frost by trees / end posts. There can also be a difference from one side of the vine to another as one half of the vine has shielded the other half (Photo 5). 

Uneven growth means that the bunches on the same vines or rows ripen at different rates. Potentially at harvest that leads to some unripe grapes and some over-ripe grapes mixed in together which is not good for quality - they don't simply balance each other out in the bottle, and without testing each bunch you can't tell when picking. 

The answer is shoot thinning and desuckering (which we're doing now) and fruit-thinning later. Labour intensive and painstaking work. 

All up, despite the reduction in volumes, the vineyard still needs to be properly looked after, and all the usual costly inputs applied. Nutrition is especially important. The goal is to get the best we can out of this year and to ensure next year's vintage isn't impacted.

THE OUTLOOK FOR VINTAGE 2025

The stress of the frost slowed everything down - so while the season started early, the vines shut down for a couple of weeks before bouncing back, so timings will be normal or possibly even late.

The Cabernet and Block 15 (Special Reserve) Grenache escaped any frost damage and are progressing beautifully with strong, even & fruitful growth. 

We will have a good Shiraz crop - Block 4 is the least affected but Blocks 1 and 2 (Reserve) are looking ok. Volumes will be down at least a third, but quality will be unaffected. We will fruit-thin at veraison (colour change, around Christmas time) to make sure that the grapes remaining on the vine are at even ripeness levels.

The Chardonnay is slowly re-shooting, but I'm not holding out much hope for a crop this year. Block 15 Grenache is toast unfortunately - bizarre given it's the highest block on the vineyard. The Pinot will be 50% down so the 2025 Rose will be in short supply, but again quality will be unaffected.

All in all, we've come out of this pretty well.  

The outlook from BOM is for a season of extremes - high heat, storms and big rains - a challenging combination, but one we've faced before and know how to handle. 

Wish us luck. 

Unless you’ve lived a year in a vineyard, you have no idea what a miracle every bottle of Estate Grown wine is!