2006 Vintage Report
2006 Vintage Report (by Scott Ireland, winemaker)
As was widely reported across the southern Australian wine industry, vintage 2006 began about 3 weeks early. The vintage at Provenance Winery, Geelong was no exception. Low rainfall and warmish conditions led to an early budburst across all of our vineyards, followed by an earlier than average flowering, veraison and finally harvest. Hot conditions around New Year exacerbated the already low yields, leading to a 25% lower than average yield per hectare.
White Wines
Good intensity of fruit character coupled with a medium acid structure allowed very simple winemaking to take place. Winemaking? I’d almost prefer to call it wineguiding. With both the Pinot Gris and Chardonnay whole-bunch pressing, indigenous yeast ferments and a non-interventionist approach has resulted in wines similar to the 2000 vintage, except for the fact that they were picked at a more balanced lower Baume. They should result in generous wines with interesting medium term aging prospects.
Red Wines
With the harvest of ripe, fruit flavour-sweet Pinot Noir, the decision was taken to add a higher than usual whole bunch component to the fermenters. At this early point (mid MLF) the wines look as though they are coping well with the added cut of stalk character. I believe these wines will ultimately rival our 2000 Pinot Noir (drinking beautifully now), due to the extra dimension of complexity derived from whole-bunch inclusion. Our second year of Shiraz-Viognier co-ferment is also looking promising. The 2006 Shiraz doesn't show any of the herbal/green character that Geelong can produce from the wrong sites in the wrong years. Exciting stuff: only time will tell the true story.
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