The 2022 growing season was one that had us on our toes, warmer winter weather and plenty of good rain, the vines had energy to burn coming out of dormancy. We have been regenerating our soils for many years now and the outcomes have been fantastic with growth, colour, organic matter and soil moisture retention. We waited with baited breathe leading into Christmas as the rain would not ease, throwing up new challenges daily to stay on top of disease pressure and windows to get tractors on to the vineyard to keep any nasties away.

Alas we managed to get through Christmas and the rain eased, which gave us much optimism. With the cooler temperate summer, our fruit ripened slowly, and retained magnificent natural acidity. All of our whites were harvest before February and look fantastic. My pick this year is our classic Semillon blocks from Palmers Lane, with beautiful elegance, mouthfeel and structure post ferment. Our reds have all been picked just in time for the storms came back again. Phew!! The results are great. Beautiful colour, lovely flavour and classic Hunter Valley medium bodied delicate reds.

We are now moving onto to start our bottling program for the year, with the first wine off in about 6 weeks. 2022 Hunter Valley Verdelho – a crowd favourite, that we have not had for a few years, very exciting and one to watch out for to be released soon.

All in all, 2022 was a challenging year, but what we have in the winery is very exciting and we cant wait to share with you all.

Have a great year and I hope to see you all at a members function sometime soon.

Richard Done – Winemaker