Our harvest kicked off mid-January 2018 with Pinot noir and Chardonnay grapes for our MCC production. This is always an exciting time and a bit nail-biting to see if our harvest prep in the cellar was sufficient!
We started harvesting our Sauvignon blanc nearly a month later in mid-February, around the same time as in 2017. Currently we are making up a few Sauvignon blanc blends and the fruity aromas floating around in the cellar are very promising! Due to our fortunate position on the mountain, we are blessed with deep soils which retain a lot of water. The drought therefore did not affect us too much, with only a couple of irrigations necessary during January. The dry weather also contributed to a low disease pressure, which meant healthy vines and grapes.
Without the heat waves experienced in 2017, along with cooler night temperatures during February, our red grapes arrived slightly later than last year. Merlot and Shiraz were the first red varieties to arrive at the cellar, followed closely by our unique Tannat. Some of our Cabernet Sauvignon blocks really took their time which resulted in the Petit Verdot, normally the last to arrive, to jump the gun this year! The smaller berries harvested promised good colour and flavour intensity, and we aim to preserve these qualities for the next 18 months with barrel ageing.
2018 was a good harvest for Hidden Valley Wines - we had an excellent team working shoulder to shoulder in the cellar, and we look forward to tasting some great wines later in the year!
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