The growing season leading up to 2011 vintage was typical of Marlborough, with consistently dry weather, warm days and cool nights. Disease pressure was low and hard work by growers to manipulate crops to low yields has ensured quality fruit. The small amount of rain during harvest had little adverse effect on quality as clear windy days followed the rain. It also provided opportunity for the team at the winery to work with the juice already harvested and to prepare for further fruit arrivals.
The first fruit was received into the winery on the 24th March this year, which was earlier than most years as the warmer temperatures resulted in earlier ripening. The Saint Clair winemakers spent many hours in the vineyard leading up to harvest, tasting the grapes to ensure picking at optimum physiological ripeness with strong fruit flavours and crisp acidity.
A new variety for Saint Clair Family Estate was harvested this year – Gruner Veltliner with some being hand-picked and the rest harvested by machine. The fruit looks exceptional from this exciting new grape variety.
The Saint Clair Family Estate winemakers are enthusiastic about the intensity of flavours in the fruit that has come in off the vines. In particular the Sauvignon Blanc looks terrific with intense aromas now wafting out of the tanks.
Saint Clair Family Estate takes pride in a stunning 2011 vintage, based on open minded viticulture and winemaking and looks forward to over delivering on quality to wine consumers around the globe.
The winter of 2008 delivered its usual rains, however the warm and dry summer resulted in a near perfect flowering. February brought wet and cool weather, but the dry, warm and windy conditions that followed, alleviated any disease pressure. The typical Marlborough drawn out autumn months of March and April with warm days and cool nights provided the required slow ripening for superb fruit maturation.
The impact of the unseasonably cool weather in February delayed harvest slightly compared to 2008, with the first grapes coming off the vine in early April and the last on the 10th May.
The bud initiation spring 2007 was below average, followed by one of the best (warmest) flowering periods we have ever experienced. This resulted in the largest, and fastest vintage ever for Saint Clair with all the fruit being harvested by the 15 March. About 75 per cent of the way through fruit processing, the Marlborough harvest came under some disease pressure, following warm nights, heavy dews and some rain.
Saint Clair’s staff and winery, with its capacity to handle the total harvest in 16 days, have proven the value of good preparation and planning with fruit being harvested prior to the rain
The winery operated 24 hours a day for 16 days with long hours and total commitment from the winemaking and winery team - Matt Thomson (chief winemaker), Hamish Clark (senior winemaker) and Pete McConway (winery manager) all working 15 hours a day over this period.
The quality of the wines has been excellent with some great flavours across all varieties, particularly the Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc which is sensational.
Neal and Judy Ibbotson, owners of Saint Clair Estate Wines, have reason to celebrate another very good vintage in Marlborough. “We have had an exceptionally warm and dry summer in Marlborough”, says Neal.
"The fruit was clean and disease free and has provided intense flavours and a good level of acidity in the wines. What started off in December looking like a cool start to the 2007 vintage ended up to be an earlier than normal vintage due to the number of very warm days and virtually no rainfall through February, March and April”, says Neal.
Sauvignon Blanc was slightly below average in quantity per hectare. For Saint Clair new plantings in vineyards such as the new Benmorven Block and additional contract growers has overcome any potential shortfall in wine available. The Sauvignon Blanc quality is excellent with intense clean flavours and good acidity.
Saint Clair Estate Wines has just experienced another very good vintage in Marlborough. The summer was exceptionally warm and whilst not as hot as the 1998 vintage, conditions have been very similar to 2002, an award-winning year.
Due to the warmth of the season, harvest started approximately two weeks early in mid-March and conversely finished two weeks early in mid-April. This has been a very concentrated vintage with 50 per cent of fruit harvested by the end of March. For the first time in 30 years many Marlborough winery workers enjoyed an Easter holiday break!
Low humidity levels produced fruit with the lowest levels of botrytis seen in recent years. Fortunately, just as harvest began, the weather cooled and became cloudy for most of the harvest. This improved the aromatic quality so important in many of our wine styles. It also meant that the grapes were cooler when harvested and this has led to more elegant wines than would have been the case had it been warm. Usually an early harvest would also be a warm one by virtue of the season.
The 2005 harvest has proven to be another excellent one for Saint Clair Estate Wines with some great flavours across all varieties. Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are the standout varieties while the other varieties will also produce some very good wines.
Marlborough was threatened by cool weather at flowering in December and rain prior to vintage, however the fine weather returned for a reasonably fast and smooth harvest of approximately four weeks in April. This month was also the second driest on record. An early autumn frost in late April resulted in some ‘harvest now’ calls but in reality only meant there was pressure to speed up the harvest for two days.
Our cellar team this year was made up of workers from a diverse range of wine producing nations from around the world including the United States, Hungry, Italy, Chile, Spain, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. These people bought a wealth of experience to the cellar with some of them experienced winemakers in their own countries. The team worked long days and nights with the winery in operation 24 hours a day.
At Saint Clair great wine starts in the vineyard. After harvest, Saint Clair winemaker, Matt Thomson, and his team of skilled winemakers produce wines of exceptional character and quality. This year the Sauvignon Blanc fruit is wonderful and intense with good acid balance. The Pinot Noir was beautifully ripe with superb fruit flavours while the Chardonnay had very good concentration of flavours as it moved to barrel fermentation.
An Indian summer during March and April provided ideal ripening and harvest conditions for a bumper Marlborough harvest this year. The 2004 vintage is the biggest on record for Saint Clair and is also shaping up as one of the best. The grapes have shown wonderful, intense flavours, with very good fruit acid balance.
A small amount of Riesling was left hanging for botrytis to make luscious dessert wine for future release.
There are some great tanks of Sauvignon Blanc! The exceptional quality fruit we have available also ensures that it is an ideal vintage for the production of our flagship wine, Saint Clair Wairau Reserve Sauvignon Blanc. The last three successive vintages of this wine have won ten trophies at local and international wine shows over the last three years.
New Zealand’s other major growth variety, Pinot Noir, is also looking to produce some top quality wines, especially the batches from the Omaka Vineyard, Doctor’s Creek Vineyard and the new Ure Valley Vineyards, which are looking very promising. The Ure Valley is an exciting new vineyard area for Saint Clair located about halfway between Blenheim and Kaikoura.