A wine season to savour

Martinborough wine producers are confident an Indian summer has delivered a high quality vintage.

Wines From Martinborough spokeswoman Gretchen Bunny said this season's harvest was now almost complete, with just some late-harvest riesling still to come in.

"While the quantity of the 2012 vintage is well below average, the quality is looking great, with many expressing delight in the flavours of pinot noir, pinot gris and sauvignon blac in particular," Ms Bunny said.

"Although the chardonnays are still fermenting, opinions are that they, too, look very promising."

Despite cooler weather during the summer growing season delivering a lower amount of fruit than in a typical year, that disappointment proved to be a cloud with a silver lining for some wineries, she said, as the lower yields enabled fruit to fully ripen during the recent six weeks of clear skies and warm sunshine.

A number of Martinborough winemakers had compared this season to 2010, which also had a cool summer followed by a warm autumn and resulted in an excellent vintage, Ms Bunny said.

Paul Mason, winemaker at Martinborough Vineyard Estate, said it was in the challenging years that Martinborough wineries came to the fore.

"Indications are that this year's harvest will continue the tradition of Martinborough's well-balanced, elegant wines with finesse."

Murdoch James Estate sales and marketing manager Nicola Belsham said the recent weather had been perfect, particularly for pinot noir. "The long sunshine hours and calm weather meant that the grapes were able to stay on the vine longer, enabling the flavours to build up without the grapes overheating, allowing the subtle flavours of pinot to come through, producing a rare balance of fruit ripeness and acidity."