Detailed pruning plans have been completed and pruning is well under way. The pruning is the first step in achieving our goal of producing both super-premium and commercial fruit from the single vineyard. We anticipate that this will have a beneficial impact to the bottom line over the long term and also help manage the risk profile. Good weed control has been observed over the winter period with pre-emergent herbicide applications currently occurring.

Winter repairs and maintenance have been occurring on the vineyard. Our plan for the future management of the crop at Mundulla is to target some small sections of vineyard for ‘super-premium’ fruit quality. Historically the vineyard has been managed to produce fruit of similar quality, however we believe that having some icon fruit production from this vineyard will greatly assist profitability and water use efficiency over the longer term.

Vintage at Mundulla is complete and what a vintage it was, with seven harvesters operating simultaneously to get the crop off! The vineyard was severely affected by the 15 day heatwave and as a result there was a reduction in tonnages for all the varieties picked during and after the heat wave. Our final result was that 2,856 tonnes of fruit was picked, which is in the range of our target crop and is still a very good result; however it is also a little disappointing when we saw the large good quality crop in the vineyard just a week before harvesting commenced. Now that vintage is over the usual maintenance is occurring and plans are being constructed for the 2009 vintage.

Vintage at Mundulla is in full swing with significant quantities of fruit being harvested at the moment. All the Merlot, Cab-Franc and Shiraz is completely harvested and now the Mataro, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Cab-Sauv to go. Yields are quite good and in line with earlier expectations, however only the final result matter; fortunately the cool weather has returned. Three parcels of small lot wines from the vineyard are being made in Langhorne Creek to further assess the quality of fruit from this vineyard with premium small lot winemaking techniques.

The harvest at Mundulla is still a couple of weeks away. Low rainfall and hot dry conditions in January and February has delayed ripening; also combined with a large crop will see vintage being a little later than anticipated. The crop is estimated at 3,200 tonnes which is an increase on last years performance.

The crop is continuing to ripen well, and fruit quality is anticipated to be very good this season with a good balance of fruit weight to canopy area. Recent hot weather in early January has slightly delayed ripening. Favourable conditions of cool nights and warm days from this point onwards will result in a good quality crop. At this stage harvest is anticipated to commence from mid February onwards.

The vineyard looks really good. There was a small area (11%) on the vineyard affected by frost very early on in the season and since then we have been working with the insurance assessor to collect data for our insurance claim. Since the frost the vineyard has recovered quite well and looks to have a pleasing crop load, at this stage estimated around 12T/Ha on average. (please note only an estimate) Bunch size is larger than last year and the canopy v’s crop load looks to be in good balance. Irrigation water continues to be applied as required by the vines. It is anticipated at this stage that vintage will be early again.