The 2023 New South Wales vintage
The 2023 New South Wales vintage saw Pokolbin experience its wettest year on record, Mudgee was warm with high quality-fruit, while Shoalhaven Coast lost half its harvest to La Niña.
The Hunter Valley formed a unity ticket with South Australia. La Niña provided Pokolbin the wettest year on record: 1365mm of rain with 97 rain days, making downy mildew an unrelenting threat. Play it again, Sam, with access to vineyards and bogged tractors and spray carts finally restoring calm over the last two months of the year. Even then, the start of harvest was delayed until the first week of February, low yields the order of the day. The Hunter is as the Hunter does, even a hailstorm along the way only a hiccup, giving birth to excellent
shiraz (great colour, lovely fruit flavours), followed by
semillon.
