Vintage 2025 - Update #1

Happy New Year everyone. I hope that you had a good Christmas with friends and family.

Let’s start with a recap of 2024

Up to December 31st, 2024, we received 799mm of rainfall at Brokenwood, which is almost 50mm above our long-term average of 752mm. Despite the slightly above-average year, the fallen rain has been almost perfectly timed. We started the growing season with a full soil moisture profile, which, combined with an intensive nutrition program, resulted in good early canopy growth and a healthy crop. Timely rain throughout the growing season meant that we ended Spring with the vines in excellent condition.  December was both drier and warmer than average, but Hunter Vineyard Manager Katrina Barry, alongside Chris Fletcher and the Vineyard Team, did a great job of managing the heat with irrigation and timely applications of sunscreen.

Now onto 2025

Coming into the new year, fruit condition and canopy were excellent despite the dry start to summer. Fruit was in pristine condition, though tracking 10-14 days earlier than average. The last 10 days have been relatively wet, with over 110mm falling since January 7th, which has slowed ripening down a little, which is not a bad thing, especially considering how early vintage was looking. The rain was initially welcome to freshen up the vines, particularly the Shiraz, which is still a couple of weeks away from being ready. We survived an intense, well-publicised storm last Wednesday evening, which we came out of relatively unscathed. There were several branches down in front of the original cellar door, but no hail and our power remained connected which was a relief.

We picked our first fruit off Oakey Creek on Friday, January 10th, and have since picked most of the Chardonnay and the best blocks of Semillon over the past week. We also picked the Drayton’s 1899 Old Vines Semillon last week, with the juice from these 126-year-old vines looking quite special.

So far, we have harvested 105 tonnes, mainly from Oakey Creek. Yields are well up on last year, this is due to a combination of a favourable season but also the investment and hard work since purchasing the property in 2021. Despite the relatively challenging weather over the last 10 days, yield and quality are high, and the juices have good flavour and chemistry. We will have finished our Oakey Creek whites on Thursday and the last of the Semillon is scheduled to be picked early next week, weather permitting.

The forecast for this week is much more stable, with warm, dry weather, which is exactly what the Doctor ordered. It will help dry things out and finish ripening the remaining whites and Shiraz.

Both Beechworth and McLaren Vale have had a drier-than-average year, with a particularly warm and dry summer. The fruit condition is excellent, and I expect to make a start in Beechworth in early February and McLaren Vale not until March. I will keep everyone updated as we get closer to starting.

The Vintage Cru have arrived (except for one lone Frenchman), completed their induction and have been on the tools since last Tuesday. Snorks, AKA the John Farnham of chefs, is back on the pans for what has become his annual “Farewell Vintage”. Mind you, I have written that for the last three years…

This year’s visiting Vintage Cru is made up of:

Charlie “Chis” Higgins: Chis returns for his second Brokenwood Vintage following on from 2024. He is taking a sabbatical from his Melbourne Uni law degree to run the Beechworth vintage for us.
Chip Curtis: Chip joins us all the way from Alabama USA, fourth vintage.
Finn Pannell: South Australian lad, family owns SC Pannell in McLaren Vale. Second year Oenology student. Seventh vintage.
Francesco Loi: Italian lad from Sicily, 10th vintage.
Zena Hudnott: Brains 2025: South Australian girl, fourth year Oenology student
Maxime Cloix: Frenchman, from outside of Bordeaux. Fifth vintage.

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed that this dry weather will continue so we can make the most of a high-quality 2025 harvest.

Stay tuned for more vintage updates during the season.

Cheers,

Stuart Hordern
Chief Winemaker

Images - Oakey Creek Vineyard, Hunter Valley NSW