It was a cold start to the growing season with snow in mid-September as well as significant rainfall. The first signs of growth with woolly buds occurred in late September and by early October we had budburst across most of the vineyard. Spring rain continued through October providing good moisture for the early season growth. On the 3rd of November we experienced a frost – for the second year in a row. The frost damage overall was probably worse than last year and even apparent on some of the slopes that we thought were frost-draining. We were thankful shoot thinning hadn’t commenced as were plenty of shoots to help mitigate losses but it required extra work to maximize recovery growth.

During November we had good canopy growth and flowering started early December and lasted for a couple of weeks. Flowering and fruit set went well due to the minimal rain at this time and the usual spring winds were a positive as they ensured we didn’t have any stuck caps after flowering. The fruit had little to no millerandage (ie ‘hen & chicken’ when the berries are of varied sizes).

January was very dry so irrigation was increased to prevent any water stress, and we experienced stronger than normal winds which tested the vineyard crew. Veraison commenced at the end of January and was completed mid-February and the bird nets were applied. Some blocks were leaf-plucked on the southern side of canopy to ensure good ripening in this cooler season. With careful management during the season we avoided any incidence of powdery mildew or botrytis.

Jill (our Admin Manager) helping with harvest

Without so many super-hot days over the season, our white varieties have developed some excellent flavours whilst still retaining good acidity and freshness and we’ve also avoided any shrivel in the Pinot Noir. The early season frost did cause some mixed fruit ripening which largely evened out through the season but when harvesting the Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris, we saw a slightly wider range of ripeness. Overall, yields were below average due to the frost damage but fruit quality was very good. All the juices and early stages of fermentation look great with excellent varietal expression and elegance. It looks like being a particularly good year for Riesling with flavours appearing early while still maintaining the typical bright lime acidity. Riesling is the only varietal that we can sometimes get botrytis but this year the fruit condition was pretty close to perfect.

Just a final note about the frost over the past two years. These have been the only significantly damaging events that we’ve had in our 20+ years of growing grapes on what we ‘generally’ considered a frost-free site due to our steep slopes.

Season GDDs: 1069 (1 Sep – 1 April) – A mild season at the lower end of our usual range. (Misha’s Vineyard 14-year average is 1129 GDDs)

Minimum temp during season: -1.4C

Maximum temp during season 33C

Average temp during season 14.6C

Rainfall 237.2mm

To download a copy of the Misha’s Vineyard 2025 Harvest Report please click -> here