Brand's Laira 2019 Vintage Update

Conditions through the growing season were relatively mild; December and January only saw a few short hotter spells with mostly warm sunny days in between. February was then quite cool and overcast, with colder nights slowing down the ripening process somewhat. This meant there was plenty of time for flavour development on the vines. Our 2018 winter was drier than average, but we experienced several rainy periods through flowering and fruit set which kept Trent and the team busy protecting the grapes from possible disease. Overall, the vines are looking healthy and balanced; if the weather continues to be kind to us 2019 vintage is shaping up to be a great one!

This year we are trialling leaf plucking in some of our Cabernet Sauvignon blocks to see if we can improve quality in what is a slightly cooler, later vintage. It will also be our second year running the Bucher Vaslin optical sorter; we saw fantastic quality gains in 2018 and we are hoping for the same for 2019.