Brands Laira 2020 Vintage Update

The weather in Coonawarra began windy and cool, followed by heatwaves and a warm dry summer leading into cooler ripening conditions and a later than normal start to harvest. Nevertheless, Vintage 2020 was off to a good start, having overcome extreme heat events and early downpours.

Veraison started at the beginning of February with warm days and cool nights. All varieties exhibited great varietal flavour, with Cabernet being the stand out variety.

The 2020 Vintage ranks as a reasonably good vintage, and saw the team trial true barrel ferments with Stentiford’s, Tall Vines and 1968 Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, we utilised a greater level of leaf plucking to increase fruit exposure.

The final crush was 1,150 tonnes.