After a beautifully warm growing season we have seen wonderful flowering and development throughout the vineyard across Spring, we’ve moved towards late November rainfall giving a much needed break from the intense heat and the start of December has now continued to be dry, creating the perfect growing conditions for Vintage 2024.
In 2024 McLeish Estate will be celebrating their 39th vintage in the Hunter Valley. We look forward to sharing updates over the coming months to the 2024 harvest of our single vineyard wines.
January 8th 2024
On the eve of vintage 2024, the past week has been spent sampling Chardonnay and Semillon for ripeness. We are pleased to say the Chardonnay is ready and will be hand harvested tomorrow morning.
The growing season across the vineyard has been ideal with anticipated El Niño like conditions well into December. The later half of the month from the 21st to the 26th of December saw 91mm of rainfall, this allowed for a much-needed refresh and soak to the vines. The season has reached a sweet spot of 647mm of rainfall total, coupled with the warm growing season should see us achieving the two vintage Q’s – quality & quantity.
January 15th 2024
Our dedicated team has been hard at work hand harvesting the Chardonnay for this year’s vintage. We are delighted to report that the harvest is progressing smoothly and the quality of the fruit is exceptional.
On Tuesday 9th the estate block 2 & 4 followed by Friday 12th of January were we completed the total Chardonnay harvest for vintage 2024.
The weather has played a crucial role in shaping the character of the grapes. Between the exceptionally warm days this past week, we saw 25mm rainfall (10th of January). The vines continue to maintain a healthy canopy with the fruit continuing to ripen.
As I write the latest vintage report a cool change with a small amount of 6ml rain has fallen this morning as we start another excited week of harvest. The estate Semillon will be hand harvested from a clean and healthy vineyard #Semsational
January 19th 2024
A truly SEMsational week hand harvesting the estate Semillon planted in 1985. Conditions throughout the week have been humid with Monday (6mm), Tuesday (3mm) and Wednesday (9mm) of rainfall, making the conditions for hand harvesting the vineyards a little muddy!
The estate block 2 & 4 was picked on Tuesday followed by the best parcel of estate old vine Semillon from block 3 being hand harvested on Thursday. The Semillon bunches are impeccably clean and the quality of the pressed juice flavour is outstanding.
January 25th 2024
This week has seen consistently warm dry conditions which have been ideal for completing the harvest of the Verdelho (23rd of January) and starting harvest for the Merlot to make the base of our 2024 Dwyer Rosé. A parcel of 10 rows from the estate Merlot was hand harvested on the 24th of January to be allocated to create the base wine for our rosé.
Today and across the long weekend conditions are extreme with 40 degree temperatures, all the estate red varietals are protected from the extreme heat with kaolin clay (grape sunscreen). The next few days will really push Baumé up and we look forward to further sampling and considering hand harvest of the reds towards the end of next week.
February 8th 2024
This past fortnight we have swiftly moved through the reds harvest, seeing the old vine Cabernet Sauvignon come in on the 31st of followed by the estate Shiraz on the 2nd of February and on the 7th February the final harvest of the estate Merlot.
This years vintage has been exceptionally quick with only a month between our first and final harvest coming into the winery. The overall dry conditions have provided us with optimal flavor and scientific ripeness across all varietals. Thank you to our team for their commitment in hand harvesting the vineyards and ensuring the quality of the fruit is to the highest standard. The wines of 2024 are set to be very special as the season has been absolutely spectacular.
