Got through the frosts unscathed – check

A reasonable flowering period in December – check

A fantastic summer team of motivated, enthusiastic vineyard hands – check

In all, it was an excellent year for us. Perhaps slightly down on yield, but we’re very positive about the results. Our mature vines got through the extremely dry summer without irrigation and produced some of the best, most balanced fruit we’ve seen.

Young vines on root-stock faced severe water and nutritional stresses, but managed to produce some lively fruit with good phenolic ripeness, just much less of it. We suffered significantly more than usual bird damage this year, perhaps it’s time for some new nets. Due to the sad passing of our local eradication hobbyist, wasp damage also seems set to follow this year’s increase – we’d better get on to that too. There was plenty to learn from this year, mostly positive affirmations of the direction we are taking, but also some harder lessons as well, particularly in the young vines. As of June 2010, the reds in barrel are looking like they won’t be ready for a “sneak preview” until after at least two or three years in bottle (but we are very excited by that!), the whites are still happily sitting on their lees and gaining texture and clarity by the week. In the meantime the 2009’s are providing some real tasting pleasure in barrel.

Nick Mills, Rippon