Vintage 2026 is looking like it will be one for the record books. It started with a very dry and cool Spring. Our rainfall from August to December 2025 was 157mm and our average for that period is 267mm. Budburst was on the later side of normal (late September) because the temperatures were also below average.

Enter 2026 and the temperatures are making up for lost ground (the rain isn't though). By the end of this week, we will have had 10 days over 40 degrees this year (3 days on the 7th, 8th and 9th of Jan, and then the grueling 7 days we are going through now from last Sunday 25th, until this Saturday 31st). Yesterday (Wednesday) was our hottest day, hitting 45.6 degrees. This is the hottest I have personally ever experienced, but it didn't make the Rutherglen record of 46.8 degrees set in January 1939.

Our crop is looking very low due to the dry season, and the grape berries are the smallest even Howard has ever seen. Usually we say small berries are good....more intense flavour & colour etc. But there is a limit. The berries are so small this year that some of the varieties (Durif in particular) are at risk of just shrivelling to nothing in this heat.

We'll be starting harvest next week with early pick Muscat for our Lizzie sparkling, and then we'll see how the rest of the season progresses. The only certainty at this stage is that there won't be a lot of anything. But hopefully the quality of what we get will be good.

Also, after this long, hot January, it's nice to finally have our shady carpark back again! Our old shade sail was ripped down the seam in a freak wind storm just before Christmas, and we've finally just had our new one installed - dark red this time for a bit of colour!