Winemakers claim 2020 ‘killer

Wine people often say every vintage tells a story. They’re referring to the conditions that gave a year’s wines their particular vintage thumbprint.

The main storyline is always about the preceding spring and summer, the seasons which breathed life and ripeness into the grapes. The sub-plots tend to be people-oriented: the approach of the winemaking team that year, the decisions they made, the spirit in which they carried out their work.

So what is the story told by 2020, the Coronavirus vintage? Brace yourself for a sprawling epic, full of strange and unusual sub-plots threatening to steal the show.

Grapes had already started being picked in some of the country’s wine regions by late-March this year, when New Zealand began moving towards a strict lockdown. For the work to continue, the industry had to make the case to government that wine was an essential business.

A relieved wine community learned on March 23 – two days before lockdown – it had been given the green light. A wave of gratitude spread through the industry.

This was never going to be vintage as usual. It came with a set of conditions. There were the obvious ones such as social distancing and constant handwashing, which proved challenging in some wineries. There were also less obvious ones, like dialling back on social media. New Zealand’s winegrowers are not known for being Instagram or Twitter-shy. Over vintage this year, they went quiet.

‘‘We were all on board with that,’’ said Jules Taylor of Jules Taylor Wines in Marlborough. ‘‘I felt lucky I could continue, and I knew people who worked in construction and other sectors who were staring at unemployment. It was no time for ‘hey, look at me’ social media posts.’’

As it progressed, it became clear that the 2020 vintage, for those working it, was emotionally weird and fraught.

‘‘The wine harvest is traditionally the New Year’s eve of the vineyard,’’ said Nick Mills, winemaker and co-proprietor of Rippon Vineyard in Central Otago. ‘‘It’s usually hot and sensual, there are a lot of hormones and emotions and joy around bringing the fruit in safely. We didn’t feel that this year. There were no team casse-crouˆ tes [morning teas], no harvest lunches, no beers and late nights.

People were scared – scared for their livelihoods, mainly. Scared of what might lie ahead.’’

There were also fears of Covid-19 itself. The New Zealand wine harvest, in common with others around the world, attracts many young interns, mostly from Europe and the United States. That some of these travellers may have brought in the virus before the borders closed was a dread scen

SUPPLIED Esk Valley winemaker Gordon Russell.