Wine harvest delivers limited crop but ‘excellent’ quality
Winemakers are feeling the impact of cool weather over the spring, with grape harvests producing over 20% less yield this season.
Publicly-listed Foley Wines this week announced its grape harvest for the 2024 vintage season was down 21%, producing about 6404 tonnes (about 2000 tonnes less) across its Grove Mill and Vavasour wineries in Marlborough, Te Kairanga and Martinborough vineyards in Martinborough and Mt Difficulty winery in Central Otago.
It was a sentiment echoed elsewhere in the market, with Delegat saying it had produced nearly 25% less this year compared to last year’s harvest.
Delegat, the producer of Oyster Bay, and Barossa Estate said its group harvest was 34,150 tonnes, compared to 45,340 tonnes in 2023.
In an NZX announcement, Delegat said Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay and Barossa Valley experienced cooler spring growing conditions resulting in a “significant, region-wide reduction” in yield for the 2023/24 growing season.
However, like Foley Wines, the group said this year’s vintage has delivered “excellent quality” wines.
“Our winemakers are delighted with the quality of the vintage and are looking forward to producing world-class wines,” Foley Wines chief executive Mark Turnbull said.
Despite the lower yield volumes, NZ Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said winemakers were extremely happy with the quality of their crop this year, after a favourable autumn and the long, warm summer.
“I don’t think you’ll find a winemaker in New Zealand who is not a very happy person around quality because of the wonderful summer that we experienced.
“I don’t have hard numbers but it is clear the vintages are down [across the industry].”
Cooler weather when grape vines flower in November and December was “one of the agricultural risks that the industry faces”, Gregan said.
The lower volumes could affect prices, based on demand and supply.
“The decisions on pricing and all those types of things are individual decisions that winemakers and retailers make, but I think it is a little bit too early to say on that,” Gregan said.
“Grapes are harvested February to May, and the wines that are produced out of that harvest will start to come on the market later this year, or depending on the wine style, over the next 18 months.”
About 500,000 tonnes of grapes were harvested in New Zealand in last year’s season – the second-largest crop ever.