The 21/22 spring was strongly influenced by a strong La Nina cycle which created frequent NEweather events across the East Coast of the North Island bringing high humidity and frequentrain events, conditions which are less than ideal for grape farming; Pinot Noir in particular. Ourvineyard team did an amazing job in highly challenging conditions to get us to a great positionin Mid – January where it looked like an excellent crop was on the cards, plus the crucialperiod of flowering in late November turned out to be near perfect for the task. It felt like theregion as a whole had somehow pulled off a miracle!
The good vibes were short lived unfortunately when a rainfall event of biblical proportionsstruck the region in the 2nd week of February, around a third of annual rainfall fell over twodays! Pinot Noir vineyards on the terrace, particularly those with Dijon clones were worstaffected with widespread berry collapse followed by shrivel. Botrytis was also a very realthreat and swept through many blocks making picking near impossible. Producers like us withsites off the terrace and a higher portion of the later ripening Pinot clones; Abel, 10/5 forexample, certainly fared better. White varieties, because they are later ripening , were largelyunaffected and quality across the board quality was high, ditto for Syrah.
Looking at the wines 6 -7 months on I am extremely happy with what I see. It is the mostsatisfying to produce great wines in difficult years. - Luna Estate, Producer
