We caught up with Therese Herzog to get her outlook on Vintage 2023 so far as this has been a far from Marlborough style of season!
'The weather has been finicky this growing season. La Niña has been a major climate driver this growing season with its vast, deep western Pacific "warm pool" bringing more wet for the North Island and dry for the South Island.
Still, here in sunny Marlborough at the normally dry tip of the South Island, we experienced unsettled weather with more rain and a tendency to eastern influences bringing more clouds than the usual strong “North Westerly ” with its bright sunny skies. The implication is everything grows mad, not only the grapes. Organic weed control, leave plucking, canopy management keep us busy 24/7 but the blackbirds are already picking on our early ripening grape varieties, still in veraison. That means nets must go up to protect the more of an average fruit set throughout our many varieties. Once the vineyard is under the veil of nets, we won't be able to control the growth of canopy or vineyard floor anymore and we will concentrate on fine tuning our crop. If necessary, further reducing it by green harvest to achieve perfect physiological ripeness. Looking into the crystal ball, harvest will be back to normal, in contrary of the early vintages of the last few years, maybe a week behind. We trust Marlborough famous long Indian summers will prevail...'