EXCITEMENT is bubbling around the 2025 wine vintage in the King Valley growing region.
Off the back of a long Indian summer the North East has experienced with generally well timed rain events, the ideal conditions have any discerning wine connoisseur warming up their palate in anticipation for the finished product to be bottled later this year.
Wines of the King Valley president Dean Cleave-Smith said it has been a very good season and some people are saying perhaps the "best ever", with a caveat that the proof of this will be in the tasting.
"We've just been really fortunate that we've had a long, relatively moderate ripening season which worked out really well for everyone," he said.
"One hail event knocked a couple of vineyards around but they weren't total losses by any means.
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"It has just been one of those cracking seasons for both reds and whites where we usually get vintages where it works for one or the other.
"The rain has stayed away and we haven't been under any pressure up until recently from planned burns.
"Growers have been able to leave the fruit on the vine and let it be picked until it's absolutely ripe."
Mr Cleave-Smith said vignerons are seeing really good varietal expression, nice big flavours and now it's over to the winemakers to weave their magic.
"The long Indian summer or classic Italian style summer analogy sums it up as this has been one of them and in the past they have delivered results for us," he said.
"You get the mid-bodied reds that the King Valley is so well-known for with Nebbiolo, Sangiovese or French variety Pinot Noir - they come along so well in these sort of years."
And it sets up well for the region as there is a huge volume of production for Sangiovese and Pinot Noir in the King Valley now.
Whitfield's Darling Estate operator Sophie Darling said her sister Grace and Dad John were excited to have finished the harvest towards the end of March after an early start due to warm weather at the end of January.
“Yields have been a little above average and this is variety dependent,” Ms Darling said.
“The quality is absolutely stunning, especially with our higher end varieties which is always welcome.
“We mostly focus on French varieties, and we have a couple of the Italian varieties as well.
“Gamay and Sangiovese are some of our lighter reds and we’ve got the Chardonnay and Aligoté and we have four vineyards that grow that grow this variety at the moment.
“We also have some Nebbiolo and Cabernet Sauvignon.
“There has been really beautiful flavour development across the board, from walking through the vineyard for early berry sampling and getting everything into the winery, it’s been really positive.”
2024 KING VALLEY VINTAGE
ACCORDING to Wine Australia's national vintage report for 2024, the King Valley's vintage last year saw 16,404 tonnes of grapes crushed at an estimated value of $21,653,009.
Of this, Prosecco was the largest variety with 7541 tonnes ($9,041,950), followed by Pinot Gris/Grigio 3063 tonnes ($4,136,591), Pinot Noir 1006 tonnes ($2,030,213), Chardonnay 1123 tonnes ($1,953,641), Sangiovese 940 tonnes ($1,069,559) and Sauvignon Blanc 928 tonnes ($936,859).
The total crush comprised more than 10 varieties of white grapes (13,282 tonnes/$17,043,707 value) and more than 16 varieties of red grapes (3122 tonnes/$4,609,302).
The King Valley accounted for approximately one per cent of the 2024 Australian winegrape crush of 1.43 million tonnes.
