Both the 2002 and 2003 seasons were reasonably low yielding wine grape harvests due largely to inclement conditions around the vine flowering time which occurs in spring. Windy and un-seasonally cool conditions at that time for both of these vintages compromised fruit set producing smaller bunches with fewer berries. By contrast the weather in Spring at the end of 2003 during budburst and the emergence of flowers for the 2004 season was terrific; cool but sunny with little wind meant that fruit set was the fullest seen since 2001. It is a much held conviction that low yield means high quality but that really depends on why the yields were low. Yields were strong in 2001 and I cannot remember a higher quality vintage.
With fine conditions the 2004 season looked very promising, good shoot growth was achieved early and there was low disease pressure in the early part of the season. As the bunches developed however there were several episodes of rain and extended humidity across the whole state with some early incidence of Botrytis cineria infection in varieties such as Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. We sent workers through to physically remove the infected bunches to prevent the disease spreading further. In hindsight we could have left the bunches there because there followed an intense warm period which dried up any disease on the vine and turned the infected berries into raisins that dropped off the bunch as the season developed.
The middle part of the season was outstanding, particularly for Riesling producing fruit with the fine citric and mineral characters that typify this variety in the Great Southern.
The fruit was given a very gentle crush – just sufficient to burst the individual berries. The resultant “free-run” was kept separate, being the finest quality juice, free from the “grippy”, bitter phenolics associated with the skins. The Howard Park Riesling was selected from the best batches of fermented free-run juice, blended and bottled.
This style of wine represents the purest expression of the fruit - a reflection of fruit quality.