Louis Latour Agencies

Wakefield 2021 vintage report and 2022 update

16 February 2022

Wakefield’s 2021 vintage highlights the unpredictability of weather patterns once again, with sustainability and climate change becoming concerns for every vigneron, viticulturalist and winemaker. However, 2021 is most definitely a vintage of superlatives, being one of the best on record.

Update from the winery…

Clare Valley - The season for vintage 2021 commenced with good late-winter and early-spring rains. Dry conditions prevailed from November onwards, with rainfall well below average for the remainder of the growing season. Weather conditions from mid to late November were ideal for flowering and fruit set. The latter half of the season was ideal for fruit development with some of the best conditions seen in the last 10 years, although Riesling bunch and berry sizes were down on average which reduced yields for this variety. Overall, our winemakers report the ideal conditions have produced stunning wines from this vintage with great varietal characteristics.

Wrattonbully - The season started well with reasonable winter rainfall and then moderate rainfall continued throughout early spring, allowing for healthy canopy growth. The mild and dry conditions throughout late spring were conducive to excellent flowering and fruit set across all varieties. The mild and dry conditions carried on throughout summer. There was a distinct lack of weather extremes for the vines to contend with. These conditions continued into autumn, allowing for slow, even ripening of the fruit and excellent flavour and colour development. Winemakers report that vintage 2021 will go down as one of the best in at least the last 20 years.

For the 2022 vintage, the winter months were the wettest since 2016, but frost being kept to a minimum resulted in budburst occurring 5-7 days earlier than anticipated.

Spring brought about some early welcomed rain, but unfortunately three major frosts caused damage for the 2021 vintage too. The Summer was constant, where only 2 days went above 35°C, being a La Niña year.

Conditions from February to April 2022 seem dry, with only a slight chance of rain, boding well for a good ripening and harvest of the 2022 vintage. Stay tuned to see what happens!