The 2021 vintage at Trentham Estate was an absolute cracker! This vintage was one of the easiest and best we have seen in the last 33 years. The Murray Darling region granted beautiful weather over the 2021 season. We enjoyed a wettish spring, with only a couple of rain periods followed by a mild, dry summer with just a few days over 40°, resulting in exceptional fruit quality.

 

Pest and disease pressure were both very low this year in comparison to previous vintages, producing fantastic grapes. Kaolin clay was applied to protect the grapes from the sun, spraying some varietals before the only short spell of hot weather experienced. The Brown Muscat, Maestri, Nebbiolo, Petit Verdot and Viognier all seemed to benefit from the heat reflection provided by the white Kaolin clay.

 

The opening day of harvest fell on the 1st of February, picking Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris first. The last of our fruit picked was our Petit Verdot on the 19th of March, before the arrival of our Reserve Cabernet from Coonawarra in early May. A total of 19 different varietals made their way through the crusher, the crop growing 10% from our previous vintage, mainly due to excellent Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris yields. As is normally the case throughout the vintage, there were many early morning 2am starts, not finishing the day until 7pm.

 

In the cellar we are busy blending and preparing many of the wines for bottle, pushing production earlier than usual as sales exceeded our expectations, thank you! We can confidently say the stand out varietals this year are Chardonnay and Pinot Gris in the whites, and in the reds, Rosé, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. Overall exceptional quality, the sparking and still wines are something to look forward to.

 

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