Shaw Wines has made the difficult decision not to harvest its 2020 grape crop.
The Murrumbateman winemaker has announced that recent testing of grapes and the carrying out of mini ferments had provided the vineyard with the tools to make an informed decision about the harvest.
With the results of this robust testing now in, the winery has revealed that it detected smoke taint in its grapes at levels that would be obvious to the consumer.
“It certainly has been a challenging season for winemakers in NSW, and Shaw Wines is no exception,” the vineyard said.
“But us winemakers are a resilient and innovative bunch, and we have also received so much support from our industry, the government, customers and the public during the last few months, for which we are very grateful.
“We take our responsibility to lovers of Shaw Wines very seriously and we have taken steps to ensure we only produce the highest standards of quality and integrity in our wines.”
Despite the loss of its 2020 vintage, Shaw Wines said it still has lots of amazing wines to share.
“We have not altered our trading, which is still seven days per week,” the vineyard said.
“We currently have 14 wines on tasting at cellar door – the medal haul just for these wines totals 104 – and we are very much looking forward to our 2018 and 2019 red vintages still to be released. The 2018 vintage in our view is shaping up to be a genuine rival to the great 2015 vintage.”
Clonakilla cancels NSW vintage
Fellow Murrumbateman winemaker Clonakilla has also announced that it will not make wine this year.
The decision was made at a Clonakilla board meeting on Saturday.
“Analysis of ripening grapes from our estate vineyard in Murrumbateman and the vineyards of our longstanding grape suppliers in the Hilltops region around the town of Young has revealed unacceptably high levels of smoke taint across all varieties and all vineyard sites,” Tim Kirk said.
“It is important to the Kirk family, to our growers and to the entire Clonakilla team that anyone who purchases our wine can have confidence that the Clonakilla label on a bottle is a guarantee of high quality.
“Having experienced a barrage of smoke from fires on every side this Summer, that is not a guarantee we can deliver from the 2020 vintage.
“We want to assure all our friends and supporters that we will not run out of wine. Being an agricultural business, we know we are entirely dependant on the weather. Losing a vintage is always a possibility. We have wines in reserve, stored in our museum cellar in advance for a situation just like this.
“The 2018 and 2019 vintages in particular delivered many wonderful wines which will find their way on to the market over the next eighteen months. There will be enough Clonakilla to go around!”
Tim says the cellar door will continue to be open every day for tastings and sales.
“The severe drought and unprecedented bush fire emergency has made 2020 the toughest year in living memory for the Australian wine industry and for Australian farming in general,” Tim says.
“For Clonakilla the issue is smoke taint. It affects one vintage only. Winemaking will resume as normal in 2021.”
If anyone would like to help Shaw Wines, Clonakilla or the other great NSW wineries that have been affected by the recent drought, fires or smoke, the best way to support them is to visit their cellar doors.
And when you are next purchasing or selecting a bottle of wine, look for NSW wines, either directly from the wineries or at your local bottle-shop or restaurant.
