Early start to Hunter Valley wine vintage as picking commences

Winemaker Richard Done of Bimbadgen Estate said he began taking chardonnay grapes that will go into Bimbadgen's champenoise-style sparkling wines at with a machine harvester at 2am on Wednesday.

Bimbadgen took seven tonnes from its Palmers Lane and Mcdonalds Road vineyards. Picking will continue right through vintage now for them.

Winemaker Usher Tinkler took his earliest-ever picking of pinot noir from 6am on Wednesday from his Pokolbin vineyards.

"We only made the decision yesterday to pick today," he said.

"I'm very happy with it," Tinkler said. "It's the best pinot I've ever grown. And we did full conversion organic this year. We're not certified, and I won't be certified. But conditions have just been so good. It's going to be probably just a bit over 13 per cent alcohol and nice, vibrant, fresh fresh ripe cherries, a little bit of blueberry, that sort of flavour in the grapes. It's the best I've seen it. It just looks so good."

The hand-picked grapes will go into Usher Tinkler's Devil's Kitchen pinot noir.

Tinkler will start harvesting chardonnay on Friday morning, as well as more pinot noir this weekend.

Andrew Duff, who only recently took on the job as head winemaker at Briar Ridge in the Mount View area of the Hunter, made the critical decision to take the first chardonnay (two-and-a-half tonnes) on Wednesday from the winery's prized Briar Hill vineyard.

The hand-picked vines were towards the top of the hill were "very, very low yielding and the canopy wasn't covering much," Duff said.

"There was a little bit of sunburn starting to come in and basically, I just felt they were there," he said.

With uncertain predictions of rain for Thursday, his game plan was to take the top of the hill grapes early.

"Certainly the rest of the vineyard could hold up to moisture [if it rained], but these would have been close to splitting," he said "And I really loved how the flavours were developing. It's going to be a lovely component of the overall wine when it's finished."

Top Hunter Valley viticulturalist Liz Riley said vintage will hit top gear next week.

"There will be a few dribs and drabs this week and then things will ramp up as next week progresses," she said.

"It's the generally the early chardonnay's on red dirt (which warms up early) and a bit of sparkling fruit this week with dry white fruit next week.

"The well-managed and usual good blocks are looking great, with a few leaner and dry grown sites looking leaner. Yields will be closer to average, relative to the last few bigger rain fed years, with dry grown blocks looking a bit lower due to the predominately dry season."

Riley, who is a vital part of the team at Scarborough wines in the valley, said from next week she expects "a solid picking schedule for both the family vineyards (Scarborough) and the handful of other sites I'm involved with."

Bruce Tyrrell of Tyrrell's Wines in Pokolbin said his company will be waiting longer before harvest.

"We certainly won't be picking anything this week and I doubt we'll be picking much next week," he said. "And then, it will be fairly quick. No break between whites and red, we will just go straight through."