2017 Vintage

For Valli, 2017 can easily be summed up as quality not quantity, which is exactly where we like to be. While most of the country struggled with a particularly wet summer, in Central Otago we were saved yet again by our semi-continental climate. Although our summer was cool and the berries were small, bunches were light and crop levels were significantly down, it was a dry summer. The grapes were clean - in as good a physical and chemical state as we have seen them. The volume of wine was low, with about 2.5 tonnes per hectare. From a financial point of view we don’t want too many cool vintages however I do love them...well at least I love the wines they produce. Wines from the cooler years with lighter crops tend to be quite concentrated, are more complex with a broad flavour spectrum and great age ability. This is largely due to the high skin to juice ratio for the smaller berries.