Fruits of labour ripen well

The weather served up its fair share of curve balls for wine grape harvesters over the summer and early autumn but everything is now back on track. Pizzini winemaker Joel Pizzini said it looked like they wouldn't even have a harvest this year with extreme heat starting a sequence events that could have ended in disaster, however, luckily it didn't. With the heat, the skin of the fruit lost its elasticity and and if rain had of come at the wrong time for a prolonged period, this could have caused the grapes to split. "In many ways we're pretty fortunate to actually have a crop to pick," he said. "We've worked to the best of our ability based on what's been thrown at us but I'm pretty happy with the quality." In the King Valley most of the growers have an irrigation allowance which has been a saviour during the dry spell in January and February. "I was however speaking to some of the growers who supply to us and their dams were getting lower than they probably had before," Mr Pizzini said. "We're thankful that the burst of rain came through when it did and the berries started to develop some beautiful flavours after the rain, which really freshened everything up." In the King Valley this month there was 35.2mm recorded on 2 March, 28.2mm the next day and 24.2mm on 17 March, bringing the total to 90mm until last week. Mr Pizzini explained that following up to eight weeks of no rain and then a downpour of heavy rain there was risk of the berries splitting. "There was some splitting but it dried out quite quickly and I'm pretty happy across the board," he said. "I think it's going to be a good year of whites and reds and we're tracking about halfway through with a few sangiovese blocks about to start. "We harvested our first batch of prosecco last Wednesday night and that will come in over the next few weeks." The program with prosecco hasn't eased for Pizzini and other winemakers across the King Valley and the region still sits at number one producer of this grape variety in Australia. What would be a familiar variety to experienced wine drinkers, Lambrusco has made a comeback to the vines of Pizzini, something that is exciting for all concerned. "Lambrusco is having a renaissance and resurgence and it's a beautiful, light sparkling red," he said. "My version is different to the traditional version that most people know. "I really want to have a sparkling red that is a little like prosecco - light, approachable, consistently good, but red. "It's perfect for antipasto, salumi plates and it is essentially an any time style of wine. "It's not sweet, quite dry, yet approachable." Competition in the alcoholic beverages market is multifaceted and Mr Pizzini said it's important to understand what the themes are that people like to drink towards, noting that these change. "You can't keep bringing out the same style of wine over and over for extended periods of time," he said. "What we may have been able to do in the past, trends and communications change more rapidly - it's a constant evolution."

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