The Growing season is one of the key elements in shaping the new vintage wines. Spring 2006 was fine and sunny with the usual nor-westerlies blowing through the vineyards. Both the spring and summer months passed by with their blue sky and warm to hot days. Early warm weather started the ripening process earlier than in recent years. The favourable conditions enabled the vines to express excellent canopy formation, which in turn hastened ripening. We started sampling in February and found higher than expected sugar levels. The removal of leaf cover from the fruiting zone decreased the acid levels in the berries to a more suitable balance.

Day after day the sun kept shining and the flavours developed catching up and then passing the increasing grape sugar levels. The first pick was the sparkling wine Pinot Noir on the 22nd February. We picked the ripest Pinot Noir off the vines leaving the less ripe behind to catch some more sun to continue ripening. After three picking sessions all the sparkling base Pinot Noir was in old French barrels fermenting well. The Chardonnay for sparkling base was picked in two lots leaving us a tiny amount for table wine still on the vine for further ripening.

Bright days and warm nights continued and on the 9th March we started the pick for the table wines. The first hand-pick was Pinot Noir 777, 115 and a little 114 off clay soils on the West Coast Road. These were followed by some exotic and spicy Gewurztraminer and then back to Pinot Noir again from the clay soils of the upper Brancott Valley. The hand–picking continued with the Chardonnay coming in at the grand total of 3.040 tonnes showing lots of tiny berries with loads of flavour. This went off to a natural ferment in barrels, which is nearly successfully completed. With continued cloudless skies, and the “all clear” on the satellite weather maps and the Pinot Gris was looking and tasting great. Once picked we fermented a portion of the Pinot Gris in two to four year old barrels as per previous vintages, with half the juice undergoing natural ferment. The first Sauvignon Blanc grapes were harvested on the 15th March and the last on the 25th March. The Sauvignon Blanc grapes were harvested at full ripeness, broad in flavours, lively, uplifting and very similar in quality and taste to the fabulous 2005 vintage.

The grapes all came from the same five vineyards. Luckily all the vineyards were ripe and picked before the weather changed, bringing some unwanted rain. The only casualty of the rain was the Riesling. The berries have very thin skins so close to full ripeness. Once again we did not get the desired flavours and therefore there will not be a 2006 Huia Riesling. A small price to pay when you know the rest of the harvest is of such high quality.