Vintage Reports

2003 produced small crops in New Zealand due to a cool, frosty spring. Hawkes Bay had its share of this weather although Te Mata was fortunate enough to escape largely unscathed. With the exception of low crops for Chardonnay and Merlot our growing season was quite normal in every respect. Summer was dry, with only
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Vintage 2002 was the longest harvest in Te Mata’s history. It began on Friday 15th March and finished, after nearly 7 weeks of picking, on Wednesday 1st May. It was a high quality growing season albeit with an unusual pattern. An early and warm spring progressed to a humid summer, and a very long, warm
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The single greatest factor in reviewing the 2001 vintage is the reduced volumes that were harvested due to the cool November flowering. Vineyard yields for 2001 were 50% of normal levels. Apart from November, it was a normal growing season in every other respect. As is often the case with low cropping years the quality
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The 2000 vintage in Hawkes Bay was characterised by an extremely dry growing season resulting in smaller than average berry sizes giving wines with intense flavours. Heat summation was back to normal levels, after the hotter than average 1998 and 1999 seasons, and quality looks very promising. Our white wines are showing intense ripe fruit
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It was an early harvest, characterised by reduced volumes and high quality.  A special feature was the “on-vine” time we were able to gain, from a very early bud burst and flowering; running through to harvest.  Total heat summation was close to that of the 1998 season although we experienced several heavy showers in January
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In Hawkes Bay, 1998 was a drought season following a wet winter.  Vines showed vigorous growth early in the season, and then had a compact flowering in early December.  Crops set were large, again necessitating thinning, and the ability to drip irrigate vineyards was essential in order to retain sufficient leaves to maintain photosynthesis.  Older
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This was a year that started well, but flowering was somewhat drawn out and crop management, particularly bunch thinning over the summer, was a very important quality factor.  February was warm and humid, as was most of March.  We were nervous about our crops, but decided to wait and keep the canopies very open.  We
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The growing season culminating in vintage 1996 was a mixture.  Initially, the weather was warm and dry, enabling the bud burst through to flowering section to be most satisfactory.  We had 90mm (about double average)  of rain in January and the same in February, with warm weather prevailing.  We had plenty of days at over
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A lovely spring and good weather until mid-December.  We got Cyclone Fergus on the 31st December with 95mm of rain.  We had a cool, cloudy January, a warm weather February with uncharacteristic humidity and then it all came right, with a wonderful harvest period from Easter until the final picking on the 6th May.

The 1994 vintage for Te Mata Estate was of high quality.  Although cool weather in November delayed flowering, a very warm and dry growing season led to intensely concentrated crops.  Yields on sauvignon blanc were 15% down;  on reds and chardonnay they were about normal.  The resulting wines should be powerful, concentrated, with significant keeping
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