🌿 Your Vine Update #1

A Strong Start & Laying the Foundations

This update is exclusively for our vine sponsors — a behind-the-scenes look at what your vine has been up to in the vineyard.

🍇 Harvest… but not quite how you’d expect

Harvest has officially wrapped up across the Hunter Valley — one of the most exciting times of year in the vineyard.

But this year, your vine wasn’t picked.

While the vines did produce a small amount of fruit, we made the decision to leave it on the vine. In these early stages, it’s far more valuable for the vine to focus on building strength — developing its trunk, roots, and long-term structure.

👉 This is all about setting up better quality fruit in the years ahead.

Think of this season as the foundation for everything that comes next.

☀️ A clean, healthy growing season

One of the biggest wins this season has been just how clean and low-intervention it’s been.

• Very low disease pressure (powdery & downy mildew)

• Only one spray required across the entire season

• Strong, consistent vine growth

This is exactly what we hope for — healthy vines doing their thing with minimal input.

💧 Heat, growth & storing energy

It’s been a hot season, so we’ve continued watering the vines to support their development.

Right now, the vines are focused on building and storing carbohydrates — essentially energy reserves that will fuel next year’s growth and fruit.

We’re still seeing:

• New leaf shoots pushing through

• Continued canopy development

• Minimal leaf loss

All great signs your vine is active, healthy, and preparing for what’s next.

🌱 Challenges in the vineyard

Like much of the Hunter Valley this season, we’ve seen a surge in late weed growth — particularly fleabane.

It’s a stubborn one.

Fleabane is difficult to remove both manually and with spraying, so it’s something we’re actively managing as we move toward winter.

✂️ What happens next

As we head toward the cooler months, the focus shifts to preparing the vines for dormancy.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be:

• Continuing vine training

• Preparing for pre–leaf fall pruning

• Getting the vines ready for winter

Leaf fall typically occurs in winter — this is when the vines take a well-earned rest before the cycle begins again.

🍷 You’re part of the journey

This is just the beginning.

Every decision we’re making now is about building stronger vines, better fruit, and ultimately better wine with your name on it.

We’ll keep sharing these updates so you can follow your vine through every stage — from growth to harvest, and eventually, into the bottle.