The 2008 vintage in Australia’s Hunter Valley is expected to favor white wines, with difficult weather conditions during the summer forcing some growers to leave their Shiraz grapes on the vines.
Final tonnages are expected to be down this season, due to the unusually wet and cold summer in the Hunter region, ABC News in Australia reports.
The President of the Hunter Valley Vineyard Association, Patrick Auld, says winemakers were focused on picking only the best quality grapes, which were mainly white varieties.
“Quality from all accounts at this stage is very encouraging,” he said. “We’ve got some very, very good Semillons and Verdelhos, some good Chardonnays… but it’s been a very difficult year for red wine.
“Due to the late ripening of the Shiraz, it has made it very difficult to harvest good quality fruit – and, in some cases, we made the decision to leave the fruit on the vines.”
