The Coonawarra Wine making community, together with winemakers from the Mount Benson and Mount Gambier wine regions gathered last week to taste over 200 wines from the 2018 Vintage.

Wine bottles filled the tables of the Coonawarra hall as winemakers and production staff alike, tasted each other’s wines in an effort to gain a view of the overall vintage.

The 2018 vintage was hailed as a success, despite some winemakers facing significant challenges throughout the season after a black frost damaged some vines last November.

“We have seen bumper quality wines this year, but the black frost did not hamper the quality”  said Fran Bartosek, winemaker at DiGiorgio Family Wines. “This year our Coonawarra shiraz has come out well – oozing typical Cooanwarra pepper and spice flavours.”

Balnaves of Coonawarra winemaker Lauren Hansen said the winery had a very good vintage and in the scheme of things as they were not badly affected by the black frost.

Bowen Estate winemaker Doug Bowen said it has been a fantastic Vintage. “Luckily we avoided the frost and had good production, coupled with great quality and quantity.

Bruce Gregory, Winemaker for Majella Wines, has been involved in organising the Post Vintage tasting for quite a few years and said that the participation and interest from winemakers to submit their wines for inclusion in the tasting has grown significantly.  “Coonawarra has always been very well represented, be it from our larger scale wineries or small estates,  but we are excited to also taste an ever-increasing number of wines from the greater Limestone Coast region”.

“There is no shortage of variety in the bottles presented, from light whites to robust reds. To some extent many of the wines are in an unfinished condition, however, the tasting is by no means a wine show. It’s an opportunity for our winemaking community to see and hear what the season has delivered, with producers able to get a view of the quality of the 2018 Vintage from a range of style perspectives”, Mr Gregory said.

The Coonawarra Vignerons 2018 Vintage report suggests that the grape quality is outstanding, and so too should be the wines produced this season. All winemakers in the region are talking positively with comments that the colour is good, balanced tannins and good fruit weight. View full vintage report