A month without rain or frosts would be just the icing on the cake for Central Otago winemakers after a good autumn growing season.
Vineyards around Cromwell began picking some grapes this week and by next week the harvest should reach full swing.
The 23ha Northburn Station vineyard near Cromwell is traditionally one of the first to have ripe grapes, and yesterday chardonnay and pinot noir grapes were being picked for a ''bubble base'' that would become sparkling wine.
Winemaker Richard Broadhead said like the rest of the country, growing conditions at Northburn over the summer and autumn had been good - although a little cool in January.
Mr Broadhead said the vineyard had one of its ''tidiest fruit sets'' for some time - with a uniformity in the berry size.
''If you get big berries and little berries in the same bunch it's a bit of a pain.
''We're very even this year and the bunches are relatively small so you get more concentration of flavour.''
Mr Broadhead said the worst thing that could happen now would be a series of frosts, although rain, too, would present a problem.
''If we had two or three days of rain around this time of the year it would be a disaster.
''We would get berries splitting, we would get mildew and botrytis and all sorts of nasty things.''
''That's one of the advantages of growing grapes in Central Otago.''
Although not keen to have a frost, Mr Broadhead said ideally there would be cold nights over the next few weeks to complement warm days.
That would help the flavours, which was ''the most important thing'', Mr Broadhead said.
''You want a lot of character and flavour in your wine and at this stage that's certainly what we are getting.''
New Zealand Winegrowers' Association chief executive Philip Gregan said recently New Zealand wine exports were expected to exceed $1.3 billion in the year to June.
He told the Otago Daily Times yesterday, however, figures showing the value of exports from different regions of the country were not kept.
Central Otago Winegrowers' Association president James Dicey said from Los Angeles the season was not quite as advanced as earlier thought.
''I'm just getting some of the early results coming through now and the cold January has made its presence felt.
''Things are looking pretty good. It's going to be a great season.''
