A hard frost earlier this week means some grape growers in the district are racing to get their crops off the vines as quickly as possible while for others, the drop in temperatures has delayed the harvest.
The temperature fell to -5 on Monday night but most growers contacted yesterday said the frost was too late in the season to have much effect on the quality of the grapes.
Cromwell and some Alexandra growers are well through the harvest, while most vineyards in Gibbston and Wanaka have either just started or are about to begin picking.
Gibbston's Coal Pit and Mt Rosa viticulturist, Gary Crabbe, said picking would start at Gibbston in the next two days.
"Now the frosts have arrived, the leaves have frosted off, so it's forced our hands a bit and everyone will be racing to get the grapes off," Mr Crabbe said.
"We've probably only got a week to get them in so everyone will be delivering their grapes to the wineries for processing at the same time."
Mr Crabbe said the pinot gris grapes would probably wait a little longer but the bulk of the pinot noir were ready to harvest now.
"It is a little later than in other years - maybe by a week or 10 days."
McArthur Ridge, near Alexandra, has 100ha of pinot noir in production this year and is believed to be the largest pinot noir vineyard in the southern hemisphere.
Vineyard operation manager Murray Petrie is expecting to get between 500-600 tonnes of grapes when the harvest begins this weekend.
"The canopy is still nice and strong and we want the brix level and flavours to come up a bit so we probably won't be starting to pick until the weekend," Mr Petrie said.
Overhead sprinklers were going on Monday night and the coldest parts of the vineyard recorded -5.
"We're not so worried about frosts at this time of year; they just slow down the ripening and delay the harvest. It's the ones earlier in the season we worry about more," he said.
McArthur Ridge's grapes would be harvested by machine and most of the fruit would be processed in the district.
