It's time to raise your glasses — 2018 is the earliest wine harvest in Central Otago’s modern history.
Cromwell’s Quartz Reef Wines started picking grapes for its sparkling wine varieties from its vines in Bendigo yesterday, the earliest harvest in the region since modern harvests began in 1987.
Quartz Reef winemaker Rudi Bauer said workers at the vineyard were a full three weeks ahead of the harvest date during a normal year.
This was because of the "extraordinary summer" and there were only two days in January below 30degC at the vineyard.
"It has the potential to be a pretty outstanding harvest."
But he was still cautious — an early vintage meant he had to be careful about the right time to pick grapes so the best wine could be produced.
Normally the sparkling wine harvest would begin in the third or fourth week of March.
Mr Bauer was confident the main harvest for the majority of wines produced in Central Otago, such as pinot noir, would begin in the first week of March.
Sparkling wine harvests started earlier than other varieties because they had lower sugar levels than pinot varieties.
Quartz Reef viticulturist Grant Rolston said the company was employing about 30 workers for the start of the harvest. This would double when the main harvest started.
He said there were "huge struggles" to find workers so early in the season but Quartz Reef had enough to start. However, he was not sure how worker numbers would measure up later in the harvest.
Grape Vision viticulturist and Central Otago Winegrowers Association spokesman James Dicey, of Bannockburn, said winemakers were still nervous about the availability of workers.
"It will be a shorter vintage and a more intense harvest period," he said.
"It’s difficult to get visibility to where backpackers are."
Wineries would need workers from the first or second week of March until about May.
