With the 2008 vintage already promising to have some memorable wines, Peregrine Wines winemaker Peter Bartle is "cautiously optimistic" the 2009 vintage will also be a good one.
The outcome of last year's long, hot summer was a "spectacular" season for the winery's sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, gewurztraminer, riesling and pinot gris - which are already in the bottles.
Peregrine's 2008 whites were exceptionally good, "especially the pinot gris", he said.
The pinot noirs were checked in December and will be checked again over the next couple of weeks to see if they are ready to be bottled.
Although the heavy 2008 crop had an impact on some of the pinot noir, some of the wine was good enough for Peregrine to contemplate producing a special limited edition.
"We don't do it every year - only when the wine is very good," Mr Bartle said.
In fact, Peregrine has produced the 1500-bottle Pinnacle pinot noir only once before, in 2005.
Other vineyards in the Gibbston valley enjoyed the long, hot summer which made the 2008 growing season "easy", Coal Pit Winery viticulturalist Gary Crabbe said.
However, it came to an abrupt end when a 6degC frost forced harvest a week before originally planned.
That meant that despite the high yield and positive growing season the 2008 vintage is not looking quite as good as the flavoursome 2007.
"I don't think the year will be exceptional but [the wines] are looking quite pretty and attractive," Mr Crabbe said.
"We didn't quite get the concentration there was the last year."
However he was "content" with the results which would be bottled later this year.
The 2008-09 growing season got off to a shaky start with a series of frosts right before flowering, putting vines at risk.
With Coal Pit's vineyard situated higher up and on the back roads in the valley, the cold weather tended to have a greater effect than on vineyards by the highway, Mr Crabbe said.
So far, the sauvignon blanc "looks excellent" but some of the pinot noir vines are less perfect.
This year's cooler summer has had a few light frosts, which upset Coal Pit's flowering and has resulted in a "hen and chicken" fruit set - mixtures of big and small grapes in the bunch which could lead to problems as ripening will be less even.
That means more work to even out the crop this year for Mr Crabbe - who also manages six other blocks around the valley - but the greater challenges could still lead to greater rewards.
At the other end of the valley, Chard Farm viticulturalist Michelle Crawford has also battled the early-season frosts and rain in December, both of which had a bearing on flowering.
As a result, this year's Gibbston harvest will be significantly less than last year, but otherwise the fruit is maturing on track with last year's grapes, she said.
In the area's warmer vineyards down by the highway the grapes have fared a bit better.
"In November we had the frosts . . . one day it was -0.4degC at midday," Mr Bartle said.
Since then, the summer warmth and two and a-half days of heavy rain through the Gibbston valley in December did not make much difference.
Last summer, there was slightly too much fruit, he said, but fruit quantities were about right this season.
Peregrine's Cromwell vineyards would require some green pruning but the Gibbston valley blocks were carrying the right amount of fruit, he said.
"As long as the weather stays warm we will be fine."
