Vintage Reports

A decently wet 2022 ensured a later start to the growing season than average for vintage 2023 with minimal soil moisture pressure.

Rainfall during the harvest period presented some challenges in the vineyard but the sloping windy nature of the majority of the Bethany sites ensured that with care and attention and significant disease events were avoided. Yields were average to above average and the balance and quality arising from such a balanced and extended growing period is exceptional. 

Whites retained lovely natural acid and exciting levels of aromatic intensity and concentration. The reds show exceptional colour, pristine bright fruit and lovely balanced acid and tannin structures.

The 2022 vintage overall was a very balanced and excellent vintage. 

Adequate rainfall in 2021 was followed a heavy hailstorm which did create some damage in the Shiraz vineyards. However, the main summer ripening season was blessed by moderate temperatures with no very hot (>35C) days and cool nights. This lead to a long and gentle ripening period allowing all fruit to achieve full flavour maturity along with sugar ripeness. 

The outcome was a long harvest period without any undue pressure from the weather and both white and red grapes showing great flavour intensity, excellent retention of acid and in the case of the red grapes, exceptional colour density.

2021 provided us with exceptional conditions for growing high quality grapes. It was one of those years that had a little bit of everything but not too much of anything. We had good winter and spring rains with total rainfall for 2020 being right on the money for a normal average Barossa year (around 450-500mm). This lead to good fruiting conditions and a much more balanced yield than previous, drier years. The growing season then proceeded to give some nice warm conditions. Critically, the evening and night temperatures were always on the cooler side

2020 marks the 40th vintage for Bethany Wines. We always knew it would be a challenging vintage after another dry summer. But no-one could have imaged we'd be making wine during a global pandemic.

Winemaker Alex MacLelland shares his thoughts about the 2020 vintage in a blog post.

Each year brings generous sunshine, plenty of cooling breezes and enough rainfall to keep everything going smoothly however 2019 was the vintage that proved this is not always so. A dry growing season followed a very dry spring and winter. This would have been challenging enough. But then frost and hail in November had a huge impact on flowering. The outcome was that 2019 saw some incredibly low yields, particularly with Shiraz. The stories were heard through the valley, spreading quickly as bad news often does. Harvesters running for 12 hours to pick one tonne, blocks that normally yield 20 tonnes bringing in four. At Bethany we had a couple of these stories, but overall we still had reasonable yields. This was in part because of the slightly different weather that our little corner of the Barossa experiences. Eden Valley Rieslings with exquisite perfume and fine balance. Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet with concentration, deep colour, ripe tannins and strong balanced flavours. There wasn’t much fruit in 2019, but what there was, was awfully good

It is often quoted that the even years are the best in the Barossa. Vintage conditions in 2018 were slightly more challenging than in the previous couple of vintages. This was because of warm and dry conditions.The winter and spring rainfalls in 2017 were adequate and provided good canopy cover heading into summer. January and February were very dry, with some very warm temperatures in February slowing fruit ripening for a period. We harvested the whites (apart from Eden Valley Riesling) in early February, so they escaped any heat effects. The wines are showing excellent fruit expression and balance. Shiraz was most affected by the heat, with the natural harvest dates being delayed. Flavours continued to develop well and the wines have excellent colour, tannin development and full balanced flavour profiles. We harvested other red varieties without excessive vineyard stress, and they show exceptional fruit and structural balance.