After weathering a savage late frost in October, then February's blistering heatwave, Canberra winemakers are hoping persistent rain doesn't ruin the remainder of this year's vintage.
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Canberra District Wine Industry Association president John Leyshon said most of the white grape varieties had been harvested. The red varieties harvest was still under way.
On a north-east slope near Yass, Mr Leyshon's irrigated vines escaped the frost, but not the heat. His dilemma now was whether or not to harvest the Little Bridge Wines prized sangiovese grapes.
''We are debating whether to pick them, they are so valuable to us, we really need to get them in,'' said Mr Leyshon, a former deputy principal of Canberra's Radford College.
Too much heat caused vines to shut down, and they did not provide enough leaf cover to shelter bunches of grapes through summer's peak.
Now the vines risked drawing up too much rain, which would cause the berries to split. ''Bacteria and other yeasts then grow inside the berries, and cause production of acidic acid and other undesirable things,'' Mr Leyshon said.
In dry conditions growers could machine harvest, which was faster and, at $90 a tonne, cheaper than hand picking, which could cost $350 or more a tonne.
Little Bridge was a partnership of friends sharing the highs and lows of an industry where, Australia wide, about 80 per cent of producers relied on an income outside their vineyards to survive.
The Canberra district punched above its weight because scientists, barristers, public servants, property developers and entrepreneurs with above average incomes had invested exceptional knowledge and money into vineyards.
At Lark Hill Winery, Sue Carpenter said the shiraz viognier grapes from their Murrumbateman vineyard were spectacular.
''The fruit looks wonderful, no sign of disease,'' she said. ''The February rain was a blessing for us, it came at the end of that heat spell.''
The Carpenters were pioneers, planting their first vines in 1978, and had never experienced a season of such extremes in 36 years.
''It was a double whammy,'' she said. ''Climate change is here, sadly. I think we will have a very good harvest. We are all farmers, we have to take the rough with the smooth.''
At Murrumbateman, Long Rail Gully Wines owner Garry Parker said harvesting was well under way. ''We were lucky we weren't affected by late frost. We got through the hot weather, we were able to keep water up to [the vines] at the right time. The fruit has been sensational.''
His son and winemaker Richard said the heat wave didn't hurt their grapes.
''When things did start to soften and ripen, it got quite cool,'' he said. ''So looking at the reds in the fermenter, gee, they are absolutely sensational.
''Flavours are really elegant and very much reflective of cool-climate vintage, a cool year in a cool-climate vineyard area.''