Vintage 2020 at Squitchy Lane!

“Toughest growing conditions I’ve ever experienced…”
Steve Sadlier, Squitchy Lane viticulturist, with over 35 years experience.

What a vintage it has been!

It all started back in October/November 2019 with a run of wet cold and windy weather right when flowering occurred. This resulted in us not getting the ‘fruit set’ (when the flowers are pollinated and become fruit) we would normally see which in turn meant smaller crops. This run of weather also kept the soil cooler and damper than normal which restricted vine growth resulting in us not getting the foliage cover we would expect to see.

This led us into an early 2020 where a run of a couple of weeks of damp, humid weather really put the vines to the test! The humidity put huge pressure on the vines which resulted in an outbreak of downy mildew, this caused some of the vines to lose their leaves. The loss of leaves at this stage fortunately wasn’t really an issue for the majority of varieties, it really only caused a slowing down of ripening within our Cabernet Sauvignon.

Skip forward to vintage and although our volumes are down on normal, we’ve seen some great quality fruit come in. We’ve included some production and initial tasting information below (for those of you who are interested) but rest assured we are all looking forward to seeing these develop over the coming months in barrel as they are all showing signs of being delicious! In a first for Squitchy Lane, we will also be releasing a light dry red, made from Cabernet Franc and Merlot. This is shaping up to be a delicious, slightly lower in alcohol easy drinking red, suitable for anytime of the year!

One of the hardest decisions we have had to make in the vineyard, since we first started making wine in 2004, has been to not pick our Cabernet Sauvignon in 2020. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t ripening for us and still had hard green seeds and tough skins, which comes through as a green capsicum/eucalypt flavour profile that isn’t what we expect from our wine. To put it into perspective for you, it was the first time in his career that Steve Sadlier, our viticulturist, in conjunction with the winemaker elected not to pick fruit.

The team at Squitchy Lane are all looking forward to being able to fling open the doors again and welcome you back to our cellar door! We can’t wait to see you.