It was looking likely to be the Swan Valley’s best ever, with a long, cool spring and summer. We started to pick our fruit about three weeks later than usual and were really excited…until the rain began!
We handpicked our Verdelho Thursday 2 Feburary, it handled the rain and is looking fantastic, lots of flavour and great natural acidity!
Sunday and then Tuesday we picked the largest amount of Chardonnay we’ve ever picked in one day, as more rain was coming.
We’re called Upper Reach because we’re on the banks of the Swan River.
The river’s catchment area is the Northam & York to the north of us, they had twice as much rain as us, so their rainwater came rushing down the river valley.
That evening the Swan River flooded over its banks and started running through the middle of our vineyard. A nerve-racking night!
By Thursday lunch, the water had started to subside (phew).
The river has flooded in summer, only once during my 20 years here- Summer 2000 was much worse, much more water.
This time the water pooled along the lowest part of the vineyard, only a few vines were affected; these were Cabernet they are picked latest, so have the best recovery chances- we’ll worry about the 30 affected vines in a month or so.
We are still holding our breath, as to what happens with this next rain, hopefully the river won’t break its banks again, but who knows…I’ll keep you posted.
But then the river flooded again, the second time it was much worse.
At 10:30pm on Friday 10th, the Swan River broke its banks, flooding into our vineyard and kept on rising, higher than we had ever seen it before.
Then it flowed, yes the Swan River flowed through our vineyard for the whole week. It stopped flowing this Tuesday 21st; an amazing and (I hope) once in a lifetime sight.
We have lost 75% of our red wine grapes, there won’t be any Reserve Shiraz this year, all those vines were underwater for the week.
Our Shiraz is planted on the flood plains of the Swan River, we’ve been here 20 years and only ever had two Summer floods, the other 18 years we’ve had award winning Shiraz from this part of the vineyard.
Upper Reach make some of WA’s best Shiraz, being grown on the flood plains gives our Shiraz its unique characteristics, from the terroir (the soil) and microclimate in this low, cooler part of the vineyard- however if you grow grapes in a flood plain, you’ve got to expect trouble when the water is high….
Sad, especially when it was looking like such a great year, but not devastating.
All the white grapes were picked, so Verdelho, Chardonnay & Black Bream drinkers, celebrate away!
We have good stocks of our red wines, no need to panic, but there will be no 2017 vintage of Reserve Shiraz.
It has been heart-warming and amazing, so many people have asked what can they do to help.
The best thing you can do is to keep drinking Upper Reach. Now is the time we really need your support, we’ve still got great wine so we need you and your friends to keep drinking Upper Reach and supporting local!