Vintage 2012 Wrap Up

Vintage is over for another year and here at Jim Barry Wines we are celebrating an exceptional 2012 Clare Valley vintage with the earliest release of our Watervale Riesling in 42 years.

The 2012 vintage was nearly perfect for us and probably the best we’ve had in a decade. Growing conditions were ideal, with rain coming just at the right time and having a very positive effect on our vines and the quality of the fruit they produced.

We had 12.4mm of rain on January 8, which gave the vines some much needed refreshment. Then a prolonged dry spell provided perfect ripening conditions for our riesling, which we harvested mid-to-late February.

It was particularly fortuitous that our most significant rain event during vintage — 27mm — came on March 1. We’d well and truly finished harvesting riesling but the reds still had a way to go and the rain did them a power of good.

It refreshed the vines and slowed down ripening. So we have had the best of both worlds — sharp, fresh riesling with great flavour and natural acidity, and full-bodied reds with excellent colour and ripe tannins.