Lake George Winery, Helm Wines among Canberra wineries expecting bumper season

After years of COVID, which affected the workforce; bushfires; and too much, or not enough, rain, the vineyards are celebrating, saying the cool, wet spring and moderate summer have produced stunning results on the vine. It's set to make the 2023 vintage even more memorable as some wineries also celebrate their 50^th anniversary this year, including Lake George Winery and Helm Wines.

Helm Wines owner Ken Helm, who planted his riesling vines in August 1973, started the harvest on Sunday with fruit coming into the winery first from its contract vineyard at Tumbarumba. It was a bumper crop.

"Our bunch count so far, it looks like it will be close to a record for us," he said.

"And after three years of quite low crops affected by drought and hail storms and all the rest of it, we're really looking forward to it."

Mr Helm said the winery usually took six to seven tonnes of grapes from the Tumbarumba vineyard, but this year it was closer to eight to 12 tonnes.

"Then on Monday, we start on our five riesling vineyards on the estate [at Murrumbateman]. I've got 24 pickers starting on Monday morning at seven o'clock," he said.

"And we're going to pick the whole week and take the whole lot. Each one of them has got above average bunch count and also, because of the rain and the good season, even though it was cool early, we've got very big bunches.

"Bunches usually come in at 85 grams per bunch. We're getting bunches up to 120 grams. Which is something I haven't seen in my 47 vintages.

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"A lot of time, people worry about that and say, 'Oh you've had too much water and not enough flavour' but both myself and our assistant winemaker, we just can't believe the flavour profile.

"In the lab on Wednesday, we take samples from all five vineyards and we crush them and I had them sitting in glasses ready to do the chemical analysis, and when we walked into the lab, we could smell the wine. We said, 'Wow! There's rielsing in here'. And I have not seen that before. So we're looking forward to a big one."

Mr Helm said the burst of hot weather over the weekend would not cause problems.

"With the fruit from Tumbarumba, we will cool it down overnight and then crush it on Monday morning and then for the rest of the week, it cools off," he said.

"It's all positive this time around."

Four Winds Vineyard owner Sarah Collingwood is overseeing picking at its Murrumbateman vines.

"It's been a very late season, because of the wet, cool spring, but the fruit we've got in so far has been excellent. The flavours have been great," she said.

"And that's one of the benefits of a long, slow ripening season, that the flavours are really good."

Ms Collingwood said it had a team of contractors and also did some mechanical harvesting.

"We actually think we will be finished in the next couple of weeks," she said.

"In some ways it's been slow getting going, but all this lovely warm weather, things are ripening really well and everything is going in the right direction."

It is a similar story at Lerida Estate Winery at Lake George, where viticulturist James Hopper said the weather conditions leading to the harvest had been perfect. It was a welcome change from 2020 when thick bushfire smoke made the grapes unusable.

"After a couple of difficult years here, we're all feeling really upbeat," he said.

"I think the district is going to see some really good results."

Mr Hopper said the wet spring did create its own problems, the ground so saturated that vehicles sometimes got bogged when trying to get in to tend the vines.

"You can almost lose your season to disease, even before it begins," he said.

But that crisis was averted with the moderate summer creating a slow burn of ripening fruit and developing flavours.

Mr Hopper said backpackers, including from France and Germany, had also returned to pick after being denied access to Australia during the pandemic.

"Throughout COVID, it was almost impossible to get labour," he said.

"Now the backpackers are here and they're mobile and they want to work."

Mount Majura Vineyard, at the top of the Majura Valley, is celebrating 35 years this year since its vines were planted.

Winemaker Frank van de Loo said they would do more picking this week and were "very happy" with the harvest so far, even though yields were down, with the fruit 18 months in the making. The premium fruit made up for it.

"We look at the flavour and we look at the balance of the sugar and the acid and everything and just the quality of the fruit, getting in fruit that is pristine and free of disease. So, that's all really pleasing," he said.

"And it's just always a really lovely time of year when you reap the rewards of all the work that's gone in during the year and that sense of relief of getting the crop off and then starting to smell it fermenting in the winery. It's lovely."

Mount Majura was also being assisted by German backpacker Jakob Bonitz, who was picking to help his travels, and George Ananiadis, 29, a former pharmacist from Greece who was pursing his dream to become a winemaker in Australia.

"The COVID period was a time for re-evaluating some things for all of us and that's when I decided to pursue a career in winemaking," he said.

With family friends in Canberra, Mr Ananiadis was thrilled to be learning the ropes at Mount Majura.

"Frank is a very good teacher. He's a mentor. He's always passionate about sharing his knowledge," he said.

Lake George Winery owner Sarah McDougall invited in the public on Sunday to help take part in the picking for a special harvest morning, just one more event to celebrate the vineyard's 50^th anniversary.

"Our 2022 season had lots of rain, so from a picking point of view wasn't great," she said.

"However, this season, because we had so much rain last year, it's really helped this year. And we have had those hot days that have helped to ripen the fruit.

"So for us, at Lake George, we're picking even more tonne and the fruit is better quality than we've seen since 2019.

"The winemakers are salivating at the thought of the fruit being the best quality they've ever seen."

Ms McDougall said the local labour force was also locked in for the serious picking.

"During COVID, we did a call out to the Collector community to help us and they rallied around us," she said.

"This year, there's definitely so many more backpackers around, which is great. But there are also a lot of locals who enjoyed it and have come back this year to join us again."

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