MARLBOROUGH’S 2024 HARVEST

The weather throughout Marlborough’s 2024 harvest was sunny, dry and clear; perfect conditions for locals to enjoy, as well as for growing tasty grapes.

Marlborough’s 2024 harvest started slightly slower than in previous years with a touch of frost in some areas and cool, unsettled weather causing shoots to grow slowly and produce relatively few flowers. It was clear from the outset that the 2024 harvest in Marlborough would be much smaller than 2022 and 2023.

However, summer brought a settled spell of warm, clear days, keeping the vines healthy and allowing grapes to start ripening quickly. Extremely dry conditions prevailed through summer, with rainfall levels sitting at less than half of the long-term average rain falling through the growing season.

Late summer continued to revel in sunny days, but evening temperatures started to drop, creating ideal conditions for flavours to develop whilst also retaining refreshing acidity levels in the grapes.

With all vineyard sites ripening quickly, harvest was short and sharp. Co-ordinating the harvest crews was relatively easy, with no rain to interrupt the work. Blocks were picked as they reached ideal flavors, commencing 8th March and finishing in the beauitful Upper Awatere Valley, early in the morning of 31st March.

And how do the 2024 Marlborough wines taste?

Winemaker George Elworthy is upbeat about the 2024 vintage from The Better Half Wines saying:

“Harvest 2024 would have to be one of the easiest I can remember for a very long time. The fruit came in relatively early after a long, dry summer. The harvest window provided endless blue-sky days allowing us to pick when flavors were at their optimum. “Ripe and clean” was the theme this year and early tasting of the wines confirms this with abundant ripe flavors and plenty of concentration in the glass.”