The Decision to Pick
Updated: 4 days ago
Green developing grape bunches on the vines at Clos Ostler, photographed before harvest in February 2025.
Caroline’s harvest began on 7 April in 2021. A year later, the Pinot Noir stayed on the vines until 26 April, almost three weeks further into autumn. The same limestone slope and the same five clones had followed two very different seasons.
In the Waitaki, the final weeks of ripening can extend well into autumn. There is no date on the calendar that settles the decision in advance, and the vineyard seldom reaches readiness all at once.
More than a sugar reading
In assessing maturity, growers consider sugar, acidity, flavour and aroma together. Sampling has to represent the fruit that will actually be picked. Berries vary within a bunch, bunches within a vine and vines across a block; a pleasing handful from one convenient position can give a misleading impression of the whole.
The Australian Wine Research Institute points out that two parcels can have the same average sugar reading while containing quite different ranges of ripeness. A reliable sample must capture that variation. Otherwise, a reassuring number may conceal fruit that is still uneven.
We harvest the Pinot Noir clones separately at Clos Ostler and keep that separation through fermentation. Each picking decision therefore follows its own fruit, while preserving the individual lots from which Caroline’s and EOS will later be composed.
Two autumns
Caroline’s 2021 was picked between 7 and 20 April. The estate’s account describes a warm, dry summer with persistent westerly winds and small, concentrated berries. The five clones reached maturity separately across that period.
In 2022, the sequence changed. A warm beginning to spring gave way to cool, damp weather at flowering. Summer remained mild, followed by dry, settled autumn conditions. The Pinot Noir harvest ran from 26 April to 5 May. Audrey’s Pinot Gris followed on 6 May.
By the end of the 2022 harvest, it was May. The Waitaki’s long autumn had allowed the fruit to ripen slowly, although cool conditions and frost remain part of the judgement every year. Waiting is valuable only while the fruit and the weather allow it.
Two seasons in the glass
The later harvest produced the more red-fruited, floral Caroline’s of the pair. The 2021 carries darker fruit and dried herbs. Both have freshness and savoury detail, but their different characters are a reminder that ripeness follows the weather of an entire year.
Tasted together, the wines bring those autumns closer. Damson and dried thyme in the 2021 give way to red cherry, rose and fresh herbs in the 2022. The harvest dates sit quietly behind those differences, marking the point at which each season’s fruit left the vineyard.
Caroline’s gathers all five clones into a reflection of that year. Long after the picking is finished, opening the bottle gives us a way to return.
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