RedHeads 2024 Vintage report

Vintage 2024 started with an unusually cool and dry growing season in late winter and early spring. This meant smaller canopies which led to lighter crops. Summer experienced some unseasonal late rains in December and January which gave the vineyards a much needed drink in the lead up to the warmer weather keeping the vines fresh and healthy and resulting in beautifully healthy, balanced fruit.

In late January, summer started to heat up and the dry and mild conditions were ideal for fruit ripening and vine health which led to high quality fruit in almost all regions. The dry, mild conditions meant very little disease pressure and the lighter crops led to excellent colour and balance in the grapes.

February brought some nice warm days which ripened the berries beautifully and we picked earlier than we have in years!  This is a really exciting vintage across all regions, but particularly, in RedHeads’ own shiraz and touriga vineyards. You will need to get in quick when they are released…

Barossa Valley
Crops were light in the Barossa but the quality of fruit is extremely high making for an exciting vintage. Due to the early start to the growing season and lighter crops, we started picking much earlier than previous vintages. Fortuitously we had picked almost all our fruit before a March heatwave.

Touriga from our own vineyard destined for Night of the Living Red and Return of the Living Red, is in its third year. The fruit looked so good last year that we made a small portion into a single variety wine, the 2022 Studio Touriga, which went on to win TROPHY and GOLD at the 2023 Barossa Wine Show! It is looking outstanding again this year so watch this space! The fruit coming in from the Barossa has all been rich in concentrated fruit flavours with excellent depth in colour and good natural acidity across all varieties.
This year we picked a dozen varieties from the Barossa including; our own shiraz and touriga, montepulciano, mataro, grenache, malbec, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, chardonnay, riesling, semillon and viognier. We also sourced some durif from Andy Kallesky for our Night of the Living Red.

Adelaide Hills
The Adelaide Hills saw a light crop this year due to the cooler growing season so we only picked just the one variety here but it was outstanding! In true RedHeads fashion, we nabbed some super premium chardonnay for our exciting new Icon wine from a top grower right next door to one of the Hills’ most awarded chardonnay’s.

One Tree Hill
Fruit from One Tree Hill this vintage is rich in colour and concentrated in flavour. Crops were light as was the story of the season but quality was right up across the five red varieties we source from here for our European varieties for Vin’Atus and R’Dotto.
This vintage we picked five varieties including; tempranillo, montepulciano, graciano, durif, and sangiovese, all picked throughout Feb and March.

McLaren Vale
McLaren Vale crops were a little higher than its northern counterparts with the cabernet varieties of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon both looking fantastic boding well for our flagship cab blend, Esule! The fruit was all in balance thanks to a cool start to the season and some perfect ripening conditions.

Coonawarra
From our top Coonawarra grower, Jack Burston, we sourced our usual chardonnay and sauvignon blanc plus some cabernet and merlot. These will go into Harmonie Rox, Sereia, Wilson Gunn Bellum and CatBird Seat with the merlot going into Laithwaites exclusive, Moonlighters red. We picked extremely early for the Coonawarra, around 4 weeks earlier than usual and with Jack changing to a new selective sorter for picking, the fruit quality is looking even better! Fruit was ripe and balanced coming into the RedHeads winery showing all the early signs of a great vintage.

Varieties: sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, cabernet and merlot.

Langhorne Creek
From Langhorne Creek this year we picked shiraz and montepulciano for Red Sedan and our R’Dotto Royale. Crops were lighter here resulting in excellent quality, concentrated fruit which is already looking extremely vibrant in the winery.