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Vintage Report 2026
Louise Rhodes
Apr 19, 2026
Talk about Friyay… harvest finally kicked off on February 27.
(Yes, that’s very late.)
Vintage 2026 didn’t come easy.
What You Don’t See (But taste, and feel)
This is the part most people never see.
The second-guessing.
The 5am weather checks.
The risk.
The calls you make knowing you don’t get a redo.
As a small, first-generation winery in our (lucky? unlucky?) 13th vintage… we felt every bit of it.
Then, with only days left in the month, the call came.
It was go time.
What followed? A vintage that pushed us—and every small winemaker we know in South Australia—to the edge.
We lost fruit.
We changed plans.
We worked with nature—not against it.
We don’t chase perfection—we respond to the season.
We don’t force outcomes—we work with what nature gives us
And yet… this is exactly why the wines in your glass taste the way they do.
Why they feel the way they do.
Here’s Rob’s take on what really happened.
Rob Mack’s 2026 Vintage Report (verbatim)
"V26 was a rollercoaster of a ride. A relatively cool early season made sure that ripening was later than average (certainly much later than V25 which was one of the earliest on record). Two separate heat spikes in January where we had 2 to 3 days of 40 plus degrees caused some severe sunburn to exposed bunches which reduced yields.
Some lovely ripening weather then occurred with several weeks of high 20’s and early 30’s sunny days. V26 then threw another curve ball in later February when the forecast was for up to 100mm of rain to fall over a weekend. This could’ve been disastrous and with that amount of rain widespread berry split and disease would have been a large issue. Thankfully, only 10-15mm fell however the weekend was very humid which did put some pressure on the vineyards.
The remainder of the growing season swung between nice ripening conditions and days of drizzle. Picking decisions were tricky and often dominated by weather patterns which as a winemaker is quite frustrating.
Despite the challenges we have some lovely vibrant wines in the cellar and I’m looking forward to seeing how these wines progress through their stages of maturation."
Want to See What Vintage Actually Looks Like?
👉 Read: How Vintage Really Works (Step-by-Step)
[ON OUR BLOG]
👉 Watch the Vintage Diary series on Instagram
Did you catch our Vintage Diary series?
Tap the images below to watch each episode and see the moments that don’t make it into the glossy wine world - the sampling, the decisions, the chaos, and the small wins along the way.
(And leave us a 🔥 if you’ve been following along - we see you.)
Each image links to the corresponding Instagram reel
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Reel 1: Sampling Grapes]  |
Reel 4: Fermentation} - Coming soon
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Reel 2: Picking Begins]  |
Reel 5: Maturation} - Coming soon
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Reel 3: Picking Grapes]  |
Reel 6: Bottling} - Coming soon
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Conclusion
We’re dusting ourselves off now.
Blood pressure slowly returning to normal.
And in the winery?
Wines that are vibrant, honest, and shaped by everything this season threw at us.
Hopefully maturation is a little less eventful than harvest.
But if there’s one thing we know, it’s that the best wines are never the easy ones.
And if the early signs are anything to go by, these wines are going to be worth every second of the ride.
