Vintage Report 2025
As the last few ferments bubble their way to the finish line and the sun begins to set on another vintage here at Catalina Sounds, it’s always great to reflect on the season that’s been, so let’s start back in September 2024.
Bud burst was quite early, up to 14 days earlier in some vineyards against records from the last 10 years – this signalled the potential for a very early harvest. There was plenty of buzz and excitement when those first shoots began coming out – though that quickly turned to watching forecasts for frosts, thankfully there were none of significance this season. Rainfall had been low and was well below the long-term average going into October.
Late October and through November, temperatures climbed, the weather was stunning, and Marlborough had had little to no rainfall. These were superb conditions and when combined with an early budburst, thoughts went quickly to “how early is harvest going to be?!”.
December flipped the script completely though and from late December through to late January, the weather was cool, grey, smattered with drizzly showers and this put the brakes on any thoughts of an early vintage.
While the weather balanced itself out with swings back and forth, the abundance of fruit on the vine made us wary and our mindset quickly shifted to reducing yields in our vineyards, aiming for balance so that fruit ripens evenly.
Yields across Marlborough in 2025 were likely some of the highest there have been to date. As an industry, a mature mindset for most was to cap yields, drop fruit and take not a berry more than can be sold. This was also our modus operandi, and we took to dropping fruit across our vineyards, both at Sound of White and grower blocks, trying to aim for the unicorn situation where you have just enough and no more.
Harvest started on the 13th of March with young vine Sauvignon Blanc in our early ripening vineyards in Renwick. What felt like a slow start continued for the next 3.5 weeks, where healthy blocks were allowed to slowly ripen, and that they did. Blocks were harvested when ripe, with the last block from our Sound of White vineyard being harvested on the 7th of April.
While the ferments finish off, I’m quietly looking forward to a grading tasting in due course. There is a uniqueness to the wines so far, with sub-regions expressing their typicity well. The warm end to the season has given fruit with lower natural acidity, the Sauvignon certainly isn’t as bracing as it can be so early after harvest.
Speaking of Marlborough in general, this vintage is certainly one for consumers to be wary of brands they’re buying. Those companies that chose the path of least resistance and didn’t manage their yields or inputs will certainly come up against those who chose to chase quality in a year where mother nature turned up the volume.
Looking forward to sharing the wines, all in good time.
