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A dry growing season and a burst of extreme heat have left their mark on this year’s grape harvest at Rosnay Organic in Canowindra, but general manager Sam Statham says the outlook for the vintage remains positive.
Harvest began earlier than usual this year for Rosnay’s white grapes, with grapes picked ahead of Australia Day.
Grape harvest is done in the early hours of the morning or overnight to avoid the heat, whether it’s by hand or machine.
“We did three mornings in a row during that week of 40 degree days,” Sam said.
“There was a period where wineries were flat out taking white grapes because they were overripening and now things have quietened down a bit while we wait for the reds.”
Rosnay has so far focused on white varieties and some rosé, with red grapes such as shiraz being left on the vine longer to allow full flavour development.
Harvest of the reds is expected in the coming weeks.
With low demand for grapes and wine across the industry, Sam said there had been little justification for heavy irrigation this season, particularly given ongoing concerns about water quality.
“It’s been a dry season and the temptation is always there to use a lot of water, but we’ve been trying to minimise irrigation,” Sam said.
“That has meant our yields are a bit lower, but overall the vineyard has held up well.”
Although the dry conditions did help the organic producers in some way, with very little fungal disease pressure across the vines.
“Most vineyards were able to avoid using much fungicide chemicals since there was no fungal pressure," Sam said.
“We put a little bit of sulfur on our chardonnay and otherwise didn’t spray at all. Which we like, since we are organic.
“The heat wave had a visual impact on the shiraz vines – they all have burnt leaves to some degree although some have sunburnt fruit and others don’t.”
While some growers in the region experienced frost and used irrigation to recover lost yield, Rosnay was fortunate to avoid any frost damage.
Sam said drier seasons can actually suit organic viticulture in some ways with reduced disease pressure, but they also present challenges.
“A drier season is definitely a bit easier but then you still got to use irrigation and you can’t use fertiliser in the irrigation water like you need to," he said.
“The nutrition for your vines when you’re organic comes from the soil, it doesn’t come from adding artificial fertiliser to your water.
“In a year when there’s no rain, your vines might be lacking a bit of nutrition because everything gets shut down as there’s not as many worms and microbes and the fertility drops.
“That means in a year where you’ve had more rain, it’s better for your vines in that way.”
Rosnay Organic is one of only two vineyards in the Cowra-Canowindra region with organic wineries.
The winery has been certified organic since it was established in Canowindra in 1997 after the Statham family transitioned from the wool industry to wine making.
“We discovered organic farming nearly 30 years ago while travelling in New Zealand and just saw that it was possible,” Sam said.
“It was quite easy to go organic because we didn’t have bad habits to get rid of.
“It made sense to us.”
Looking ahead Sam is optimistic about the 2026 vintage, saying dry years often produce wines with more concentrated flavours.
“In a dry year you tend to get higher sugar levels, which means higher alcohol and stronger wines.
“Depending on if it stays dry or not, I think it will be a better than average year.”
White wines from this year’s harvest will be bottled in spring, with red wines bottled in summer.
“We will wait a couple of years before we release the wines before we start to sell them.”
Rosnay Organic not only grows gapes but also figs and olives.
“The figs have been sunburnt because of that hot weather. We will see how they turn out once we get a new batch of figs coming through next week.”
Figs are currently being harvested and olives will be harvested in June.
“The olives are very small so we’re not going to get a lot of oil this year because we haven’t had enough rain,” Sam added.
Rosnay’s wines are available not only at their winery but also the bottle shops in Canowindra and Cowra, the Canowindra Hotel, Cowra Information Centre and Oak on Kendall Restaurant.
Rosnay Organic olives and figs are also available at the Age of Fishes Museum, the IGA and Perennialle Plants in Canowindra.
