Nelson City and its immediate suburbs recorded six times its mean rainfall in December 2011 – 446mm (the highest since records began in 1941) with about 200mm of that falling in one 48-hour period. In Takaka, north-west of Nelson, close to 1100mm of rain fell in December – that's more than 800 per cent the monthly average.
The photo of people playing in a flooded vineyard summed up the challenges faced by the horticulture sector in the region and while the image probably made many winegrowers hearts sink just a little, the effects on the 2012 vintage are still to be determined at the time of writing.
With the main rainfalls occurring over a few days, the impact on flowering and fruit-set was limited. Reports from across the region indicate the hardest hit variety was Gewurztraminer with most growers spoken to expecting no crop this year . They also report experiencing 'hen and chicken' fruit in most varieties.
The impact on other varieties is very much location dependant, with vineyards in some areas expecting a harvest at either near normal levels or down 20% - 40%, dependant on how far through flowering they were when the rains hit.
Of concern during, between and after the significant rainfall events of December was the inability of some growers to operate machinery on their vineyards because of the very slippery and hazardous conditions. This resulted in delays in being able to to get disease control sprays onto vines . One grower resorted to helicopter spraying on some vineyards.
Not being able to utilise machinery has also led to some high labour costs as growers resorted to manually trimming the vigorous canopy growth to open it up and aid the drying out process. Those who were able to manage their vineyards intensely appear to be mainly disease free however some are reporting outbreaks of both downy and powdery mildew in vineyards. Again these outbreaks are very much dependant on vineyard location – how much rain they had, whether or not growers could safely apply sprays and work on the canopy and exposure of vineyards to drying winds after the rains.
In summary it is likely to be a below average harvest size in the Nelson region in 2012 and quality is going to be highly dependent on weather patterns over the next few months.
No more rain and lots of hot days are at the top of grower's wish lists for 2012.
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