The 2025 vintage at Northern Hope has been nothing short of remarkable. This year, the Macedon Ranges gifted us a near-perfect growing season warm, dry days balanced by cool nights, allowing our Pinot Noir to ripen beautifully. The result? Tightly packed, disease-free bunches, brimming with potential.
What Does Vintage Look Like at Northern Hope?
If you've been following our journey, you know that we do things on a small scale intentionally. With just one acre of Pinot Noir, we are the smallest vineyard in the region, and that intimacy allows us to be incredibly hands-on. Every step, from monitoring the vines to deciding the exact moment to pick, is done with care, experience, and an unwavering commitment to quality.
The Calm Before the Harvest
Before a single grape is picked, the winery—our shed of dreams must be meticulously prepared. Everything is scrubbed, sterilised, and set in place. The vats, destemmer, buckets, floors, and walls every surface that might come into contact with our fruit is cleaned to ensure no unwanted bacteria interfere with the process. It may seem excessive, but precision and care are the foundations of great winemaking.
Early Mornings, Gentle Hands
Harvest begins before the first light of day. The nets come off, and we set to work, handpicking each bunch with care, snipping our way down the rows. We take only the best fruit, ensuring that every grape that makes it to the winery is a reflection of the season’s best.
Once we’ve gathered enough buckets, they’re carefully transported to the winery. Each batch is weighed and sorted some clusters remain as whole bunches, while others are destemmed and fall gently into the vats as whole berries. This year, we opted for 140kg of whole bunch in each vat, making up 28% of the total fruit, layering them at the bottom before covering them with destemmed berries.
A Family Effort
Because we do everything ourselves, as a small family, harvest is spread over two days 460kg picked on day one, 540kg on day two. It’s hard work, but it’s rewarding, and at the end of it all, we celebrated the only way that felt right pizza and wine in the vineyard, taking a moment to appreciate how fortunate we are to work this land and craft something truly special.
The Final Steps
With the last grapes in, the focus shifts to the vats. A light sulphur spray is applied to the cap to prevent microbial issues, and the vats are wiped down before breathable covers are placed on top. Now, we wait wild fermentation will begin in the coming days. A final clean-down of all the equipment, a sweep of the floors, and just like that, another vintage is underway.
It’s a small vintage compared to others, but for us, it’s everything. Every bottle we produce is a reflection of our passion, our land, and the memories we create as a family. And that’s what makes Northern Hope so special.
Taste the real thing by checking out our first ever Estate Grown 2023 Pinot Noir.
