Rosnay harvest is 'looking pretty good'

The grape harvest is beginning at Rosnay Organic Wines, Canowindra, with crop quality expected to be high. Rosnay owner, Sam Statham, said "our harvest is looking pretty good considering the fact we were supposed to be in drought." "We made a huge effort to prepare for drought including pruning hard and upgrading our irrigation system which we haven't even turned on since. "As a result of the hard prune, the size of the crop will be down a little but the grapes are looking great. "We'll start picking our chardonnay grapes next week and the vermentino in two weeks' time. "We'll harvest about 80 tonnes and use about 40 tonnes to make our own wine and sell the remainder to other wine makers." As an organic vineyard with a cellar door Mr Statham is optimistic about the future at Rosnay. "Things have been going well with our cellar door which is open every weekend, and the recent straw bale revamp of our tasting room has been very popular with visitors." However, Mr Statham says there is a crisis broadly in the Australian wine industry, with the equivalent of 800 Olympic size pools of wine currently in storage. The glut he says is a result of a record harvest in 2021 and people generally drinking less wine. But Rosnay's diversity is a key to its success, allowing it to get through tough times and affording a wonderful lifestyle for the Stathams who also grow olives and figs, and run sheep for their neighbours. "Our Olive crop isn't quite so good this year. "Our trees have produced heavy crops in the past two wet years and are having an off year this year. This is natural as the trees get exhausted and need to recover. "Other factors were frost in late October which affected flowers in the lower section of the grove, and there was a little moisture stress at flowering through a hot and dry period in September and October, coupled with hot winds. "However, Olive oil globally is at a very good price. "Our figs are the easiest part of our business to grow and they are looking very good. "We have upgraded our cool room to handle this season's harvest and plan to sell more into Sydney, and target more of the fresh market generally." An important aspect of the Rosnay organic farming model is sheep, provided by neighbours Andrew Wooldridge and Margie Crowther, who have been kept very busy with flystrike prevalent in the current humid and wet conditions.