A dry cold 2019 winter continued into a dry spring that was dominated some severe wind and snow events. The critical flowering month of December was still relatively cool and experienced 50mm of rain over three days. As a result, flowering was both late and drawn out. Finally, the summer heat arrived in mid-January and lasted until mid-March but the critical cell division stage for the berries was also cool and along with the challenging conditions at flowering, resulted in crop levels being 30- 40% down in many of the vineyard blocks. There were two pieces of very good news though – the smaller bunches and small berries were much easier for the vine to fully ripen in late summer and ultimately resulted in densely coloured, aromatic wines. 2020 harvest was one of the most compact that Two Paddocks has seen starting, on the 6th of April and all done by the 24th April.

Hand harvested, 54% de-stemmed and given a 7 day pre-fermentation cold maceration to extract colour and aroma. After an indigenous fermentation, with a single plunging per day, the wine was given another 5 days post fermentation time on skins. Wine is then transferred to 1-4 (18% new oak) year old French medium toast barriques for a 10-month maturation, before racking and bottling. Estate Vineyard composition: 31% The Fusilier - Bannockburn, 20% - The Last Chance – Earnscleugh (Alexandra), 15% The Red Bank – Earnscleugh (Alexandra) and 34% The First Paddock – Gibbston.