Are we set for a record vintage? Perfect conditions set to shoot 2024 to the top

What's known as bud burst, new shoots came through ahead of schedule for grapevines across the district.

To understand why, Orange Region Vignerons' Association (ORVA) president and owner of Nashdale Lane Wines, Nick Segger rolled the tape back to 2023 during the late winter and early spring seasons.

"It was a lot drier in Orange in previous years, so from a viticulturist point of view that is when soil is really saturated, a lot of trace elements that vines need to get going are all locked up in the moisture.

"So, we had really nice moister profile in the soil, but it wasn't overwhelmed, which meant what we got across the whole region was this early and consistent bud burst with all of the vines shooting at the right time."

Mr Segger then talked about the region's few summer weeks in the 30-degrees range, where "nothing really crazy" happened in terms of extreme temperatures.

He said it's part of what "makes Orange unique", where warm summer days into cooler nights give grapes a slower ripening period, and thus, more complexity in the fruit.

Without back-to-back weeks of intense rainfall either, it meant the picking part at harvest's end gave a lot of growers more options.

It meant flexibility of choice when it came to picking ripe grapes one day, or opting for the next - which was the case across all of the different grape varieties.

"Sometimes you'll get that in one variety [of grape], but in others, you might have to make a decision based on a five-day forecast of rain and say 'well, do I pick it now, or do I wait it out and see if I can get the same quality afterwards?'," Mr Segger said.

"All grapes ripen at different times, but from speaking to other producers around the region, there wasn't a great deal of difference between a lower site and an 800-metre elevated site.

"Growers who got a broad variety of different grapes basically got to pick at exactly the time they wanted.

"We'll have some cracking wines as a result."

The ORVA president said consumers will get to see a "really good representation of diversity" come out of Orange this year, with wines presenting bolder reds to delicate light whites.

While it's a little too early to call, Mr Segger feels as though the 2024 vintage standout will shine through in a variety of different wines.

His prediction is that these highlights will come in the form of "good, aromatic" white wines, "incredible" chardonnays across the board, and rich, warm glasses falling on the red spectrum.

"We're always at the hands of mother nature, so to be able to achieve a broad range of wines growing at exactly the right conditions, there are a lot of smiling faces walking around in the wine industry," he said.

"It should be an amazing customer experience, so it's quite an exciting proposition overall."

See Saw Wine's head winemaker in Orange, Monica Gray echoed Mr Segger's vintage review, saying the early bud break gave many growers their first Easter break in more than a decade.

She said harvest came six weeks earlier compared to the 2023 vintage.

Ms Gray also spoke of summer's warm conditions while teamed with spring's balanced rainfall, giving soil profiles a big boost of moisture.

"It was just a great environment for grape vines to thrive as it had the perfect weather makings to put it all together," she said.

"The rain we're getting now is awesome, but during harvest it held off, so there wasn't a time where we were looking out of windows to see threatening rain clouds and getting scared."

Finishing harvest roughly two weeks ago, the grapes are all off the vines and into the See Saw winery.

But Ms Gray said the "real end date" for her is when they've pressed off all of their last reds.

"It means there'll be no more ferments to look after, because your red wines are generally your last before your sparklings and white wine varieties," she said.

"A lot of us got to enjoy a long weekend with our friends and family, something we don't usually get to do, so we've just been really lucky this season, in so many ways

"We're all really excited about this 2024 vintage; and we can't wait to see how everyone else's turned out, too."