After a warm, dry summer that supercharged growth and a harvest paced evenly across September, Gusbourne’s 2025 vintage has delivered beautifully ripe, clean and expressive fruit – promising wines of balance, detail and character.
In the vineyard
Following the record rainfall and disease pressure of 2024, the 2025 growing season began with cautious optimism. Budburst came right on schedule on 4 April, and by early June, the team recorded their earliest ever flowering. “Flowering was the 5th of June,” says Vineyard Manager Jon Pollard. “The next earliest we’ve ever seen was the 8th of June in 2020.”
From there, summer brought a run of warm, dry weather that transformed the vineyards. “The heat waves seemed to supercharge the vines,” Jon explains. “They grew with incredible vigour – we could barely keep up.” The team spent long days thinning heads, lifting wires and managing canopies to maintain airflow and light exposure.
When rain finally arrived in August, it refreshed the vines but also reawakened some of the fungal spores lingering from 2024. “The canopy looked a little messy by the end,” says Jon, “but we got through to harvest with no problem ripening fruit.”
September brought challenges, with bursts of heavy rain testing the thin-skinned Pinot Noir. Pickers worked carefully – where necessary removing individual berries by hand – to ensure only pristine fruit made it to the winery. “In some Pinot Noir blocks, pickers worked bare-handed so they could feel and remove any soft berries,” says Jon. “It’s slow, meticulous work, but it protects style and purity.”
Despite the stop-start weather, the harvest quickly found its rhythm. From the first main pick on 9 September to the last on 1 October, the team completed 19 picking days. Certain sites stood out. Boot Hill Chardonnay – destined for Guinevere – produced picture-perfect bunches, while Lower Mill Hill Pinot Noir for Rosé arrived clean and fragrant thanks to careful handwork in the vineyard. “I’m really happy with the quality,” Jon reflects. “Yields are a little lower than ideal, but it’s been a kind season, and the team has been brilliant.”
In the winery
With the fruit safely in and the presses cleaned down, the winery is alive with fermentations. Head Winemaker Mary Bridges describes a season of calm focus and quiet confidence. “It has been so much more straightforward to achieve what we wanted this year,” she says. “The pace of harvest was ideal – busy enough, but never chaotic. It’s been intense and really fun in the winery. Just a joy.”
September’s cooler spell helped the team, slowing the pace of fruit ripening and allowing a cool, calm approach to the harvest. “It stopped the urgency,” Mary explains. “For sparkling, you want ripeness with restraint – and that’s exactly where we ended up.” The fruit showed phenolic ripeness too. “We had nice brown seeds across the board,” she notes. “You can taste that in the wines already – they’re ripe, textured and full of character.”
In total, around 120 individual components of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier were vinified separately – giving Mary and her team an intricate palette to work with at blending. “I looked at the tank map and thought, yes, this is where I wanted to be,” she says. “All these small tanks, each full of something distinctive. It’s exactly what we aim for.”
The team continues to refine their use of 500-litre puncheons for fermentation and ageing. “Every time we’ve included the puncheons in grading, those lots score a little higher,” Mary says. “The balance of oak to acidity, the integration, the freshness – they just work beautifully.”
The shape of the vintage
Mary sees 2025 sitting somewhere between the power of 2016 and the elegance of 2019. “We’re riper than 2019 but with that same freshness,” she says. “It’s a very balanced, very solid vintage. I don’t feel like anything’s missing.” After the challenges of 2024, this year has been one of precision, poise and quiet satisfaction – a vintage that feels both complete and full of promise. “I’m content,” says Mary. “It just feels good.”
Step behind the scenes and browse images from harvest 2025 here.
