The 2025 Vintage Challenge and Triumph

2025 was a season of contrasts, resilience and ultimately, beauty.

A challenging start, a parched summer, and a harvest that moved at a glacial pace—but through it all, the vineyards held their nerve, and the result is fruit of exceptional quality. In this Journal, we share what made the 2025 season so distinctive—from a late spring frost to a slow-motion harvest—and why we’re so excited about the wines to come.

Budburst was on time, the canopies surged forward, and then—on the 3rd of November—a rare and brutal frost hit. A mix of radiative and advective forces made it particularly destructive. Some vineyards in the region experienced near total crop loss. At Terra Sancta, thanks to our locations in Bannockburn, the damage was far less severe but still had an impact.

Despite the setback, our vineyards responded with grit. Bannockburn once again showed why it holds premium status among Central Otago’s subregions. We also trialled and scaled new innovations: Bob-the-drone helped with early season sulphur applications for the canopy, delivering impressive results. However when Bob decided he’d had enough (dropping suddenly from the sky never to fly again) we were forced to rely upon tractors - going to show that when trialling new technology it is wise to have a back-up plan!

From mid-November to April, we were in a drought. Regardless, flowering was smooth and the fruit set was good. The vines, however, were under pressure. Without regular rainfall, irrigation systems were tested to their limits. We saw leaf fall in areas where water couldn’t quite keep up, and in some of our younger blocks, water stress did become visible.

Still, the fruit continued to develop and our mature vines with deep root systems really held their own. Across Terra Sancta we deployed bird lasers more extensively than ever before. And while we learnt that sometimes the local birds are exceptionally crafty, our extensive use of lasers (replacing manually place-on/take-off nets), marks another step in our evolving, tech-assisted vineyard management. We can thank the last five years of cost increases across the board to push us to invest in productive new technologies.

Unlike the usual three weeks of high-energy activity, the 2025 harvest stretched across six weeks, with only five days of truly intense picking. Vines were tired. Canopies were stressed. The vines told us clearly that ripening—especially in high-yielding blocks—was rescheduled for a month later than usual. But with a spacious winery, abundant tank and barrel capacity, and time on our side, we allowed each block to mature in its own rhythm.

This slower pace turned out to be a gift.

Our winemaking team describes the fruit quality with one word: "beautiful".

Careful picking decisions, no pressure from the winery, and ideal ripening windows meant that every wine in our portfolio fermented naturally, with 100% wild fermentations and no stuck ferments. There is already a remarkable sense of concentration and flavour developing in barrel and tank.

While 2025 gave us its fair share of challenges—from that early frost to Bob-the-drone’s dramatic and sudden retirement—the fruit that arrived at the winery was a testament to the strength of our place and our practices. Bannockburn continues to prove its worth as a premium subregion and our vineyards once again delivered the goods in the form of expressive fruit with character and depth.

The 2025 wines are shaping up to be vivid, expressive, and full of flavour. We can't wait to share them with you.