RUTHE RGLEN wine makers have begun the 2012 vintage with the harvest of white grape varieties, grateful rain and disease are yet to cause a problem.

At Anderson Winery, where grape picking began on Monday, wine maker Howard Anderson said he was “pretty happy” with the quality of the fruit and hopeful this vintage could be one to remember.

“We’ve picked our white grapes and it is in tank,” Mr Anderson said.

“I’ve still got to filter some of the juice but we’ve got it in the winery, so nothing can really go wrong.

“When we crushed the grapes and tasted the juice we got nice high natural acids (and) the PH was quite low.

“We are looking at white wines which are in the more elegant spectrum.”

As the sun rose at Rutherglen Estates on Wednesday, a small team was out picking grapes they will use to make sauvignon blanc.

Things began with the harvest of pinot grigio on Tuesday.

The 16 tonnes of white grapes will be bottled ready for the table by spring.

Another 600 tonnes of grapes remain on the vine, including their red varieties — which won’t be picked until the middle of April.

And it will be an even longer wait until wine lovers will have the chance to taste the 2012 vintage reds.

Because they remain in tanks and barrels for at least 18 months, the 2012 shiraz won’t hit shelves until at least 2014.

Some have said this year could be the best vintage for Rutherglen in 10 years, but Rutherglen Estates chief executive Phil Chamberlain said they’re not counting their chickens until they’ve hatched.

He said they have their fingers crossed that there is not too much rain before the harvest of red wine grapes.

“Until we’ve got all the grapes off the vines we won’t know if it’s the best year in 10 years, but potentially because of the weather conditions it could be,” Mr Chamberlain said.