Each vintage can be so very different, resulting in significantly varied growing seasons and the resultant wines. Gary Harbor comments here on previous vintage conditions:

2008
Vintage finished weeks ahead of normal given the warm start to the year. Vintage was finished by Easter with all the grapes picked over a fortnight. Normally vintage is spread over four or five weeks. The fruit from the shiraz looked some of the best we have picked. The vines are getting older and are producing fruit with better definition and depth of flavour.

2007

A year to forget! Severe drought, a hot summer and then rain only days before vintage seriously impacted both volume and quality. Only a limited number of wines are likely to be released under the McIvor Estate label.

2006
A warm start to the year meant an earlier vintage. Volumes were down but the wines have continued to be of good quality. The vines are now well established and the fruit flavours are becoming more complex. Good quality shiraz and Sangiovese.

2005
A great year with near perfect ripening conditions with the wines all showing ripe flavours. We picked again in late April early May and harvested the fruit at optimal ripeness. The shiraz was a cracker and the merlot cabernet blend also a very good wine.

2004

Pretty uneventful from a climatic perspective, with a prolonged growing season. Picking times were reminiscent of '02 with the grapes picked late. The sangiovese and nebbiolo were picked at the end of May. All the wines were of very good quality with the cabernet merlot and sangiovese showing extremely well.

2003

A severe drought year. Previously we had a dam to fall back on for irrigation but the winter of '02 produced no runoff for the dam. The vines were left to fend for themselves, having a serious impact on yields, which were down on '02. Despite this, the wines were equal to previous vintages in depth of flavour and overall quality. All varieties showed richness, with the merlot and shiraz showing excellent qualities.

2002

A long cool growing season. Starting off with a cool windy period at flowering (resulting in poor fruit set and reduced yields). We picked in early May much later than in '01. This produced rich flavours in all wines - the shiraz and the sangiovese were outstanding.

2001
Generally good for our first vintage of reds. We picked in late April following some rain. The question was; do we pick or leave the fruit on the vines for longer and risk the possibility of disease? We decided to pick early and some excellent marsanne and sangiovese wines were the result.