Harvest heavy with grief

Vintage 2016 was tough for Hunter vignerons, but at Bill and Wendy Lawson’s Catherine Vale vineyard at Bulga it was a time of heartbreak. As the harvest gathered pace on January 10, the esophageal cancer Bill was diagnosed with months before claimed his life at the age of 78. The Catherine Vale Semillon, Chardonnay and Verdelho had been picked, but the Areis, Barbera and Dolcetto crops were still to be harvested as Wendy had to cope with the loss of her husband of 40 years.