Don’t expect to see many bottles of 2007 Aussie wine on the shelves in future – the quality will be excellent, but there’s just very little wine being produced this year.
Many of the fruit growers in OZ were struggling because there was such a glut of grapes driving the price down, then a drought, followed by frost, seriously reduced the quantity in 2007.
Fruit levels for the 2007 vintage are seriously reduced in all regions we’ve visited: 80-90% in the Yarra Valley by two frosts in November, killing both the first and second buds; 80 to 100% in the Grampians/Pyrenees already hurt by 10 years of drought; 80 to 100% in the Coonawarra where there were three frosts and some were just not picking anything this year; 60 to 90% around Adelaide in McLaren vale, the hills and Barossa; further north but closer to the sea, the Clare valley wasn’t hurt as much, but still down 40 to 60%.
Red soils everywhere!
Coonawarra’s soils are quite red, as advertised, they are the famous “terra rossa” region. But they aren’t alone -- we’d come from the Grampians and Pyrenees which are also quite red. In fact, all the soil we’ve seen so far has been some shade of red, orange, sienna, gold – it’s quite beautiful.
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