New Releases from Australia, Part 1

Anecdotal evidence also suggests that many American winos who drove the high-end Aussie (mostly Barossa) market earlier this decade have simply grown tired of the over-the-top, high-alcohol, massively oaky style that defined that era in the U.S. market. And to be fair, many of those fruit, alcohol and oak bombs from the late 1990s and early 2000s have performed miserably with age. But rather than explore the breadth of styles offered by Australia (which is virtually unmatched in the New World), many consumers simply dismiss the category of Australian wine out of hand and move on to the next hot region, style or over-hyped vintage.

Two thousand seven wasn’t the vintage that the already reeling Australian wine industry needed, except for the fact that the tragically low yields across the country did not further increase the country’s overflowing inventory of unsold wine. Overall, yields were the lowest in 30 years, thanks to the full range of seasonal problems: brushfires, drought, extreme heat, frost, and maybe even some locusts. The crop in Coonawarra was off by 75% due to the frost, while brushfires in Victoria caused widespread smoke taint, resulting in many grapes being discarded. Across South Australia the fruit set was light and the grapes and bunches were small, resulting in low yields. But in the best cases the wines benefitted from the subsequent increase in concentration.