Australian growers are shocked over an announcement this week that the majority of the country’s plantings of the Spanish variety Albariño are, in fact, the French variety Savagnin Blanc.
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Months after a record heat wave in February helped spark a wave of devastating wildfires across Australia’s southern state of Victoria, the country’s wine industry is beginning to come to grips with the extent of damage to vineyards, wineries and lives.
readA blistering heatwave has swept through south-eastern Australia, scorching vineyards and decimating harvest forecasts.
readVineyards and wineries in Victoria’s premium wine growing region of the Yarra Valley have been destroyed as bushfires continue to ravage the state, in what has been named Australia’s worst peace time disaster, claiming more than 200 lives and leaving 6000 homeless.
readA new Phylloxera outbreak in Victoria’s prestigious Yarra Valley has sparked concern over the extent of the spread of the aphid across the wine region.
readOctober 30, 2009, 2am. Alarms are sounding all over Marlborough. The livelihood of New Zealand’s premier wine region is under attack.
readThere’s something strange brewing in them there hills. Two of the biggest, burliest winemaker blokes in the district have donned Toucan beaks over their moustaches. They’re hopping around with excitement about an idea they’ve dubbed “Strange Birds.” Strange, indeed, but it’s turned into a stroke of marketing genius for Queensland’s Granite Belt.
readThe rise of Spanish grape varieties has been swift and widespread across Australia in recent years, but never has this category received more attention than when one obscure example shot into the international headlines last month.
readThe identity of Australian Albariño was first called into question late last year, when French ampelographer (grape identification expert) Jean-Michel Boursiquot suspected that the vines appeared to be Savagnin Blanc, an obscure variety cultivated almost exclusively in the Jura in eastern France, where it produces the sherry-like vin jaune.
readTo understand the full diversity of Australian wine, consider just how distinct its regions are. If Margaret River in the west were Bordeaux, where would the Hunter Valley be? Have a guess. Eastern France, perhaps, or Switzerland? Or even as far as Italy? No, further still.
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