A YEAR OF PAIN AND PLEASURE
INITIAL predictions of a savage reduction in the total national wine crush may not have completely materialised, but the record high temperatures experienced across many regions in 2019 did make heavy inroads on yields. Irrigation - where water was available in the wake of an often desiccated spring and summer - was in widespread use across most of southeast Australia. Western Australia, conversely, was coping with a cool and occasionally damp season where disease and famished birds posed the significant threats.
As is so often the case, reduced yields brought talk of high quality fruit from many winemakers around the country.
After a near-ideal season for Queensland’s Granite Belt of warm days, cool nights and virtually no disease that left many vignerons jubilant at their fruit quality, a cruelly timed late season bushfire in Girraween National Park left several wineries facing heavy losses from smoke taint.
