AS GOOD AS IT GETS
IT’S official - it was a pearler. The 2017/18 growing season was characterised by long spells of dry weather across south-eastern Australia, which in turn gave rise to twin phenomena - lower yields and disease-free, high-quality fruit. While the overall crush of 1.79 million tonnes was down by 10 per cent from the record set in 2017, the superlatives got a workout from winemakers in regions as disparate as Queensland’s Granite Belt, Canberra, Mornington Peninsula and the Margaret River, with the 2018 vintage described time and time again as “a cracker” or, in one case, “epic”.
The heavy rains that sabotaged last year’s crop in the Granite Belt stayed away, and ripening conditions were ideal and free of mildew. Winemakers have flagged one of
