1996 – Too good to be true?

Wow. In Canberra-speak, 1996 was the vintage we had to have. The numbers alone speak for themselves. Back in 1994 Australia crushed a record 753,410 tonnes of grapes for wine. Only a year ago, a poor 1995 season reduced the crop to 635,680 tonnes, of which 315,000 tonnes were premium varieties such as chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz and riesling.

Now hang onto your seats. Industry estimations put the 1996 crush at 885,000 tonnes, of which a massive 496,000 were of premium varieties, a massive increase of 57 on the previous vintage! Given that 1600ha of new vineyards have come on stream with this vintage, these numbers are hardly surprising. Presently digesting this massive increase in wine, the industry is fervently gearing up its export activities with an even larger crush expected in 1997.

A broad look at the continent reveals a cool summer which retarded ripening and harvest. Most regions were able to escape an early onset of autumnal conditions, but winter made an early appearance to make life difficult for several of the cooler regions in the country’s south-east, such as the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula.

The vintage has produced exceptional volumes of good to exceptional white, but there’s a question-mark against the amount of top-notch red. The expected highlights should be Hunter reds and semillons, reds and whites from the Pyrenees, central Victoria and Padthaway, McLaren Vale reds, Geelong whites and Lower Great Southern WA rieslings.

New South Wales:

Both Hunter regions experienced their best vintage since 1991, although the Lower Hunter began its harvest in dampish conditions. The region reports excellent whites perhaps not quite in the class of the ’95s and some fine reds. Chardonnays are more of a mixed bag. The Upper Hunter also reports a high quality year for both reds and whites. Reds should reveal excellent flavours and balance.

Cowra, Young and Mudgee also experienced a cool, late season but had no difficulty in ripening grapes fully. Next to the exceptional 1995 wines some of the Cowra chardonnays look a little light, but they still weigh in rich and round.


South Australia:

The Barossa Valley’s season was a mixed one, but the regional specialties of semillon, chardonnay and shiraz performed well. It was also an excellent year for dryland grenache. A cool, dry Eden Valley season yielded good chardonnay, shiraz and cabernet, but disappointing sauvignon blanc, semillon and riesling.

The coolness and lateness of the season made life difficult for cool regions like the Adelaide Hills, where the issue of fruit quality came down to the warmth of the vineyard site, the cropping level and vineyard management. Showery weather in early April didn’t help.

Clare had an excellent season for chardonnay and a fine semillon vintage, although rieslings are not quite up to speed overall. Reds were fair to middling, without too many highlights.

The McLaren Vale’s season was first-class for reds, shiraz especially, creating dense colours and big flavours. Chardonnays look good, but sauvignon blanc less so.

Coonawarra was firstly affected by September frosts inflicted some damage to the early varieties, chardonnay especially, and then November and December were the coldest on record. Rainy weather during ripening kept crops less ripe than ideal, whites handling conditions better than reds. Cabernet sauvignon developed intense varietal flavours, but shiraz struggled to ripen, with herbaceous and white pepper characters.

Tasmania:

As might be expected in a generally cool, late season, life was difficult in most Tasmanian regions, after an excellent year in 1995. Northern Tasmania experienced its latest but best pinot noir year in memory. Chardonnay tended to crop low with only average quality, riesling was reasonable with some botrytis and cabernet was tricky to ripen at best.

The East Coast and South East experienced even tougher conditions, with low yields taking a long time to ripen. The Tamar River had a good year with pinot noir and produced some fair cabernet sauvignon, which generally struggled to ripen fully and achieve much concentration.


Victoria:

Autumn made an unwelcome, sodden and early appearance in Victoria, with unfavourable conditions reaching their zenith in some of the higher Yarra Valley vineyards and on the southern Mornington Peninsula. Summer was one of the wettest and coolest in memory; Melbourne had its coldest summer for 100 years, with conditions bordering on the impossible for quality table wine.

But there is good news, from the Pyrenees and the Western Districts especially. The Pyrenees experienced one of its best seasons yet for table and sparkling wines, as a long, even ripening season with sufficient sunshine ripened good crops to excellent flavour and composition. Great Western overcame some early minor frost damage to riesling, experiencing a late, high-yielding vintage of exceptional quality.

1996 began encouragingly for the southern Victorian regions of the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula, but turned wet in October, remaining that way for most of the season until the very delayed harvest. Many crops of chardonnay failed to ripen adequately and signs are simply terrible for cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc and shiraz.

Geelong, happily nestling in a rain shadow provided by the Otway Ranges, had another exceptional year with first-class chardonnay and pinot noir.

The unusually cool season helped makers in Victoria’s North-East to produce very different, more elegant and subtle table wines than the jammier traditional styles. Yields were good, but fortified bases were workmanlike rather than spectacular.

Western Australia:

Conditions were consistently cool and dry over most of Western Australia, resulting in a good vintage which turned out to be quite late rather than early, as initially expected. A cool spell over Christmas threatened some disease, but most vineyards were able to control it. Whites were generally superior to reds.

Riesling was again the stand-out variety in the Lower Great Southern , developing stunning floral flavours and crisp acids. Most WA chardonnay ripened all at once, developing some stunning flavours. Reds ripened fully and show promise.

Both the Margaret River and the Swan Valley experienced late, cool seasons, fashioning attractive whites and slightly herbaceous reds. Please login to post comment