highlighted by the number of new projects in the pipeline. Although recent times have been challenging, there are better times to come. Some of the Barossa’s wine entrepreneurs and marketers are already preparing for this. Many are engaging with the new expectancies of the times. The premiumisation of fine wine in the Barossa has allowed many vignerons to invest further in vineyard, new plantings, and winery design and equipment. New technologies, outlooks, and environmental awareness have also led to more responsible ways of wine growing and dealing with waste. The cost associated with regenerative agriculture and sustainable practices is more than offset by the wealth that it achieves. This can be measured by the beauty of the landscape, a community’s sense of purpose, and the quality of the wines. The growing season and all that nature throws at the vigneron are the wild cards, but practices to improve soil health, build resilience in the vineyard, and mitigate climate change have also created new standards of expectations and bring an extra value to the fine wine experience. The Barossa’s rich patchwork of heirloom vineyards is one of the great wonders of the modern wine world. Their survival highlights remarkable multi-generational stewardship, superb quarantine regulations (first introduced in 1875), and natural acclimatisation and adaptation of the vines over the decades. In addition to these surviving old vineyards are many plantings comprising genetic material derived from colonial vinestock. During the early 1940s, South Australia’s Phylloxera Board commissioned François de Castella to survey the viticultural industry. At the time it was deemed inevitable that phylloxera would arrive in the state, as had been ‘proved to be in other wine countries.’ In his introduction, de Castella wrote, ‘The ultimate reconstitution on resistant stocks of existing South Australian vineyards is unquestionable but a matter of time’. Over 70 years later, luck has held out, but for how long will this last? In the meantime, far-sighted vignerons and scientists are preparing for this eventuality. Even so, the Barossa’s old vineyards make a nonsense of the old world/new world divide. There are more ancient surviving vineyards (on ancient soils) in the Barossa than any other region in the world. And South Australia in all likelihood possesses more surviving 75-plus-year-old vineyards than the rest of the world combined. This is something to celebrate, but also to worry about too.
Visitors to the Barossa, particularly from interstate, should be aware that they could be carriers of invasive pests and diseases. While the spread is more likely to be caused by the movement of machinery, we should all consider the unthinkable. And we should also marvel at our good fortune to experience pre-phylloxera Barossa Shiraz. During the late 2000s, I participated, as did many other media types, in the Barossa Grounds Project. This long-ranging investigation into the terroir of the Barossa has unearthed differences of wines from each sub region. The most obvious are the variances of character between the Eden Valley and the Barossa Valley (divided into the Northern, Central and Southern Grounds). The cooler expressions and pretty herb nuances of Eden Valley Shiraz (and Cabernet Sauvignon) are foiled beautifully against the chocolaty warm and generous Barossa Valley Shiraz. Like a palette of colours, winemakers can source fruit to their
View from Chateau Tanunda with Bethany in distance (Collections SA)
6
The Vintage Journal – Regional Focus
Barossa 2023
7
Powered by FlippingBook