Header right Chapter | CHAPTER 23 | 1980–1982 – Out of the Cold
The changing mood of Australian wine also led to new perspectives and values. The Barossa’s old-vine heritage, mostly taken for granted, was being reimagined by astute vignerons. No other place in the world possessed so many ancient surviving grapevines. Although not the oldest grapevines in the world, the Barossa’s mid to late 19th-century plantings of mostly shiraz, grenache, and mataro represent an unmatched wine industry heirloom. While Victoria’s cool-climate wines became fashionable during the early 1980s, the Barossa’s old-vine heritage was about to change the fine wine game once again. . . .
1980 KNIGHT’S GRANITE HILLS SHIRAZ Macedon Ranges, Victoria
The 1980 vintage captured the interest of wine lovers because it had beautiful, pure, peppery aromatics and a lightness of weight. It was pretty yet flavourful and delicious to drink. It catalysed Victoria’s cool-climate movement and encouraged the widespread planting of shiraz in Central Victoria. Llew Knight had studied winemaking with Brian Croser, Dr Tony Jordan, and Andrew Hood at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga during the late 1970s.
This wine surprised everybody at the time. Subsequent vintages were well received, but they never achieved the rockstar status of this vintage.
Moorilla Estate’s Claudio Alcorso and Bream Creek’s Dr Bob Menary and son Adam at Bream Creek, Tasmania. [Bream Creek Collection]
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