THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
Despite the loss of important heritage vineyards in proximity to population centres, plantings of new vineyards accelerated. Many winemakers contemplated what would be the next popular grape varieties. Whilst chardonnay was just about to begin a period of huge popularity, some farsighted winemakers considered the potential of the obscure grape variety viognier, originally from the Rhône Valley. Incredibly, this variety had become virtually extinct in its natural home, with only eight acres left in the Northern Rhône by 1965. Although plantings were intermixed with syrah on the slopes of Côte-Rôtie, viognier was a highly specialised grape variety and almost solely linked to Condrieu and Château- Grillet, the latter of which is distinguished by having its own sole appellation, Château-Grillet AOC. At one stage, the vineyard was about the same size as Romanée-Conti in Burgundy, about four and a half acres. Although it is possible that viognier had been brought out earlier to Australia, the CSIRO at Merbein imported it in 1968, and by 1980, Yalumba Nurseries supplied vinestock for a new vineyard planting in the Eden Valley. This became the first viognier vineyard in Australia and the source block of Yalumba Virgilius viognier, now widely regarded as the local benchmark for this variety. Viognier was also planted by Bails Myer of Elgee Park in the Mornington Peninsula in 1981. He obtained his cuttings from the CSIRO with the assistance of Dr Allan Antcliff, who led the quarantine and plant breeding program of viognier, which was originally sourced from Montpellier, France. The Riverina district is particularly susceptible to natural infections of botrytis cinerea, also known as noble rot, a mould that, given the right conditions, will grow on grapes. As the mould grows, hyphae (filaments) shrivel the fruit, concentrating the juice, increasing viscosity, and imparting new flavour characteristics. The spores need approximately 10 hours of humidity to start infecting the grapes. In the 1980s, this fortuitous environment saw the unlikely beginning of premium dessert wine production in the Riverina district of New South Wales. Inspired by the 1958 McWilliam’s Pedro Ximenez Dessert Wine, Darren De Bortoli made his first trial botrytis-style wine in 1981, using the same grape variety. By 1982, as the region suffered economic hardship, many growers left their fruit on the vines. When some of the growers heard about De Bortoli harvesting rotten grapes, they were reportedly aghast but later started delivering to him their own botrytised grapes, not quite believing their luck. . . .
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