The heat goes on Oz wines

Pikes Clare Valley Traditionale Dry Riesling 2007. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Smoke still hangs thick in the air on my visit to the Yarra Valley over a week after bushfires devastated swathes of the region. As the harvest kicks off, many wineries are working around scorched, and in some cases completely razed, vineyards and winery buildings, with the recent catastrophe and the heatwave that helped fuel it making global warming a hot topic in these parts.

At least two wineries were destroyed in the Yarra Valley and Heathcote regions, and many estates lost hectares of vines. It's also feared the clouds of smoke engulfing the region could have imparted a bitter taste to the wines from this vintage through smoke taint.

The Yarra had already recently been forced to sharply revise its expectations of the size of this year's harvest after record-breaking temperatures hit the district. In this once "cool climate" region, four days in a row of temperatures over 40C literally burnt grapes on the vine, the heatwave wreaking havoc across many of Australia's southeastern wine regions where some vineyards report their crops shrivelled by half.

Eleven of the past 12 years have been Australia's warmest on record. Already the driest inhabited continent on Earth, southeastern parts of the country are also in the throes of an apparently unprecedented long-term drought. This has already resulted in major water shortages that have placed in the balance the viability of some of the warmer inland irrigated regions responsible for much of the country's high volume wines.

Those with their glasses half full say this smaller harvest should at least bring demand back in sync with supply this year. Not a heartening thought for those trying to tough it out in Australia's wine industry, which has been hit by falling exports on top of weather woes.

The export boom that kicked off in the mid-nineties, instigating an explosion in vineyard plantings by those wanting their piece of Australia's then-lucrative wine action, has been running out of steam in recent years. Export figures released this year show volumes down by 9 per cent and value plunging by 17 per cent as bottle prices slip in these times of surplus.

With Australia now generally making more wine than it can sell, downsizing is its logical next step. It's hoped that if Australia refocuses on premium cooler climate regional wines and moves away from bargain bulk blends there could still be a healthy future for the industry.

Australia's wine map may just look a bit different. If predictions prove true that the country's temperatures will rise between 2 to 4C this century and droughts become far more frequent, cooler sites will have to be sought out and different grape varieties planted.

"It is disconcerting given we're a region planted with cool climate varieties," says Andrew Santarossa of the Yarra Valley's Domaine Chandon. "Places that were good for pinot may become better suited to cabernet and sites that were once marginal for grape growing, such as the Upper Yarra, may well become important fruit growing regions."

As the Yarra Valley pulls together to get through its most challenging harvest ever, it's a reminder that Australians are a resilient bunch largely determined to weather the next chapter in their winegrowing history, whatever Mother Nature may throw at them.

Cool picks in hot times

Cool climate class

Domaine Chandon Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2007 $27.95
After over a decade of experimentation, this year saw the New Zealand launch of the first wave of still wines from Australian sparkling specialist, Domaine Chandon. Its elegant standard chardonnay shows racy notes of citrus, green apple, mineral and the lightest lick of oak. Let's hope the climate keeps cool enough to retain the potential to produce wines of this class.
(From Caro's.)

Light and lovely

Brown Brothers South East Australian Moscato 2008 $16.99
Soft, sweet and spritzy, Brown Brother's latest vintage of moscato delivers the variety's classic grapey fruit - muscat being one of the only varieties to make wines that actually taste of grapes rather than other fruit - along with delicate notes of honeysuckle, ginger and fresh lemon, at the refreshingly low alcohol level of 5.5 per cent. Fab with pav.
(From Woolworths, Foodtown, Countdown, New World, Pak n Save, Liquorland.)

Fresh and fruity

Pikes Clare Valley Traditionale Dry Riesling 2007 $27.85
Some of Australia's best rieslings hail from the Clare Valley, with Pikes producing a wonderfully fresh and intense example. Its crunchy core of lime and green apple is augmented by notes of mineral, with toasty and honeyed nuances just starting to develop from some time in bottle.
(From Cactus Liquor, Blend, Caro's, Don Johnson's, First Glass, Milford Cellars, Primo Vino, Hamilton Wine Company.)