For those who have a love of historical minutiae this is the 24th newsletter in this format and the 28th if we count the earlier, more primitive and simplistic forms. During that time there have been many changes in this industry, some good and some bad.
Firstly there was the explosion of new vineyards and new wineries. This brought with it the entry of the big boys into the valley. Despite their claims of teaching the local ‘turkeys’ (sic) how to make wine, little improvement on the quality of the established smaller wineries’ wines was evident.
This view was reinforced only recently when myself, Peter McMahon, (Seville Est.) Reg Egan (Wantirna Est.)and Guill de Pury (Yeringberg) all representing wineries established more than 30 years ago were asked to show some old wines to about 90 visiting sommeliers, writers and others and sing for our suppers.Those wines certainly gave more recent wineries a few benchmarks.
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