Australian wine – at the crossroads (2001)

Here is a chilling statistic: of the vineyards owned by BRL Hardy, one of the four companies that dominate Australian wine production, only seven per cent are more than seven years old. And another revealing nugget of information from Steve Pannell, one of the most cosmopolitan and thoughtful of the winemakers working for Australia's big companies today: a full 56 per cent of all the fruit grown in the McLaren Vale region where he is based, a region capable of producing some really fine wine, is not good enough to go into bottles retailing at more than 15 dollars in...