1974 vintage guide for Red Australia

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A disastrous vintage with very few exceptions

1/5

Weather Conditions

Simply a disastrous vintage for Australian red wine, with perhaps but a single exception. One of the wettest growing seasons on record continued wet and cold throughout ripening and harvest in most regions, causing substantial crop losses to disease and remaining fruit to be harvested in appalling condition.

Best Appellations

No significant wine region managed to escape one of the most forgettable vintages in Australian history.

Best Producers

And the exception? An astonishing wine from Virgin Hills, a tiny vineyard largely planted to red Bordeaux varieties, but also to some Shiraz, and located in what has since become the Macedon Ranges region of Victoria.