2009 and the world is a very different place. The economic turbulence currently affecting the UK and much of the world is being felt in all corners of the global wine world so where better to travel to in January than Australia!
I'm currently in Adelaide where the temperature rose to 46 degrees today and was the third highest temperature ever recorded in the city. Throughout Australia the heat is rising for vine growers and winemakers as they realise that the combination of a rapidly declining economic outlooks and a huge oversupply of wine is crippling the industry.
Here in South Australia the effects are far reaching as wineries try to clear stocks prior to harvest. Though this provides opportunities for enterprising wine merchants ( such as myself who is in Australia at exactly the time many are in the UK for the Aussie tastings), the long term effects of the current crisis are deeply worrying. Already there is much talk of huge amounts of fruit not being picked due to over supply and low prices. This may well lead to many warm climate irrigated vineyards being left to die - this is a sad sight but the shortage of economic warm climate fruit that may result in the future could provide wild price spikes in the coming vintages.
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