Australian Town and Country Journal at KellyGang 1/4/1871
The Vintage in the Southern Districts.
ACCORDING to the Banner, the vintage in some of the Albury vineyards has been already commenced, but near Albury grapes are not yet ripe enough ; but next week, if the weather holds fair, will see a commencement made by most of the vignerons. There will be comparatively little made this year, a considerable quantity of fruit having rotted from the excessive wet of the earlier parts of the season. This is particularly the case in the dark varieties, such as Muscat, Malbec, and others, but where this rot has not appeared the crop is everywhere looking magnificent, and a fine sample of wine, is expected.
The oidium is generally admitted to have shown itself unmistakably near Wahgunyah and Corowa, and we have now received a specimen of the disease from a vineyard within seven miles of Albury. The symptoms of this specimen of fruit and leaves precisely correspond with the published descriptions, but to make sure of the matter we took the advice of a gentleman who became thoroughly well acquainted with the disease in the Hunter River vineyards, and ho at once declared the specimens to be affected with the true oidium. It is to be hoped that the vignerons will take this as a caution to be prepared for the application of the sulphur treatment next year if it should be necessary.
At present the disease seems to have appeared too late in the season to do much harm. The yield of wine will be the largest the district has yet produced, but from the moisture of the season, the quality, it is to be feared, will be inferior. At Mr Macleay's fine vine yard an immense quantity of wine will be made for the first time. The appliances here are all of the latest and most approved character, and a good deal of curiosity will be felt when the time comes to test the quality of a wine destined, we hope, to become famous under the Lake Albert brand.
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