Drought Threatens Australia's Grape Crop

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Sep 25th 2007 at 12:02PM

Last year the news was all about Australia's wine glut and vineyards dumping their harvests. This year the situation is much different, Australia's wine grape harvest next year could be cut by more than half because of the worst drought in a century. In the U.S. it is currently harvest season but in Australia the harvest is still months away. Still there is reason to be concerned because yields will be done in regions that rely on irrigation water from the Murray-Darling Basin. The Wine Grape Growers Australia executive director Mark McKenzie has said between 800 and 1,000 of the nation's wine grape growers could be at risk of going out of business because they cannot buy water. The news comes as Australian wine exports have reached record numbers.

Tags: australia, grapes, harvest, vineyard, wine