I visited the "granite" belt about 15 years ago, found the ambition there to be much the same as the ambition of the early Hunter.

Diversity, I hope it hasn't changed. The corporate where all taste the same is so boring.
The potential for the granite vines were great, then the vines were soo young, twaze easy to evaluate their potential though.

reminded me of the Hunter wines after there rebirth in the sixties, young and energetic. Sorry about the "energetic" bit but it describes
young wine in my mind best. The wine tasted then, was as young as the girl who served it, bright and feisty. Not yet the sophisticate. As previously stated here in the riverland it is all so "the same" high alcohol and no subtlety.
fluff

Although not great and far from sophisticated wine drinkers my wife and I have enjoyed the odd bottle over the years. An old favorite used to be the Wolf Blass cab/savs. The Yellow Label as the normal safe option and the grey or even black for special occasions. We hadn't had one in nearly a decade but this month saw a Yellow make its way into the shopping.

To our surprise this usually 'safe' wine was very, very, ordinary, but trying to be fair we tried another from a different vendor with the same disappointing result.

It was rubbish and Mr Pilger's article seems to offer a reasonable explanation for this noticeable drop in quality.

However I would think further experimentation is called for in order to ascertain if there is indeed an overall decline in the majority of Australia's best known reds.

My wife and I are willing to shoulder that burden. We will report back in due course.

Cheers.