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If one were to compare viticultural maps of Australia in 1890 and 1990 they would look much the same, but the fortunes of wine producers fluctuated wildly between those dates. Phylloxera had arrived in Geelong, Victoria, in 1875 and caused wholesale destruction throughout that state (though, mercifully, not in others). The great bank crash and depression of 1893 affected the whole of the wine industry; as did the abolition of interstate taxes following the federation of states in 1901. It was now much easier for producers to sell their wines in other states, greatly aiding South Australia's expanding wine industry - based on the Riverlands area and the Barossa Valley - which was also stimulated by a growing demand for fortified wines, particularly from Victorian Britain.
Fortified wines dominated the market at the expense of other wine styles until the 1960s, when table wines became more popular, though quality was poor. From then on ' a number of factors helped shape the industry into what it is today, not
least of which were the development of a high degree of technical expertise and the increased planting of Cabernet Sauvignon (from 1960) and Chardonnay (from 1970) in response to a greater demand for quality wines. Literally hundreds of small wineries were established, led by Dr Max Lake at Lake's Folly, New South Wales, in 1963. He was followed by a veritable flood of doctors, lawyers and businessmen and women who started weekend or retirement wineries, covering a range of terroirs and climatic zones as diverse as that found from Champagne to Languedoc.
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