Australia’s record floods have spread to one of the nation’s
leading wine regions. Authorities have told 9,000 residents of
the state of Victoria to evacuate dozens of towns as floods
threaten one quarter of the state. Growers estimate that about
20 percent of the area’s wine grape crop has been destroyed by
heavy rain and flooding. With harvest just weeks away,
winemakers across southeastern Australia are expressing
widespread concern over possible fungal diseases triggered by
the extreme summer rainfall. Less than one week after La Niña-
triggered floods swept through Queensland, inundating 17,000
homes, record rainfall in Victoria spawned its own floodwaters.
The winegrowing regions of Grampians, Great Western and Pyrenees
in the western part of the state were hardest hit. Workers had
put up sand bags at Mount Avoca winery in the Pyrenees when the
water broke the banks of a dam. “We have lost all of our
Cabernet and about half of the rest of the vineyard,” said
director Matthew Barry. He feared that disease