Summary
A hot, dry year with growing season rainfall well below average (despite a wet April), 1961 produced some very good red wines.
Highlights
Kaiser Stuhl introduced a hermetically sealed continuous centrifuge, the first large automatic desludging centrifuge.
Hermann Paul Leopold (Leo) Buring died aged 86. Leo Buring Holdings Ltd (a public company) was taken over by Lindeman Holdings the following year.
Penfolds introduced its first Rosé labelled “Vin Rosé”.
Wolfgang Blass arrives at Kaiser Stuhl in his green Volkswagen to oversee the creation of a new wine Sparkling Rhinegolde.
Sources
SA Wine Grape Crush Survey, Vinehealth Australia and ‘Barossa Vintages: a wine history from 1842’, Peter Fuller