Summary
A warm, dry year with average growing season rainfall and a wet January and April, produced very good red wines tending to a lighter style.
In 1963 there were 7,174 hectares of vineyards in Barossa and 22,203 tonnes of wine grapes were crushed in that vintage.
Highlights
A year of very low production in SA with only 60% of the yield in 1962. In the Barossa hail and strong winds in the Eden Valley-Springton area had a profound effect on fruit set.
Airbag presses were first introduced at Hardy’s Siegersdorf providing a lift in wine quality.
The first refrigeration was installed at Leo Buring – a 20 tonne Werner ammonia compressor and a Gasquet two tube ultra-cooler. This replaced evaporative water sprays on the outside of steel transport tanks as the only form of fermentation cooling.
Leo Buring won its first gold medals for Riesling at the Adelaide and Melbourne Shows.
Penfolds and the Australian Wine Research Institute conducted malolactic fermentation trials in bulk red wine fermentation and maturation.
Sources
SA Wine Grape Crush Survey, Vinehealth Australia and ‘Barossa Vintages: a wine history from 1842’, Peter Fuller
