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Australia

Introduction to Australia
Wine Australia: The Label Integrity Program and Geographical Indications
Technology in Viticulture and Winemaking
South Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Western Australia
Tasmania
Queensland

Introduction to Australia

In 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip landed the First Fleet, eleven ships whose passengers included British soldiers, convicts, and a few free settlers, along the coastline of Botany Bay, just eight miles south of the modern-day Sydney Central Business District. Captain Phillip founded the penal colony of New South Wales and its capital, the city of Sydney—Australia’s first permanent European settlement. Prior to landfall in Australia, the First Fleet stopped for supplies—including vine cuttings—at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and the British planted vines near Sydney upon landing in 1788. This original vineyard bore fruit three years later but did not last. In its earliest days as a penal colony, Australia suffered from little winemaking expertise, and advances in viticulture were slow. Nonetheless, the vine (a non-native plant) spread from New South Wales to Tasmania in 1823, and from Tasmania to South Australia by 1837 and to Victoria in 1838. In the Swan River Colony of Western Australia, settlers planted the first vineyard in 1830. Free immigrants arrived in Australia throughout the 1830s and 1840s from all corners of Europe, and brought winemaking traditions with them. Some of today’s most famous names arose as small family-owned wineries in this period, including Lindeman’s (1843), Penfolds (1844), Orlando Wines (1847), and Yalumba (1849). In the 1850s, the promise of gold lured even greater droves of European immigrants to southeastern Australia, and interest in winemaking burgeoned.

Boom days for gold equaled boom days for wine, particularly in the gold-rich colony of Victoria, which asserted itself as Australia’s largest producer of wine by the 1870s. However, as the easily extractable surface and stream deposits of gold depleted, many prospectors followed, and domestic demand for wine fell. Lowered demand, coupled with restrictive state trade barriers, led some producers to export to survive, whereas others remained small and localized—a division that exists, in exacerbated form, to this day. Economic recession and phylloxera befell Australia in the latter half of the 19th century and further harmed the industry, but colonial officials took strict and immediate measures to combat the spread of phylloxera, confining it to Victoria and a small foothold near Sydney. The root louse ravaged the Victorian wine industry, yet its successful containment elsewhere rewarded modern Australia with some of the world’s oldest surviving vines and allowed South Australia to surge ahead of Victoria in production. South Australia’s position was further bolstered with the federation of six Australian colonies—South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania—as an independent commonwealth in 1901. Federation brought an end to restrictive interstate trade barriers and increased South Australia’s competitiveness in the larger urban markets of New South Wales and Victoria. In the early 1900s South Australia emerged as the top wine-producing state in Australia—a position it maintains to this day—and the center of the wine industry shifted to the Barossa and the newly irrigated areas surrounding the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers. Australia’s focus in these warmer regions turned to fortified wine production.

From the post-phylloxera period until the 1960s, approximately 80% of Australia’s production consisted of sweet, fortified wines. They remained in the majority until 1970, but momentum was building for dry table wines. Fortified wines slid to less than 40% of total wine production in 1972, and by 2011 they accounted for less than 0.02% of the total harvest. During that same period, total annual production increased fourfold, surpassing one billion liters of wine by the 2001 harvest. A surge in quality at the lowest level, coupled with the adoption of new technologies, changing consumer preferences, skyrocketing domestic consumption and new interest abroad, brought Australia to the forefront globally by the close of the last century. The new stars were Chardonnay and Shiraz (Syrah), a traditional variety which—despite the minor hiccup of a 1980s vine-pull scheme that saw many of Barossa’s oldest vineyards destroyed—easily and successfully transitioned into the new era of varietal wines. The value-priced Australian varietal wines of the last decades of the 20th century were fruity, soft, and technically sound at a time when many similarly priced bottlings from the Old World were poorly made, and they enjoyed great success in the UK and the US (two of Australia’s top export markets). By 2003 Australia’s gross annual wine sales reached 4.5 billion Australian dollars, a target the Australians had conservatively set for 2025. “Brand Australia” offered a friendly gateway into wine for new consumers in the 1990s and early 2000s, and the country rocketed forward to become the fourth-largest wine exporter in terms of volume (behind Italy, Spain, and France), surpassing three billion dollars in exports in 2007. As of 2018, over 35% of Australia's exports by value go to China, making it Australia's largest export market (by value).

Australia’s newfound successes were not restricted to the “cheap and cheerful” entry-level category. Back in the mid-century, when Australia was still churning out a majority of sweet, fortified wines, winemakers like Maurice O’Shea in Hunter Valley and Max Schubert in Adelaide had a different vision in mind. O’Shea founded Mt. Pleasant in Hunter in 1925 and produced some of Australia’s first wines labeled by variety during his three-decade tenure as winemaker, despite tepid local interest. Schubert worked from 1948 to 1975 as Chief Winemaker for Penfolds, with whom he introduced the Shiraz-based “Grange Hermitage” in the 1951 vintage. The wine was originally panned by both critics and the company’s own management, but its star rose. Known simply as “Grange” from 1990 forward, Schubert’s creation became Australia’s first truly collectible wine, and today stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the great wines of the world. Unlike many of its luxury-class peers, “Grange” is not the expression of a single site but rather a selection of the best grapes from a number of the company’s vineyards. This is a testament to the nature of the wine business in Australia, wherein production had become concentrated in the cellars of a few large wine companies, who could blend from vast resources across regions and state lines to create a consistent, desired wine style. For some, this philosophy remains congruous from the base level all the way to the top. But not every icon wine in Australia is the product of multi-regional blending; in fact, Australian wine at the highest level is more vineyard-focused now than at any point in the country’s history. Many single vineyard wines—such as “Hill of Grace” Shiraz, first produced by Henschke in 1958—have arisen to manifest venerable single sites left untouched by phylloxera. With breakout vintages in 1990, 1991, and 1998, “Grange” and “Hill of Grace” led the charge, racking up points and ratcheting up prices. Langton’s, Australia’s leading wine auction house, created its “Classification of Australian Wine” in 1990 to detail top-performing, investment-grade Australian wines. The classification, now in its seventh installment, includes in its “Exceptional” category the abovementioned wines, along with Penfolds “Bin 707” Cabernet Sauvignon, Leeuwin Estate “Art Series” Chardonnay, Rockford “Basket Press” Shiraz, Brokenwood "Graveyard" Shiraz, Chris Ringland Shiraz, Clarendon Hills "Astralis" Shiraz, Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir, Cullen “Diana Madeline” Cabernet-Merlot, Giaconda Chardonnay, Grosset "Polish Hill" Riesling, Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Mary “Quintet” Cabernet blend, Torbreck "RunRig" Shiraz, Clonakilla Shiraz-Viognier, Wendouree Shiraz, Best's Great Western "Thompson Family" Shiraz, Henschke's "Mount Edelstone" Shiraz, Jim Barry's "The Armagh" Shiraz, Seppeltsfield "100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny", and Wynns Coonawarra Estate "John Riddoch" Cabernet Sauvignon.

With surging exports and domestic consumption, lavish critical praise, a strong base of quality and efficiency, and a bevy of varietal offerings, the future looked very bright indeed for Australian wines in the mid-2000s. However, problems for the industry loomed. Many of the country’s southeastern winemaking regions were gripped by severe, decade-long drought, affecting the 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 vintages and leading to questions about the long-term sustainability of vineyard irrigation in the driest climates. Only with 2010’s substantial rainfall did drought conditions, which began as early as 1995, cease for many winegrowing regions in Victoria and South Australia. Drought is cyclical in Australia, and lengthy periods of low rainfall have been recorded throughout the 19th and 20th centuries; however, the greater scale of the modern wine industry takes a heavy toll on finite water resources, and some question the role of climate change in the augmentation of drought severity. On the other side of the business, changing economic conditions have damaged exports, cleaving a third from Australia’s 2007 all-time high as total wine exports dropped below two billion dollars by 2011. (The per-liter price of exports fell even earlier, peaking in 2001.) The 2008 economic recession in the US and Europe hit Australian producers hard: the Australian dollar gained value against US and European currencies, driving export prices up and reducing Australian wineries’ ability to compete in the global market. In the face of the global financial crisis, interest in Australian super-premium wines abroad evaporated, with the rapidly expanding Chinese market offering the best hope for immediate recovery. In the long run, Australia’s troubles with drought may actually serve to regulate its oversupply, reigning in vineyard expansion and cutting down on the sudden excess of wine.

Just as worrying, however, is Australia’s damaged reputation—particularly in the US market. Australian labels still line US supermarket shelves, but American consumers appear less charmed by the innumerable “critter” labels birthed Down Under in the early 2000s. Movement at the top is suffering as well, as many of the cult stars of the late '90s are now struggling to recoup demand. Concentration—from old vines, from ripe fruit, from oak, and from winemaking treatment—seduced influential American critics in the 1990s, and many wineries seemed equally captivated by their suddenly extravagant scoring. Alcohol levels in Australia—and in the Barossa Valley in particular—rose to match critical infatuation with “power.” Wines were tailored to the formula, and were generously rewarded by critics. But tougher economic times, coupled with sommelier interest in lighter, more elegant styles, has left some of these abrupt stars abruptly gathering dust on US shelves. The truly iconic wines of Australia will continue to sell, and the backlash against yesteryear’s oversized, disproportionate wine styles has actually led to some soul-searching amongst the country’s winemakers. In many Australian regions, styles have shifted significantly in the span of the last decade, and—despite a beleaguered reputation—Australia is entering a new era of diversity, drinkability, and exciting wines.

Australia is currently the seventh-largest producer of wine in the world. Of the six states that compose the Commonwealth of Australia, three—South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria—were responsible for about 97% of the crush in 2019. Western Australia produces most of the remainder, with Tasmania and Queensland accounting for less than 1% each. In 2019, the latter two combined states produced approximately nine million liters of wine, whereas South Australia alone produced over 500 million liters. The top five varieties in the country today, in order of planting, are: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Semillon. Chardonnay, which roared to life in the last decades of the 20th century and fetched higher prices in the late 1980s than top red grapes, was Australia’s third-most planted variety, but it reached its apex of 32,000 hectares in 2007 and has slid significantly since then.

Note: In the export markets of Europe and the US, Australian vintage-dated wines always appear on shelves before Northern Hemisphere wines, as the harvest occurs six months earlier in the wine-producing countries of the Southern Hemisphere.

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Wine Australia: The Label Integrity Program and Geographical Indications

Wine Australia, a government authority established in 1981 as the Australia Wine and Brandy Corporation, maintains oversight over the wine industry, regulating its label language, defining geographical boundaries of wine regions, moderating exports and trade, and promoting the product at home and abroad. It introduced the Label Integrity Program for the 1990 vintage, requiring any wines labeled by variety, vintage, or region to contain a minimum 85% of the stated grape, year, or region, respectively. If multiple varieties are to be listed on the label (i.e., Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre) the grapes must be listed in order of proportion in the blend. All components making up a minimum 85% of the blend must appear on the label, and no listed grape may be in lower proportion than an unnamed variety.

In 1993 the Australian government signed an agreement with the EU to prohibit the use of European geographical names on Australian labels, and in turn Australian wine producers gained greater access to European markets. Some lesser-used geographical names, like Chianti and Madeira, were phased out by 1997; other more popular names, like Sherry and Tokay, were subject to further negotiations. In order to protect European place names, however, Australia first needed to devise a framework for their own appellations. Thus, the existing Wine and Brandy Corporation Act of 1980 was substantially amended to define Geographical Indications (GIs) and create a Geographical Indications Committee, responsible for determining which regions should be placed on a new Register of Protected Names. The Australian appellation system was born, and the first GIs rolled out in 1994. As in other New World countries, Australia’s GIs are purely geographic in scope, with no restrictions on grape varieties, yields, or other viticultural techniques. The broadest Geographical Indications—apart from the countrywide Australia GI itself—are states, followed by zones, regions, and sub-regions. Regions and sub-regions are defined by Wine Australia as single tracts of land, comprising at least five independently owned vineyards of at least five hectares apiece, with a minimum annual output of 500 tonnes of wine grapes. Regions are not necessarily contained within a single zone, nor are zones necessarily contained within a single state. In 1996 Wine Australia responded to EU laws requiring varietal wines to bear a specific region on the label by authorizing the multistate zone of South Eastern Australia, which encompasses all of Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales, along with the winegrowing areas of South Australia and Queensland. This huge zone became the GI of choice for many a mass-market varietal wine, and gave Australian producers a huge competitive advantage in European supermarkets in the era prior to EU table wine law reforms of 2009.

In 2008, the EU and Australia signed a new agreement establishing immediate legal protection for the most entrenched European Geographical Indications and Traditional Expressions in Australia. From 2011 onward Australian producers were barred from using European GIs like Burgundy, Champagne, Sherry, and Port; and Traditional Expressions like Claret and Amontillado. Shiraz could henceforth no longer be labeled as its traditional Australian synonym “Hermitage.” Some expressions, such as Tawny, Solera, and Icewine, were reaffirmed for use under the new agreement, but the hotly contested “Tokay,” used by Rutherglen producers for more than a century, will be finally phased out by 2020. The loss of old terms is a catalyst for replacements: Tokay becomes Topaque and Sherry becomes Apera, an all-too-Australian play on “aperitif.”

Map of Australian GI zones, courtesy of Wine Australia

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Technology in Viticulture and Winemaking

Technical proficiency has played a large role in Australia’s emergence as a mass-market wine powerhouse. The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and the Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), both based in Adelaide, have contributed greatly to the nation’s scientific understanding of the grape, and the University of Adelaide has an acclaimed oenology program. Australian winemakers rose to the forefront of viticultural innovation, utilizing modern techniques of canopy management and high-tech soil mapping, and they have spread their winemaking acumen across the globe as “flying winemakers”—a term that originated in reference to Australians. Emphasis on winery hygiene has been paramount in modern Australian winemaking; indeed, in the battle against wine spoilage it was AWRI scientists who successfully sequenced the genome for Dekkera bruxellensis (Brettanomyces) in 2011. Teams from the same organization discovered the relationship between the sesquiterpene rotundone and the peppery smell of Syrah, and have contributed in many different areas of wine science, from deepening understanding of smoke taint—a major issue in wildfire-prone Australia—to the development of commercial yeast strains that produce undetectable levels of hydrogen sulfide. Of course, many of the same innovative technological advancements for which Australia can be proud also render it susceptible to criticisms that the country—which has so successfully exported its scientific understanding—bears some responsibility for the “globalization” of wine.

…build me that machine, and we’ll get to the stage of seeing how far we can go to eliminating labour in the vineyard.

– Bob Hollick, former Vineyard Director for Mildara Wines in Coonawarra, in a 2003 interview with Rob Linn (courtesy State Library of South Australia)

The Australian vineyard is a highly mechanized one. Lacking a large population and a source of cheap labor, Australia’s vintners adopted mechanical harvesting in the 1970s and have increasingly relied on it, with vineyards planted accordingly, on flat or gently sloping sites rather than unworkable hillsides. Mechanical harvests often occur at night to preserve freshness and acidity, and they are far more economical than manual harvests, which are generally reserved for top wines only. Tasks such as hedging, fruit thinning, and pruning are also often carried out by machine. Mechanical pruning saves a significant amount of time and money on a vineyard task that is generally second only to harvesting in cost. In fact, in the 1980s it became increasingly popular in Australia not to prune at all, really. The concept of minimal pruning, developed by CSIRO in the 1970s, relies on a vine’s natural self-discipline over time to keep its growth in check, and growers are essentially freed from winter pruning tasks. This technique gained widespread acceptance in many warmer areas, and in South Australia's Coonawarra region, where it has been more recently recast as a culpable party in lackluster wine quality.

As Australians have wholeheartedly adopted vineyard mechanization, they have also pioneered sophisticated techniques of irrigation. Irrigation in the extremely dry climates of Australia is usually essential, and viticulture in the country’s largest regions of production along the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers would never have been possible without it. Wasteful techniques of flood and spray irrigation were replaced by more efficient drip systems from the 1960s forward, and the Australians, ever adept at moisture management, developed the restrictive irrigation techniques of regulated deficit irrigation (RDI) and partial rootzone drying (PRD) for the grapevine in the '80s and '90s, improving berry quality while reducing water usage. RDI creates water stress during certain key periods of the vine’s development by lowering the total amount of applied irrigation water. By utilizing RDI after fruit set, vineyard managers could limit vegetative growth while enhancing fruit coloration and restricting berry size, and it is thus particularly useful for red wine grapes. However, water deficit may lower yield, and negatively impact the development of aromatic varieties by slowing the accumulation of monoterpenes in the ripening grapes. RDI provides only marginal water use savings, and lower water use efficiency. PRD, on the other hand, reduces total water use by up to 50% by alternating the application of drip irrigation from one side of a vine row to the other, keeping half of the rootzone irrigated and half dry. PRD may accomplish many of the same results in terms of heightened grape quality, but it does not greatly affect yield. In the driest inhabited continent on earth, where periods of drought seem increasingly debilitating, PRD is quickly becoming a favored means of significant water usage reduction, and it makes positive economic and qualitative sense. However, studies on both techniques continue, and the precise effects both techniques have on grape and wine quality is still a matter of robust debate.

In the winery, Australia has earned a reputation for producing clean, “correct” wines that emphasize varietal fruit in soft, supple frames. While any attempt to define a homogenous Australian style creates untenable generalizations, at the basic commercial level these attributes—clean, soft, fruit-forward—are positive achievements, and modern winemakers in Australia incorporate a wealth of winemaking knowledge and technique to create wines of such character. Fruit character is preserved through cool white wine fermentations (in the 50-60° F range) and moderate red wine fermentations (in the 70-80° F range). Cleanliness is maintained via judicious sulfur dioxide additions and sterile filtration. Oak chips are common at the basic level. Achieving sugar ripeness in Australia’s largest regions is never a worry, and chaptalization is illegal throughout the country. Acidification with tartaric acid, on the other hand, is legal and is assuredly incorporated at the basic level and generally practiced for premium warm climate wines, from Rutherglen Muscat to Barossa Shiraz. However, as Australian cool climate winemakers are moving pick dates forward and preserving natural acidity, the need for acidification in such regions is lessened, if not entirely abrogated. In general, tart fruit acidity is viewed as a virtue by Australian palates, and tartaric additions reflect this. Other winemaking techniques—cultured yeasts, micro-oxygenation, exogenous tannin must additions, deepened extraction via rotofermenters, alcohol reduction through reverse osmosis—are all in play, but for the sommelier interested in modern Australian wines with a sense of place, these techniques are no more (or less) common than in any other part of the wine world.

Lastly, Australia has led the way forward in wine packaging alternative technology: Australians developed bag-in-the-box technology in the 1960s, and they were early and avid proponents of the screwcap closure. The first truly premium wines to be released under screwcap anywhere in the world issued from a group of producers in Australia’s Clare Valley, in 2000. Australian wine critic, James Halliday, reported that in 2013 99% of all Australian white table wine (regardless of price) and 98.8% of its red table wines under $20 was closed under screwcap. Even Australia’s most ageworthy red wines—with the notable exception of “Grange”—are generally bottled under screwcap closures today, and winemakers and consumers alike have seemingly lost any sense of romance with cork. Only the importance of the Chinese export market, wherein consumers may outpace even Europeans in their disdain of alternative closures, keeps wine producers in Australia from abandoning natural cork completely.

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South Australia

Capital: Adelaide

South Australia (SA), a free colony, usurped Victoria’s position as the country’s center of wine production after phylloxera crippled the Victorian industry in the late 1800s. SA managed to avoid phylloxera despite ruin in neighboring Victoria’s vineyards by quickly implementing a total ban on imported vine material in 1874. South Australia cemented its role as the “wine state” following the cessation of interstate trade duties in 1901—which brought SA wines into the population centers of Victoria and New South Wales at competitive prices—and the development of irrigation districts in the Riverland region along the Murray River. In the late 1940s, SA produced more than three-quarters of Australia’s wine, although this figure has declined with the resurgence of the Victorian wine industry and the rise of other irrigated viticultural regions along the Murray in both Victoria and New South Wales. Today, South Australia remains completely phylloxera-free, and SA wine production hovers near 50% of the national total. Many of the country’s largest wine groups, such as Accolade Wines and Premium Wine Brands (Pernod Ricard), are headquartered in SA. The state is divided into eight zones, with production concentrated in the lower southeastern sector of the state. Much of the arid Far North zone, which covers the entire northern portion of the state, is not suitable for any kind of agriculture. Despite clustered viticultural activity in a relatively small sector of the state, the southeastern regions are homogenous in neither climate nor character, and a range of grapes and styles exists.

The Adelaide Super Zone: Barossa, Fleurieu, and Mount Lofty Ranges

The Adelaide Super Zone surrounds the coastal city of the same name, and includes warm plains along the Gulf of St. Vincent coastline, where summer water temperatures can be 7-8° F higher than those off the southern Victorian coast, and the cooler low mountains of the Mount Lofty Ranges further inland. It encompasses three zones, various climates and significant changes in elevation, so there is little to link its diverse fruit sources save for the marketing trick of labeling the wine as “Adelaide,” which rarely appears on labels anyway. But the numerous regions the super zone comprises represent the centerpiece of South Australian winemaking; with the exception of Coonawarra, all of the state’s most important premium winemaking GIs—Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, McLaren Vale, and Clare Valley—are within it.

Barossa Zone

Barossa is South Australia’s single most important winemaking zone. Named for a Spanish battlefield in the Napoleonic Wars, the Barossa was largely carved up among wealthy—and frequently teetotaler—English landowners in the 1830s, but populated in 1842 by German-speaking Prussian Lutherans fleeing religious persecution in their home country (and only too happy to plant vines). In 1842 Lutherans founded Bethany, the first European settlement in the valley, and in 1847 Bavarian immigrant Johann Gramp planted a vineyard along the banks of Jacob’s Creek in Rowland Flat, establishing Orlando Wines, the region’s first commercial winery and the company behind the modern “Jacob’s Creek” brand. The Barossa zone has over 100 ha of vines that are at least a century old, including the world’s oldest Syrah/Shiraz vines (Langmeil’s “Freedom” vineyard, planted in 1843), and what are presumably the world’s oldest Grenache and Mataro/Mourvèdre vines as well: Cirillo owns a three-hectare parcel of Grenache planted in 1850, and Hewitson produces Mataro from the Koch family’s “Old Garden” of vines dating to 1853. Australia’s oldest plot of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, Penfolds’ “Block 42,” lies in Kalimna in the northern Barossa Valley and dates to 1888. The wealth of phylloxera-free old vine resources in the Barossa is celebrated and codified in the Barossa Old Vine Charter, a self-regulated classification of vineyard age in the region. The Charter, based on a model developed internally by Yalumba, introduced four age categories: Old Vines (at least 35 years of age), Survivor Vines (at least 70 years of age), Centenarian Vines (at least 100 years old) and Ancestor Vines (at least 125 years old). Producers may use these designations on labels, provided vineyard sources meet the requisite age.

Barossa Valley GI

Zone: Barossa
Climate: Warm Continental
Degree Days (°C): 1710 (Region III)
Top Varieties: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache
Secondary Varieties: Chardonnay, Semillon

The Barossa zone is divided into two parallel valleys, Barossa Valley GI and Eden Valley GI. The Barossa Valley GI is the country’s largest fine wine region, and it is the fourth-largest region overall, falling in line behind the volume-driven regions of Riverland, Riverina, and Murray Darling. Barossa Valley is lower in elevation (100-300 meters above sea level) and daytime temperatures are typically two to three degrees (Celsius) warmer than in Eden Valley. The hot, flat Barossa Valley floor has deep, loamy clay soils and a plentiful reserve of underground water to accommodate irrigation during the region’s dry summers. In the past, fortified wines drove production in the region—a legacy retained in the wines of Seppeltsfield, whose world-class “100 Year Old Para Liqueur” is a national treasure—but Barossa Shiraz is its most famous product today. The grape is cultivated in over 50% of the GI’s vineyards, and the valley has more land dedicated to the grape than any other single region in Australia. The classic picture of Australian Shiraz—intense flavors of chocolate, prune and date, wrapped in velvety tannins and emboldened by high, mentholated alcohol levels, often in excess of 15%—was painted here. The region continues to produce Australia’s hottest and heaviest styles of Shiraz, sometimes verging on port-like concentration, mouthfeel and alcohol. Plantings of the grape skyrocketed on the Barossa Valley floor during the style’s boom in the 1990s, and Penfolds “Grange,” Australia’s most collectible red wine, is based on Barossa Shiraz, along with fruit from other regions. Other top Shiraz bottlings from the valley include Elderton’s “the Command,” and Torbreck’s “RunRig” and “The Laird”—the latter a micro-production wine first released in 2005 with a price tag surpassing even “Grange.” Sommeliers and many wine drinkers may be looking for restraint, but much of Barossa moves relentlessly forward, headstrong.

Looking westward over the Barossa Valley.

Not all Shiraz is made as a still wine—modern sparkling renditions are growing in popularity domestically, and they recall the (grand?) Australian tradition of “Sparkling Burgundy,” a fizzy red style dating to the end of the 19th century. Edmund Mazure produced Australia’s first Sparkling Burgundy in the Adelaide Hills in 1888—and his wine likely included at least some Shiraz—but the Victorian producer Great Western popularized the style. Sparkling reds shifted back to Barossa in the early 1970s, when Orlando Wines joined the “Cold Duck” fad, flooding the market with cheap, sweet, carbonated red wines. Today, Barossa has a number of sparkling Shiraz producers, and the method of production is fairly similar throughout their ranks. A base Shiraz is fermented to dryness and aged in oak prior to undergoing a second fermentation in tank—only a very few sparkling Shiraz wines are produced in the traditional method. Typically, sweetness is added through a small dosage of Australian Tawny, and most examples are at least semi-sweet in style. Sparkling Shiraz rarely earns more than a shrug among US sommeliers, but it can be a delightful Christmastime wine in Adelaide, and it fares well at the breakfast table, particularly with bacon-and-egg rolls—an Aussie “brekkie” favorite. For good examples, Rockford and Peter Rumball (who sources fruit from Coonawarra) are reputable sources.

Barossa Shiraz is the star, but other red varieties suited to warmer climates can perform well in the region’s heat. Cabernet Sauvignon, the second-most planted variety in the GI, ripens easily on the valley floor, and Grenache and Mataro can produce exciting varietal wines and GSM-style blends. White varieties tend to struggle. Chardonnay rapidly increased in acreage during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, but most winemakers today concede that it is best left to cooler climes. Semillon, however, performs surprisingly well on the Barossa Valley floor. When picked early enough, it can produce a wine of piercing acidity, echoing the low-alcohol, austere styles of the Lower Hunter Valley. Peter Lehmann’s “Margaret,” sourced from a 1929 Semillon vineyard, is a top example in the category.

In 1847—the same year that Johann Gramp planted his vineyard at Jacob’s Creek—an Englishman named Joseph Gilbert planted his Pewsey Vale vineyard in the windswept Barossa Ranges east of the Barossa Valley, and winemaking arrived in Eden Valley. In comparison with Barossa Valley, Eden Valley is cooler, higher in elevation (400-600 meters above sea level) and more sparsely planted: its rolling hills contain approximately one-fifth of the vineyard acreage of Barossa Valley, and sheep grazing is a much more common endeavor than viticulture. Water scarcity (and salinity) makes expansion unlikely. A thin layer of red clay colors the hills of Eden, and granite outcrops are everywhere. Stuart Blackwell, senior winemaker at St. Hallett, neatly sums up the valley’s poor, rocky, rough soils: “It shouldn’t be called Eden—it’s not the Garden of Eden.” Shiraz sourced from amongst these cooler, exposed hills assumes a different character than on the Barossa Valley floor, showing more elegance, spice, and red fruit character. The valley’s most famous Shiraz vineyard—Henschke’s eight-hectare Hill of Grace, planted in 1860—is the source of Australia’s top single vineyard wine, providing a site-specific counterpoint to the philosophy behind “Grange.” Many Shiraz wines labeled “Barossa” rather than "Barossa Valley" (signifying the zone rather than the region) include a dash of Eden Valley fruit for lift and acidity.

While nearly nine of ten grapevines on the Barossa Valley floor are red, red wines slightly outnumber whites in Eden Valley, and Riesling occupies over one-quarter of its vineyard real estate. A reminder of the area’s German heritage, Eden Riesling sits among the country’s most thrilling efforts with the grape; it is classically dry, sharply acidic, and dripping with lime flavor. Generally, the best examples of Riesling (and other white grapes) are produced in the cooler southern sectors of the GI, while the better Shiraz vineyards, like Henschke’s Hill of Grace and the 100-year-old Mt. Edelstone, tend to be further north. At over 500 meters above sea level, the most elevated and southernmost point in Eden Valley is the sub-region of High Eden GI, an area first championed in the 1970s by Mountadam, one of Australia’s pioneering producers of Chardonnay.

Gnadenberg Church, Hill of Grace, Eden Valley

Fleurieu Zone

McLaren Vale GI

Zone: Fleurieu
Climate: Warm Mediterranean (with substantial variation)
Degree Days (°C): 1910 (Region III)
Top Varieties: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache
Secondary Varieties: Chardonnay, Merlot

The McLaren Vale GI, bounded by the South Mt. Lofty Ranges to the east and the Gulf of St. Vincent to the west, is one of South Australia’s signature Shiraz growing regions and the most important region within the Fleurieu zone. First planted in 1838, the region—like all of South Australia—has remained phylloxera-free, and its windy, warm climate alleviates fungal disease pressure, allowing growers to freely pursue organic and biodynamic viticultural practices. Approximately one-quarter of the GI’s seven-dozen wineries are certified as organic, and approximately 40 of the producers participate in “Generational Farming,” a new sustainable farming initiative. Drought is the chief viticultural hazard in this dry climate, and water—the hidden but heavy environmental cost of wine production—is scarce. While a small percentage of vineyards are dry-farmed, many rely on recycled wastewater from the nearby suburbs of Adelaide for irrigation water, a pioneering program that serves as a conservationist model for other water-starved areas throughout Australia and the world.

McLaren Vale is predominantly a red wine area. Shiraz, planted in over half of the GI’s 7,100 hectares of wine grapes, is the appellation’s top variety, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. Shiraz in McLaren Vale is typically an intense experience, with brooding tannins, high alcohol levels (14-15%) and deep blue fruits, but there is metamorphosis: conscious of changing consumer tastes, some winemakers are starting to soften their touch, particularly in regards to the type and percentage of new oak used. French oak has steadily outpaced American barrels in both Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon production. The mighty, massive chocolate and prune flavors common in many Barossa examples of Shiraz are less dominant here, and tasters frequently ascribe iron notes to the wines of McLaren Vale—perhaps pointing underfoot, to the ironstone, or red sandstone, common in some areas of the appellation. Overall, determining a standard style of McLaren Shiraz can be complicated, as soil, geology, and climate are not uniform. Seven different underlying geological structures, or ‘terranes,’ exist, and the growing season steadily lengthens as one moves inland and upward in altitude from the coast. Shiraz from the coolest and most northeastern area, Clarendon, may be harvested a month after wines sourced from the heavier, richer soils of the valley floor west of the town of Willunga. Variations in soil and geology are the focus of the Scarce Earth, a new project that seeks to recognize the hallmarks of individual sites rather than obscure their imprint through blending. With the publication of the “Geology of the McLaren Vale Wine Region” map in 2010, Scarce Earth allows members of McLaren Vale Sustainable Winegrowing Australia (MVSWGA) to submit Shiraz wines from single sites to an annual tasting panel for possible approval as “Scarce Earth” wines. In 2011, two-dozen wines from key producers like d’Arenberg, Chapel Hill, and Gemtree were selected, and collectively released on the 1st of May the year after the harvest. To be considered, wines must be produced from vines that are at least ten years of age, and the wines may not be excessively shaded by oak, faults, over- or under-ripeness—fairly fluid decrees determined by taste profile rather than clear numerical guidelines.

Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are the most planted red grapes, but some of the most exciting, up-and-coming McLaren Vale wines are produced from Grenache. Grenache performs particularly well in the sandier areas of Blewitt Springs and Kangarilla, and is especially drought-resistant. John Davey of Shingleback Wines affirms the variety’s hardiness in McLaren Vale’s warm climate, “If there is a nuclear war, only two things will survive: cockroaches and Grenache vines.” Ultimately, McLaren Vale Grenache at its best reveals a warm climate’s counterpoint to Pinot Noir. Typically raised in old hogsheads and 500-liter puncheons rather than new barriques, the grape can take on Rhône-like savory tones to bolster its warm strawberry and mint character. Chardonnay is currently the most planted white variety, a result of past popularity rather than actual suitability to the region, as most winemakers concede that other Rhône and Southern Italian white grapes, such as Roussanne and Fiano, are more promising. These “alternative” varieties (as they are forever condemned to be called) comprise only a miniscule portion of the total vineyard area today.

With about 6,000 hectares of vines on the north side of Lake Alexandrina, Langhorne Creek GI is Fleurieu’s second-most significant winegrowing region. Vines first took root here in 1860, and Metala, the region’s longest-running producer, established the Stonyfell Vineyard in 1890. The brand persists to this day, albeit under the Treasury Wine Estates umbrella. Wolf Blass arrived in 1967; Orlando Wines followed in 1995. Langhorne Creek is now a principal source for the latter’s “Jacob’s Creek” brand, and flat region is more associated with large-scale, machine-harvested operations than smaller, more premium wineries. Currency Creek GI is southwest of Langhorne Creek, adjacent to the western shoreline of Lake Alexandrina at the mouth of the Murray River. Viticulture in Currency Creek is a recent pursuit, and about a quarter of the 800-odd hectares of vines in the region are Shiraz; Cabernet Sauvignon reflects nearly as much with Chardonnay trailing just behind. Southern Fleurieu GI is due south of McLaren Vale, on the Fleurieu Peninsula, with only about 500 hectares under vine; it tends to be slightly warmer and drier than Currency Creek. Shiraz accounts for one-third of its vines; Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc are the region’s second- and third-most important varieties. Kangaroo Island, separated from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula by the 8.4-mile wide Backstair Passage, is the site of the Fleurieu zone’s smallest GI, with less than 150 hectares under vine. The island itself is the third-largest island off the coast of Australia, and it was the site of the first official European colonial settlement in South Australia, predating the founding of Adelaide by five months.

Mount Lofty Ranges Zone

Clare Valley GI is the Mount Lofty Ranges’ most heavily planted region, and it can be a rewarding source for some very different styles of wine, from steely Riesling to bold examples of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Just under a two-hour drive north of Adelaide, Clare Valley is the northernmost GI within the Mount Lofty Ranges zone. It is less a single valley than a series of contoured, north-south ridges and the depressions and sub-valleys between them, with most vineyards located between the towns of Auburn and Clare itself. Viticulture in the region originated with the arrival of English settlers and the establishment of Hope Farm around 1840. Jesuits built the region’s first true winery, Sevenhill Cellars, as a source of sacramental wines (a tradition maintained by the producer today) on a plot of land purchased in 1851, and others soon followed. AP Birks Wendouree, makers of classically styled, ageworthy red wines, was founded in 1892. By the turn of the century there were over 500 hectares of vines in the ground in Clare Valley. Jim Barry arrived in the region in the 1940s, and founded Jim Barry Wines in 1959. Other top modern producers arrived on the scene later: Grosset began production in 1981 and Kilikanoon was established in 1997. Today, Clare Valley has nearly 5,000 hectares of vineyards, and its top producers enjoy a proven, worldwide reputation for their wines.

Clare Valley GI

Zone: Mount Lofty Ranges
Climate: Moderate-Warm Continental
Degree Days (°C): 1465-1767 (Region II-III)
Top Varieties: Shiraz, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon
Secondary Varieties: Merlot, Chardonnay

Clare Valley, a network of rural communities some 75 miles due north of Adelaide, may look warmer on paper than it actually is. Elevation (400-600 meters throughout Clare Valley) cools the vines, and the only official weather station currently recording climate data in the GI is located at one of its lowest points—Clare High School, and the town post office prior to that—and is surrounded by roadways, concrete, buildings: the machinery of heat. Dr. John Gladstones, Petaluma’s Brian Croser, and a 2005 report compiled by Davidson Viticultural Consulting have all concluded that the actual climate for many grapevines is cooler than official statistics lead one to believe. In the small Polish Hill River area, a hotspot for Riesling 9 miles southeast of Clare itself and 440 meters in elevation, heat degree days may number 200 or fewer than at Clare High School—Davidson measures 1767 for the school and 1465 (° Celsius) for the Polish Hill River, a shift downward from Region III to Region II. In addition, diurnal variation is significant in Clare. Spring frosts can be a danger, particularly in the cooler eastern and southern areas like Polish Hill River, Watervale, and Auburn; but insect pests and other disease pressures are not a major danger in Clare’s dry climate. Historically, low growing season rainfall (an average of fewer than 8 inches for the season) and little groundwater—which has difficulty penetrating the dense, low-porosity bedrock of the region—resulted in many dry-farmed vineyards, although drip irrigation has become more common today.

Shiraz is the region’s most planted variety, with Jim Barry’s “Armagh” vineyard Shiraz ranking among the top internationally recognized icons of the region. Shiraz from Clare Valley is typically rich and round in style, with slightly less weight and alcohol than one would encounter in Barossa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon, the region’s second-most planted red variety, is sometimes blended with Shiraz but more often with Malbec, as seen in the classic Wendouree Cabernet-Malbec bottlings. Despite the generally high quality of Clare's reds, many sommeliers are more interested in the region's Riesling. Like those examples hailing from Eden Valley, Clare Valley Riesling tends to be extremely dry, with nearly excruciating acidity. Lime, flowers, and taut stone fruit flavors characterize the wines, which often finish in the neighborhood of 12.5-13% abv. In this birthplace of the modern Australian screwcap movement, Clare Riesling producers almost unanimously bottle under the closure, emphasizing reductive flavors in the wine's youth while gaining desirable toasty, honeyed notes through slow aging in bottle. The better examples of Riesling tend to emerge from the areas of Watervale and Polish Hill. The latter area, which lends its name to Grosset's top bottling, lies atop blue slate bedrock not dissimilar from the Devonian blue slate of the Mosel Valley in Germany.

The Adelaide Hills GI is directly south of Barossa and its vineyards are nestled between the ridges of the South Mount Lofty Ranges. At 727 meters above sea level, Mt. Lofty itself is one of the highest elevation spots in the appellation, as well as one of South Australia’s wettest points. Despite its location between Barossa and McLaren Vale, the appellation is surprisingly cool and nearly 70% of plantings are white grapes.

A selection of sparkling wines from the Adelaide Hills.

Chardonnay is dominant in the central sub-region of Piccadilly Valley GI, where Petaluma planted the Adelaide Hills’ first modern commercial vineyard in 1976. Sauvignon Blanc, the GI’s most planted variety, takes center stage in the Lenswood GI sub-region, where it produces a softer, less aromatic and pungent style than one finds in New Zealand. Pinot Noir and Shiraz are the top red varieties in “the Hills.” The region’s winemakers craft slightly riper styles of Pinot Noir than their counterparts in the Yarra Valley, and they coax softer, lighter—but not lean—melon-scented still wines from the Chardonnay grape. Both grapes also provide a base for the region’s robust sparkling wine industry. Some of Australia’s larger companies use Adelaide Hills fruit to give lift to regional blends, but the region is still tiny in comparison with its neighbors—the Hills produces about 2% of the Barossa’s grape tonnage each year. Local producers of note include Petaluma and Shaw + Smith (the region’s largest wineries), the Lane, Golding, Bird in Hand, and BK Wines—the latter is quickly becoming a sommelier favorite as the producer is making truly drinkable and energetic wines well-suited to the table.

The Adelaide Plains GI, north of the city itself, could not be less similar to the Hills: the Adelaide Hills is the coolest and rainiest region within the entire Adelaide Super Zone, whereas the Adelaide Plains is the warmest, and nearly its driest. In the former, average January temperatures remain in the mid-60s, whereas in the sunny Adelaide Plains they rise into the mid-70s. This hot coastal region is not highly regarded today for quality wine production, but Penfolds’ historic Magill Estate, where Max Schubert’s first experiments with "Grange" have since passed into the realm of legend, lies just a few miles outside of its borders. Adelaide’s suburban sprawl now completely encircles the once-rural “spiritual home of Grange,” and the small estate, with its five remaining hectares of Shiraz vineyards, is a showpiece for the company today.

Limestone Coast Zone

Coonawarra GI, in the Limestone Coast, considers itself Australia’s foremost region for Cabernet Sauvignon, and it is equally famous for its so-called terra rossa, or “red soil.” This thin, cigar-shaped band of friable clay loam, tinted vivid red by iron oxide, overlies soft limestone and is commonly considered the most suitable topsoil for the grape in Australia. Terra rossa, which is also found in La Mancha and other areas of Southern Europe, is at once highly permeable for a clay-based soil yet offers good water retention to support the vines’ roots through dry Coonawarra summers. Prof. Alex Maltman, a UK geologist specializing in vineyard soils, suggests: “terra rossa…is justly famous but the key to its quality is probably the drainage and storage offered by the underlying fissured limestone.” Overall, the region is fairly flat and featureless, and it experiences a cool Mediterranean climate, although winters turn cold through a lack of moderating maritime influence. Degree days in Coonawarra are fewer than in the Médoc, yet Coonawarra is drier than Bordeaux and experiences significantly greater sunlight hours during the growing season. With about 5,200 hectares under vine, Coonawarra promotes itself as “Australia’s Red Wine Centre”: Cabernet Sauvignon typically accounts for just over half of the annual harvest, and Cabernet, Shiraz and Merlot together produce over 85% of the region’s output. White grapes are an afterthought today. Winemakers from the region may show glimmers of excitement for Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Pinot Gris—despite the fact that Chardonnay is the most planted white variety—but public demand for “Australia’s Red Wine Centre” whites likely remains a long way off.

Coonawarra GI

Zone: Limestone Coast
Climate: Cool Mediterranean
Degree Days (°C): 1430 (Region II)
Top Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz
Secondary Varieties: Merlot, Chardonnay

Like many Australian wine regions, Coonawarra has its origins in the 19th century, but its modern history of viticulture is really a much shorter tale. In 1861, a Scottish migrant named John Riddoch purchased a large estate near the town of Penola, and moved westward from Geelong, Victoria to Coonawarra. In 1891 he planted the region’s first grapevines on his sprawling property (the Penola Fruit Colony) and soon began construction of his limestone cellar and winery, Chateau Comaum. In 1897 tensions with the nearby township of Penola led Riddoch to rename his colony “Coonawarra”; most accounts suggest that the Aboriginal word means “honeysuckle ridge,” although other meanings, some more or less appropriate, have been suggested: “place of signal fires,” “black swan,” and (A native's practical joke?) “pile of excrement.” By that year, the third vintage for Riddoch’s “Coonawarra” wines, over 100 hectares of vines were in the ground. But this first foray into viticulture was not particularly successfully. Unsold wine multiplied, and the colony was eventually sold in parcels after Riddoch’s death in 1901. Bill Redman, a cellar-hand at Riddoch’s Chateau Comaum, acquired part of the Riddoch estate in 1908. Redman provided grapes and wine to the negociant firm Woodley’s from 1920, and he supervised the only table wine production in Coonawarra through the 1940s. (Until the 1950s, most wine produced on the original Riddoch property was sold as distillate, and the white Doradillo grape was among the district’s most common varieties.) Woodley’s purchased Chateau Comaum in 1946, and produced a famous series of Coonawarra “Treasure Chest” Clarets from 1949 to 1956 under Redman’s direction. In 1952 Bill and son Owen founded Rouge Homme, releasing several vintages of Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet-Shiraz blends before selling the label in 1956 to Lindemans (and founding the rather more straightforward-named Redman Wines a decade later). Mildara commissioned a vineyard planting in 1955, releasing its first Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, “Peppermint Pattie,” in 1963; and Penfolds began developing vineyards in the region in 1960. However, it was the arrival of Samuel and David Wynn in 1951 that truly signaled a new beginning for the region. The Wynns purchased Chateau Comaum and Riddoch’s core property from Woodley’s, and immediately began production. From 1954 forward, the new Wynns Coonawarra Estate produced varietally labeled, estate-bottled Cabernet Sauvignon, trumpeting its place of origin in an era when multi-regional blending was commonplace. Unlike many of Australia’s most successful winegrowing regions today, Coonawarra is disconnected and distant; the nearest large market (Adelaide) is over 240 miles away. Wynns’ early successes in the 1950s led other companies to the isolated region, accelerating expansion in the 1960s and 1970s. Today Wynns owns about half of the entire region’s vineyards, and since 1982 the estate has produced one of Coonawarra’s top bottlings, the “John Riddoch” Cabernet Sauvignon, in honor of the region’s pioneer.

It is important to make four preliminary points about soils in the Coonawarra district. First, the soil types vary considerably. Second, considerable variation may be found across relatively small distances, even over a few yards. Within a single vineyard or paddock soil types can vary dramatically. Third, there are no comprehensive soil maps of the Coonawarra district. Fourth, while terra rossa remains prominent in advertising, wine journalism and popular consciousness, it has been abandoned as a classification by soil scientists.

–Gary Edmond, Adelaide Law Review Association, Volume 27, No. 1 (Disorder with Law: Determining the Geographical Indication for the Coonawarra Wine Region)

In the 1980s and '90s, the wine industry in Coonawarra rapidly expanded, and areas outside of the original band of terra rossa soils were planted with grapes. With the creation of the Register of Protected Names and the GIC in the early 1990s, the Coonawarra Vignerons Association and the Coonawarra Grape Growers’ Association recommended that only the original, defined band of terra rossa soil between Penola and Comaum qualify for the proposed Coonawarra GI. This determination coincided neatly with both organizations’ memberships, and set off an incredibly contentious, decade-long fight between those inside the proposed boundary and those excluded. Years of litigation diluted Coonawarra’s proposed boundaries. The core issue at hand—terra rossa soil profile—was thrown into doubt as a legally acceptable limit to the appellation, while other factors, such as similarities in climate and water catchment, upheld the argument for a larger region. Dr. Richard Smart and other viticulturalists testified as to the relative unimportance of soil on grape quality, and rendered claims linking terra rossa and wine quality unsubstantiated. A separate Penola GI was initially approved in 2000 and scrapped several years later. In 2003, following years of lawsuits, appeals, and ruined relationships, Coonawarra GI was formally established. To date, it is the last of Australia’s first-tier winegrowing regions to earn formal GI status.

Coonawarra wines have been criticized in the past for overt manipulation in the winery and lack of attention in the vineyard. Winemakers have responded: acidification is much more measured today and exogenous tannin additions have been greatly reduced. Oak usage, as in much of Australia, is changing. New oak levels are falling from absurd heights in the 1990s and early 2000s, and most producers are buying French rather than American barrels. In the vineyard, the overwhelming mechanization of the 1980s is slowly being reduced, a reversal made possible by a new wave of cheap migrant labor from Asia into this sparsely populated area. Once-popular but counter-productive viticultural practices like minimal pruning have been abandoned, and emphasis is building on single vineyard expressions. Sue Hodder, Senior Winemaker at Wynns Coonawarra Estate, sums up the region’s recent revolution: “Good Coonawarra winemaking in the past ten years has been made possible through immense quality improvement in the vineyards. In general, this has enabled a return to the styles of the 1960s: medium-bodied wines, with moderate alcohol levels (closer to 13% than 14%) and balanced oak.” Modern Cabernet in Coonawarra is resurgent, developing powerful yet polished tannins, and achieving ripeness without verging into imbalance.

Typical Coonawarra Cabernet showcases distinctive ripe red berry fruits alongside cassis, followed by sweet herb and dried mint secondary tones. “Mint” is an oft-proclaimed signature note for Australian reds in general, perhaps owing to the country’s omnipresent red gum eucalypts, as studies have shown that the highly aromatic monoterpene eucalyptol can be transferred from tree leaves to grapes through the air. The subject of “mintiness” stirs debate amongst Coonawarra producers. Peter Gambetta, Senior Winemaker for Yalumba’s Limestone Coast wines, ponders the origin of mint in Coonawarra Cabernet—airborne terroir, regional feature, or simply pyrazine-related greenness? “Some argue that it is ‘green fruit’ character and others argue that it is endemic to the region. We have measured eucalyptol in wines and can see a decrease as we move further from the patches of remnant red gums on our estate, though we also see a ‘mintiness’ that is not (derived from) eucalyptol in shaded grapes, so I believe it to be from (multiple) sources.”

With about 1,200 fewer hectares of vines than Coonawarra, Padthaway GI is a heavily cultivated, slightly warmer region inhabiting a five-mile-wide sliver of land along the Riddoch Highway north of the town of Naracoorte. The region extends for 38 miles from north to south, but most of the appellation’s 4,000 ha of vines inhabit a single, unbroken ten-mile-long stretch between the tiny villages of Keppoch and Padthaway. Several of Australia’s largest houses have set up shop in the area, including Seppelt (who planted Padthaway’s first vineyard in 1964), Lindemans, Hardys, Wynns, and Orlando Wines. Padthaway fruit often disappeared into multi-regional blends at the big houses, but there is a movement toward regional identity in the GI today, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Chardonnay showing success. One in three vines in the region is Shiraz.

Wrattonbully GI is located between Padthaway and Coonawarra. Like Coonawarra, Wrattonbully is overwhelmingly a red wine-focused region, with Cabernet Sauvignon as its top variety. And like Padthaway, Wrattonbully is a young winegrowing region. 11 hectares of vines appeared in 1969, and the Koppamurra Vineyard, now under the ownership of star Wrattonbully producer Tapanappa, followed in 1974. Most grapevines in Wrattonbully are between 10 and 20 years old, as vineyard development rapidly accelerated during the 1990s. In that decade, wine companies on the outside recognized the same veins of terra rossa soil that ran through the core of Coonawarra within Wrattonbully, and at much lower prices. Wrattonbully Cabernet Sauvignon is likewise similar in style to that of Coonawarra, showing relatively soft tannins and ripe red fruits.

Mount Gambier GI surrounds the mountain and town of the same name (SA’s second largest population center), and extends southward from Coonawarra along the Victoria border, all the way to the state’s southern coastline. It is the state’s largest region in sheer size, but it contains fewer than 300 ha of vines. Mount Gambier is similar in climate to neighboring Henty GI in Victoria, and Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc are currently the most planted varieties in its cooler maritime climate. The zone’s two other regions, Mount Benson GI and Robe GI, sit at the same latitudes as Wrattonbully and Coonawarra, respectively, but lie on the coastline, an hour’s drive west. Vine cultivation did not occur in either region prior to 1989, and there are less than 1,200 hectares of vines between them. Shiraz leads in both GIs, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay rounding out the list of top varieties.

Lower Murray Zone

With over one-quarter of the national annual grape tonnage, Riverland GI is Australia’s leader in production. The region follows the course of the Murray River from the South Australia state border westward to Blanchetown, near the Eden Valley. The river is wide and languid, and the fertile, sandy soils along its banks provide an agricultural oasis in the otherwise hot and arid continental interior. Irrigation water from the river is essential for viticulture. Some of Australia’s largest value brands—Berri, Oxford Landing, and Banrock Station—have massive vineyards in the region, and the second-largest family-owned winery in Australia, Kingston Estate, is based here. Chardonnay and Shiraz are neck and neck as the region’s most planted varieties, together making up just over half of the total production; however, the Riverland has a surprising number of boutique producers—not typically exported to the United States—experimenting with everything from Petit Manseng and Vermentino to Montepulciano, Graciano and Saperavi. Riverland is also home to the largest single planting of Petit Verdot in Australia, a nearly 100-hectare plot farmed by Kingston Estate. All unlikely commercial stars, granted, but they do provide a bit of color to an otherwise monochromatic and fairly industrial vineyard palate.

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New South Wales

Capital: Sydney

New South Wales (NSW) is Australia’s most populous state and the site of the country’s first vineyards, planted on a site not far from the modern-day Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge. These first vines bore fruit in 1791, but succumbed to disease and died soon thereafter. Further, more enduring attempts followed in the early 1800s: John Macarthur established vineyards at his Camden Park estate with European cuttings—including Shiraz—by 1820 and Gregory Blaxland exported a 136-liter barrel of wine to London in 1822. In Hunter Valley, George Wyndham founded Australia’s now-oldest continuously operating winery (Wyndham Estate) in 1828, and he planted Australia’s first commercial Shiraz vineyard in 1830. Their achievements notwithstanding, a Scottish-born botanist named James Busby (1801-1871) would have an even greater impact on the early years of New South Wales viticulture, earning the mantle “father” of the Australian wine industry. Busby moved to New South Wales in the early 1820s, but returned to Europe in 1831, gathering various vine cuttings from Spain and France. He gathered hundreds of specimens, and planted them upon his return, dividing the cuttings between his Kirkton estate in the Hunter Valley and the Sydney Botanical Gardens. These vines, including Rhône, Bordeaux, and Burgundy varieties, represent the core of Australia's viticultural heritage.

Despite early advocacy by Busby—who left for New Zealand in 1833—and others, winemaking in Australia remained a marginal activity until the discovery of gold in 1851, which spurred vineyard expansion in New South Wales and in the new colony of Victoria. Hunter Valley’s vineyards likewise continued to grow due to the region’s proximity to the population center of Sydney. Phylloxera, which devastated Victoria around the turn of the century, appeared in vineyards near Sydney in 1884, and in those surrounding Albury on the north bank of the Murray, 30 miles due east from Rutherglen. However, the bug’s spread in NSW has been effectively contained, and most winegrowing regions in the state, including Hunter Valley, have remained phylloxera-free. By the Federation of Australia in 1901 vineyards were well established north of Sydney, in the Hunter Valley, Mudgee, and beyond, within the modern-day GIs of Hastings River and New England. In 1912 the debut of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, a massive project delivering water from the Murrumbidgee (a major tributary of the Murray River) to the otherwise dry and drought-prone farmlands in the Riverina region west of the Great Dividing Range, provided a seemingly limitless new frontier for food and wine grape production. McWilliams, one of the largest family-owned producers in Australia today, planted the region’s first grapevines in 1913. Penfolds followed McWilliams into Riverina in 1919, and De Bortoli was established near the town of Griffith in 1928. Riverina flourished as an engine of fortified wine production throughout the first half of the 20th century.

With Federation in 1901, all interstate trade barriers were abolished and the rapidly growing South Australian wine industry could compete for attention in Sydney. This sudden competition, coupled with the rise of fortified wine production, shrunk interest in some areas, such as Hastings River and New England, both of whom stopped producing wine completely—for decades. Mudgee was propelled forward by the discovery of gold in 1872 but dwindled to nothing in the early 20th century. Even Hunter Valley struggled. Maurice O’Shea, the first great Australian winemaker of the 1900s, produced Hunter Valley Shiraz table wines (labeled as “Hunter Burgundy”) for McWilliams’ Mt. Pleasant until his death in 1956, despite overwhelming domestic interest in fortified wines and beer. But the overall industry in Hunter Valley contracted until a flurry of new plantings occurred in the 1960s, led by Lake’s Folly. On the other hand, the machine of Riverina continued to move forward, relentlessly, producing over 21,000 tonnes of fruit in 1961. As Australians begin to shift back toward table wines in that decade, Riverina responded with a host of new plantings better suited for the new styles, moving toward Chardonnay and Merlot and away from Pedro and Trebbiano. In the 1970s new regions were born—or reborn—along the coastline and the inland side of the Great Dividing Range. By 1981, Riverina was firmly a part of Australia’s “cheap and cheerful” image, producing over 90,000 tonnes of fruit, and Hunter Valley was capitalizing on a new interest in wine tourism to rebound from its midcentury doldrums. New South Wales, like the rest of Australia, rocketed forward during the wine boom of the 1990s, and many of its fledgling regions experienced dramatic growth during this period. From 1973 to 2011, NSW increased its annual crush from 73,000 tonnes to 580,000 tonnes—a larger leap forward than any other state. In 2010, NSW accounted for 29% of Australia’s total wine production.

The major climatic features in New South Wales include the Pacific Ocean and the Great Dividing Range. In the coastal zones of South Coast, Hunter, and Northern Rivers, humidity is high and summer rainfall is especially common, particularly as one moves north, where the water warms and lingering effects of the Indo-Australian monsoon season’s impact are felt. The Great Dividing Range, a complex of mountain chains running along the entire coastline of NSW, blocks western areas from rainfall and cooling maritime breezes—the inland zones of Big Rivers and Western Plains are especially arid and progressively hotter as one moves north. The highest mountains in Australia are the Snowy Mountains, an alpine sector of the Great Dividing Range located within the Southern New South Wales zone. In the highlands of this range and the ranges running north and south of it, climate becomes continental and temperatures cool with elevation.

Hunter Valley Zone

The Hunter Valley region has become a casualty of faulty logic in the age of Geographical Indications. There is the Hunter Valley zone, which contains the Hunter GI region, which in turn encompasses three GI sub-regions: Upper Hunter Valley, Broke Fordwich, and Pokolbin. Pokolbin and Broke Fordwich are both located within what has traditionally been known as the Lower Hunter Valley—the heart of the region’s viticultural activities—but “Lower Hunter Valley” did not merit GI status, according to the local authorities’ infinite wisdom. In 2013 a round-up of top winemakers and vineyard owners in the Lower Hunter Valley, representing Tyrrell’s, Brokenwood, Thomas Wines, Audrey Wilkinson and McWilliam’s Mt. Pleasant, responded with ready dismissal when asked if any of them would ever consider using “Pokolbin”—the GI wherein they are all located—on a wine label. Historically, the Lower Hunter has been divided into six sub-regions: Pokolbin, Broke Fordwich, Allandale, Belford, Dalwood, and Rothbury—but only the first two have earned sub-region GI status to date. The Upper Hunter Valley GI has fewer vineyards and a shorter narrative, as modern viticulture dates only to 1960, when Penfolds established 250 ha of vines at Wybong in the region.

Hunter GI (Lower Hunter)

Zone: Hunter Valley
Climate: Hot Subtropical
Degree Days (°C): 2070 (Region IV)
Top Varieties: Semillon, Chardonnay, Verdelho, Shiraz
Secondary Varieties: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon

The Hunter Valley endures one of the warmest and wettest climates among Australia’s winegrowing regions. It is sub-tropical and humid, and the Lower Hunter averages over 20 inches of rain during the growing season. According to Winkler’s Scale, the marginally warmer Upper Hunter Valley is considered Region IV—a zone best utilized for fortified wine production—and is actually hotter than the Riverland, South Australia’s warmest GI (although it remains slightly cooler than Riverina). Ripening comes early in the Hunter Valley and is unimpeded through the region’s warm summer nights. However, autumn also arrives early, and with it comes a near-constant cloud cover. Ripe fruit character thus develops early in the season, when pH is still relatively low, but sugar ripening slows early as well, as vines transition to producing carbohydrates for dormancy in the early fall. Fierce storms often arrive in the last week of January—the first two months of the year are the wettest in the Hunter Valley—and may provoke early harvesting decisions for white grapes. Despite the heat Hunter produces surprisingly elegant and low- to moderate-alcohol styles of wine. White grapes are more common than red.

Picking Semillon early was originally an economic decision. In the late '50s and '60s several vintages were totally
destroyed by rains, so people started picking once they saw a single cloud in the sky.
-Bruce Tyrrell, Tyrrell’s Wines

If we catch anyone blending Semillon with Sauvignon Blanc, we’ll probably shoot them.
-Iain Leslie Riggs, Chief Winemaker, Brokenwood

Semillon is the most planted grape in Hunter Valley, and Hunter Valley Semillon is the world’s most classic and ageworthy dry example of the grape. Semillon was once sold as “Hunter Riesling” here, a synonym that offers a clue to its austere character: the wine is fairly low in alcohol (frequently in the 10-12% range) and incredibly acidic (pH levels remain around 2.9). Classic Hunter Semillon is harvested at the end of January or during the first week in February, at Baumé levels of 9-12°; it is generally vinified with commercial yeasts and quickly bottled (in the June or July following harvest) with a significant remaining level of carbon dioxide. Classic Hunter Semillon never sees oak and there is no emphasis on lees stirring, but it will be aged by its makers for several years prior to release, during which period it begins to gain notes of browned toast and crème caramel—expanding on the simple lemon and slight grass notes of its extreme youth. Top bottlings include Tyrrell’s “Vat 1” and Brokenwood’s “ILR Reserve,” which are released five and six years after the vintage, respectively. Both have aging potential measured in decades rather than years, and their makers, like many others in Australia, have shifted entirely to screwcap closures. That overly simplistic blind tasting adage—“New World” wines have higher alcohol and “Old World” wines have higher acidity—is called into question with Hunter Semillon, and one is reminded that temperature is only one factor in the equation of wine climate.

Tyrrell’s in Hunter Valley takes credit for the country’s first varietal bottling of Chardonnay, the 1971 “Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay.” Since that year, Chardonnay has become an important variety in the Hunter Valley, comprising over a quarter of its total plantings; however, winemakers typically do not consider it a top variety in the region, and prefer to plant Semillon and Shiraz in top sites. The Portuguese grape Verdelho is also common, perhaps feeling as welcome in the Hunter as it does in its other subtropical home, Madeira. The grape’s naturally thick skins lend a measure of protection against mold—a constant worry in Hunter’s humid climate. Verdelho offers an alternative to Semillon, yielding generous wines of tropical fruit character, often finishing with a degree or so more alcohol than Semillon. Shiraz is the top red variety in the Hunter, performing especially well on the red volcanic soils of the Lower Hunter Valley (Semillon prefers the white alluvial sands). Maurice O’Shea was producing varietal Shiraz and Shiraz-Pinot Noir blends at Mount Pleasant when “Grange” was just a twinkle in Max Shubert’s eye, and Hunter Shiraz has long been one of the great archetypes in Australia, with fruit and acid at the forefront.

Central Ranges Zone

The three regions of the Central Ranges lie on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, near the town of Bathurst some 125 miles west of Sydney. Mudgee GI is the zone’s oldest producing region and it borders Hunter GI, yet rises 400-500 meters higher in altitude and experiences a drier, sunnier, and less humid climate with greater diurnal shifts in temperature. Budbreak is delayed and harvests often occur a month after those in the Lower Hunter Valley—and they are less frequently interrupted by severe storms. Concentrated, deeply colored red wines are the order of the day in warm Mudgee. Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, and Merlot are among the region’s most planted varieties, and red grapes outnumber white grapes by four to one. Regardless of the modern emphasis on reds, Mudgee Chardonnay—the region’s most planted white grape—has a special place in Australian wine history. Murray Tyrrell asserts that he was the first to release varietal Chardonnay, but he may have taken his cuttings from Mudgee, and at least one Mudgee winery preceded his in producing a single varietal Chardonnay wine. Craigmoor—the first winery established in Mudgee, in 1858—cultivated Chardonnay for half a century prior to Tyrrell’s first release, although it was not identified as such until the late 1960s. Craigmoor winemaker Pieter van Gent made Chardonnay in the 1971 vintage, paralleling Tyrrell’s first release, but the winemaker concedes that there was not enough wine to warrant bottling. An employee of Craigmoor, Alf Kurtz, planted his own vineyard with Craigmoor cuttings and founded Mudgee Wines in the 1960s, releasing several small vintages of Chardonnay prior to both Craigmoor and Tyrrell’s. The Craigmoor Chardonnay selection came to the vineyard by way of one Kaluna Vineyard near Sydney, which was likely planted with cuttings from Kirkton—James Busby’s estate in Hunter.

Southwest of Mudgee is Orange GI, the Central Ranges’ youngest, coolest, and potentially most exciting region. It is also one of the highest regions in the entire country overall: Orange GI begins at the 600-meter line of elevation, and its vineyards rise up the slopes of NSW’s central highlands, past the 1000-meter mark. The highest point in the appellation is Mount Canobolas, an extinct volcano and the source of the region’s richest, basalt-derived soils. On the high volcanic plateau extending northward from Mount Canobolas, the pioneering producer Bloodwood planted Orange’s first modern vineyard in 1983. With about 1,000 ha under vine, the region has grown rapidly since then. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and Chardonnay are the region’s most popular grapes, but Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir look increasingly promising in Orange’s cool mountain climate. Cowra GI, the southernmost and warmest region in the zone—an indication of its lower elevation rather than its higher latitude—is best known for soft, generous styles of Chardonnay.

South Coast, Northern Rivers, and Northern Slopes Zones

The South Coast and Northern Rivers zones nearly span the entirety of the New South Wales coastline, separated by a small segment of the Hunter Valley. The Northern Rivers’ Hastings River GI lies right on the coast; it is unequivocally hot—falling within Region V on Winkler’s Scale—and it experiences more rainfall during the growing season than any other region in Australia. With early picking, Semillon in Hastings River can develop some of the same characteristics as it does in the Hunter, but this is overall not a fine wine destination. The Northern Slopes’ New England Australia GI, formally approved in 2008, is northwest of Hastings River. Elevation afforded by the Great Dividing Range in New England mitigates the heat, and allows the region’s growing number of wineries to produce cooler-climate versions of Shiraz and other red grapes, despite the area’s northerly latitude. In 2019, both regions together accounted for less than 150 total hectares of vines.

The South Coast’s Shoalhaven Coast GI hugs a strip of the NSW coastline about 75 miles south of Sydney. While growing season rainfall and heat are slightly diminished in the South Coast, the region still struggles with identity, and only a handful of small wineries have emerged. To date, the region is best known for wines produced from Chambourcin—a red French hybrid. The Southern Highlands GI, on the other hand, is nestled in the hills of the Great Dividing Range, and has greater potential to produce quality wines. Surprisingly, Tempranillo is currently the most planted grape in the region. Like their northern counterparts, Shoalhaven Coast and the Southern Highlands remain small, and in 2019 they together contained less than 200 hectares of vines.

Big Rivers Zone

The Big Rivers zone is located along the Victorian border to the west of the Great Dividing Range; the big rivers in question are the Murray and the Murrumbidgee. SA’s Riverland GI may be the largest single region in Australia, but Big Rivers is the top-producing zone in the country. Riverina GI remains the production leader here and in the entire state, and Chardonnay is its most planted grape, followed by Shiraz and Semillon. McWilliam’s and De Bortoli were market leaders in Riverina for decades, but they were surpassed by Casella Wines. Founded in 1969, Casella is the largest family-owned wine company in Australia today, and sky’s-the-limit fortunes rested with the incredible, overnight success of the company’s [yellow tail] brand of wines in the US export market. This original and most identifiable—and most loathed, in some quarters—of the Australian “critter” labels debuted exclusively for the US market in 2001. In 2003 [yellow tail] became the top imported brand in the US, and in 2006 it earned the top spot overall in US supermarkets, overtaking Sutter Home as the leading wine brand. Casella boasts that one in five bottles leaving Australia are labeled [yellow tail]. But the good days may be over: a strong Australian dollar has hampered US sales for the past few years, and consumers are moving on from Australian “critter” labels, or at least growing tired with the one that sustained them through the 2000s. Casella recorded a loss of 30 million Australian dollars for the 2012 financial year, and many wine (and business) writers have suggested that [yellow tail] and its imitators are squarely to blame for Australia’s recent troubles in the US market. In a 2009 Slate article titled “Not Such a G’Day: How Yellow Tail Crushed the Australian Wine Industry,” author Mike Steinberger argues that the Australians’ “woes are mostly self-generated; they’ve trashed their own brand, a point many of them now concede.”

Riverina is not solely defined by its mass-market brands. On the other end of the spectrum, the region can produce tiny quantities of high-end botrytis-affected dessert wines. In 1958 McWilliam’s was the first Riverina winery to explore the style, but De Bortoli, who crowns an otherwise low-priced range in Riverina with the world-class “Noble One Botrytis Semillon,” is the star. First released in the 1982 vintage, the lusciously sweet “Noble One” quickly rose to the pinnacle of Australian dessert wines, and has garnered an outpouring of international critical praise.

Southern New South Wales Zone

The Southern New South Wales zone is located within the Great Dividing Range, and encompasses the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Canberra District GI surrounds the national capital (Canberra) and is the zone’s most important growing region. Set against the backdrop of the Snowy Mountains, it has a mild, continental climate—not unlike the Northern Rhône Valley. While viticulture has been practiced in the area since the mid-1800s, the modern region was born in 1971, when Edgar Riek planted vines on the shores of Lake George and John Kirk planted his Clonakilla vineyard in Murrumbateman. Clonakilla produced Canberra District’s first commercial vintage in 1976, and the winery’s Shiraz-Viognier, a moderate-bodied, pretty medley of red fruit, flowers and spice modeled on Côte-Rôtie, debuted in 1992 to become a modern icon in Australia. Hardys moved into Canberra District in 2000, immediately doubling vineyard acreage, but withdrew from the region in 2007. The vacuum left in Hardys’ wake has been filled by a growing number of smaller producers, emboldened by critical praise for their wines. Elegant styles of Shiraz, high-quality dry Riesling, and increasingly good examples of Bordeaux blends and Pinot Noir are being produced. One emergent producer, Lark Hill, has even planted Australia’s first Grüner Veltliner vineyard, and is achieving some critical success with the grape.

Côte-Rôtie is a clear parallel (to Canberra District). In cooler vintages a great trick to play on experienced palates is to line up a blind tasting of Côte-Rôtie and Canberra Shiraz. It is very easy to confuse the two. The red fruit surge and spice rack complexity is common to both. Even the dried herb element in Côte-Rôtie is found in Canberra Shiraz in some cooler years. Côte-Rôtie does tend towards a smoky character at times, which is especially brought to the fore in the wines of producers who use a large whole bunch inclusion (think Jamet and Rostaing). I don't see this in Canberra Shiraz so much. And as with all Australian wine the palate structure is a little fuller and sweeter, even with the higher natural acids that the high altitude (600 meters or more) provides in our GI.

Co-fermenting a small amount of Viognier with cool-climate Shiraz produces a synergy that is hard to define, but delightful to behold. My own experience is that the Viognier expands the wine, both aromatically and texturally. It extends the aromatic profile, providing a subtle high note that hovers above the red berry/cracked pepper tones of the Shiraz. The Viognier also contributes a rounding effect to the palate, acting to soften the sharper tannin edges of the Shiraz and tying the acid more cohesively to the fruit. In the best examples a seamless palate is the result.
–Tim Kirk, Winemaker, Clonakilla

In the warm, continental climate of Hilltops GI, west of Canberra District, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz have emerged as primary grapes, and red grapes account for approximately 80% of the total vineyard acreage. Riverina’s McWilliam’s has the largest share of plantings in the region, and Clonakilla has been sourcing Shiraz fruit from the region for over a decade, drawing attention back to this former gold-mining region. Hilltops Shiraz, in comparison with Canberra District fruit, tends to develop deeper color, lower acid, more robust tannins and darker fruit. Gundagai GI, with the Murrumbidgee flowing through it, is adjacent to Hilltops’ southern border. The land here flattens out as one moves west from the Great Dividing Range into the arid bush, with rainfall becoming sparser and temperatures rising accordingly. Some major vineyards have emerged since the mid-1990s, but the region is still in its infancy. Tumbarumba GI, south of Gundagai, lies within the foothills of the Snowy Mountains and has a measurably cooler climate, well suited for the production of sparkling wines. In 2012, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir accounted for almost 90% of the total grape harvest in the GI. Several of Australia’s larger producers value the crisp acidity Tumbarumba fruit lends to sparkling wine blends, but few are willing to risk ownership of vineyards in its frost-prone mountain climate. Thus, most of Tumbarumba’s two-dozen growers remain small, and sell the majority of their fruit.

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Victoria

Capital: Melbourne

In 1838 the Ryrie brothers, three Scottish-born cattlemen from Sydney, leased 43,000 acres for grazing in the Yarra Valley. The named their property “Yering,” and planted a vineyard, cultivating two grapes: the Black Cluster of Hamburg and a white grape called Sweetwater. Thus at Yering Station in the Yarra Valley, just east of Melbourne, did Victorian viticulture begin. From the first European (convict) settlement in Victoria at Sullivan Bay in 1803 to the formal founding of the British Colony of Victoria in 1851, the remote region remained sparsely populated, but in that latter year fortunes turned: the discovery of gold at Ballarat, Bendigo, and other locations throughout the colony triggered one of the biggest gold rushes in world history. In the following decade Victoria’s population—and its thirst for wine—increased sevenfold as prospectors from around the world arrived to find their fortune. The Victorian wine industry hummed alongside the steady flow of gold; at its heyday in the latter half of the 19th century the colony produced over half of Australia’s wine. In the 1860s Geelong (west of Melbourne and southeast of the gold fields at Ballarat) became the most prodigious wine region in all of Australia. In his A Short History of Wine, historian Rod Phillips recalls: “At the 1873 Vienna Exhibition the French judges, tasting blind, praised some wines from Victoria but withdrew in protest when the provenance of the wine was revealed, on the grounds that wines of that quality must clearly be French.” Australia exported 145,600 cases of wine annually to the United Kingdom between 1860 and 1875, and much of it was Victorian in origin. Yarra vintner Hubert de Castella—who had purchased a sector of the original Yering property to found St. Hubert’s in 1862—speculated in his 1886 book John Bull’s Vineyard that Victoria could supply all the wine Britain might ever require.

Black Saturday

Throughout Australia, the ever-present eucalypt trees (“gum trees”) contain highly flammable eucalyptus oil, and the trees’ discarded dry bark acts as a powder keg in the Australian bush. Bush fires are a constant source of worry. On Saturday, February 7, 2009, high temperatures and extended drought conditions conspired to produce a series of violent firestorms throughout Victoria. “Black Saturday” resulted in 173 deaths as wind conditions changed rapidly, driving fires in unpredictable directions. In loss of life, it is Australia’s worst natural disaster to date; the state’s vineyards suffered serious losses as well. Decanter Magazine reported that 5% of Yarra Valley’s vineyards were damaged or destroyed, along with vineyards in Bendigo, Beechworth, Heathcote, and Gippsland. The CSIRO does not publically implicate climate change as a cause, but states on its website that “by 2020 we expect to see a greater number of extreme fire weather days, longer fire seasons and a greater potential for multiple fire events like those seen in the Victorian fires.”

Alas, the boom days would not last: with its appearance in a Geelong vineyard by 1877, phylloxera had arrived in Australia. Much of Victoria was devastated, particularly as the immediate official response was “death by extinction,” a criticism levied by viticultural expert François de Castella (son of Hubert). Rather than a sensible replanting on American rootstocks, the Victorian government ordered every vine in Geelong uprooted, bringing an instant end to Australia’s then-largest wine region. Rutherglen usurped its place and greatly surpassed it in size, becoming the Southern Hemisphere’s largest wine region by the time phylloxera struck its vineyards in 1899. Other regions throughout the state were similarly attacked in the late 19th century. In 1891 the boomtown of Beechworth had 70 ha of vines; in 1916 two hectares remained. Bendigo had about 220 ha of vines and 100 wineries in 1880; not a vineyard remained after phylloxera’s arrival in 1893. Phylloxera spared Yarra Valley (The bug did not arrive there until 2006!) but in the 1930s its vineyards were entirely grubbed up anyway to make room for pastureland. Crippled by phylloxera and hit hard by the domestic temperance movement, shortages of manpower during the World Wars, economic depression, and newfound competition from South Australia with the removal of interstate trade barriers, the wine industry in Victoria floundered during the early 20th century. By midcentury Rutherglen had realigned with the tastes of the day and was producing large quantities of sweet fortified wines, but by the 1960s there were only two-dozen wineries left in the state—and fourteen were located in Rutherglen.

Yet there were stirrings: the first modern winery in Yarra Valley (Wantirna Estate) was established in 1963, and Idyll Vineyard was planted in Geelong in 1966. Other regions in which viticulture was nearly or totally abandoned—Macedon Ranges, Sunbury, Bendigo, Beechworth, Heathcote—reemerged with new vines, and new areas, such as King Valley and Strathbogie Ranges, entered into viticulture.

Modern Victoria has rebounded—as of 2013 there are over 775 wineries in the state (more than any other state in the country) and 21 distinct GI regions. In 2010, Victoria provided 17% of Australia’s total wine grape tonnage. Unlike the other mainland Australian states, winegrowing occurs throughout Victoria; vineyards line the banks of the Murray River—marking the state’s border with New South Wales—and are planted throughout the cooler coastal regions of the Port Phillip zone and Henty GI. The Great Dividing Range, with its southernmost extremity at Grampians, shelters numerous wine regions between its low ridges. Overall, climate in Victoria turns markedly warmer as one moves inland, but it is tempered by elevation in the complex of numerous low mountain ranges that run through the state. Victoria is Australia’s most densely populated state, and there are wines for every taste, from crisp sparkling wines to raisiny and rich fortified wines, produced across a broad range of climates.

The Port Phillip Zone

Anyone can oak**** a wine. In any region. There’s no skill, art, or endeavor in that. Twenty years ago, we didn’t understand how to make wine. We just knew how to add more to everything. How to go from seven to eight, from nine to ten. Now we make medium-weight, elegant wines in Yarra Valley, not wines designed for hand-to-hand combat. Today I like our stuff. How do you make it? Irrelevant. How you grow it is much more important. We just want to make drinks that we like drinking.
– David Bicknell, Chief Winemaker, Oakridge

The Port Phillip Zone, termed the “dress circle of Melbourne” by James Halliday, surrounds the capital city and encircles the Port Phillip Bay—the shallow, collapsed delta of the Yarra River. The Rip, a small channel about 2 miles wide, connects the Port Phillip Bay with the Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean, and strong southwesterlies—chilling winds from the polar latitudes—help cool the zone. Climate is generally Mediterranean, and all five of the region’s zones are classified as either Region I or II in Winkler’s Scale of heat summation. Overall climate, cooled by wind, proximity to water, and—in the northern area of the Macedon Ranges—elevation, is cooler than what one would find in Bordeaux; thus, the region’s most successful varieties are Burgundian in origin. Cabernet Sauvignon struggles to ripen in many vintages. Climate change, however, has brought unpredictability. Many of the vast temperate rainforests that once covered the zone—and helped to regulate weather patterns—have been logged, and with ozone depletion the southern sunlight has a magnified impact on vines. In Yarra, Bicknell offers a real-world reminder: “Averages mean nothing anymore. In the mid-1990s we picked in early March for every variety; now we start picking in the first week of February.”

Yarra Valley GI

Zone: Port Phillip
Climate: Cool Maritime
Degree Days (°C): 1250-1352 (Region I)
Top Varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
Secondary Varieties: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot

Yarra Valley GI, a gentle, rolling and bucolic region, has boomeranged from the total loss of its wine industry in the 1930s to become the most important area of production in Victoria today, and one of Australia’s top fine wine regions. Regional stars Yarra Yering, Mount Mary, and Chateau Yarrinya (purchased by De Bortoli in the mid-1987) were established by the mid-1970s. Yeringberg and St. Hubert’s (sectors of the original Yering Station property) came back on line by 1975. In the mid-1980s, Halliday founded Coldstream Hills and the French Champagne giant Moët & Chandon established Domaine Chandon in Yarra Valley, bringing national and international fame back to the region. Now, Yarra Valley has just over 2,000 ha of vines. Pinot Noir is the region’s most planted variety, with Chardonnay coming in a close second. Together, the two grapes account for nearly 75% of Yarra Valley’s total acreage. Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, the valley’s second- and third-most planted red grapes, produce lighter and more elegant styles in Yarra’s cool climate. Shiraz—often labeled “Syrah” to tweak consumer expectations—is often attractively peppery, floral, and red-fruited. Whole cluster (or whole berry) fermentations and low levels of new oak are common amongst Syrah producers in Yarra. To the stereotype of American oak-driven Aussie Shiraz, De Bortoli Chief Winemaker Steve Webber retorts: “I don’t think there’s an American barrel in the Yarra.” The myth of high alcohol is also put to bed: levels over 13.5% are uncommon for any variety in the region.

Yarra Valley, alongside Margaret River in Western Australia, provides one of the top examples of Chardonnay in Australia. Here the prevailing modern style is stony and mineral rather than fat and tropical—a distinction Webber describes as “detailed” rather than “a bit blurred.” Malolactic fermentation is rare, and while barrel fermentations are common, new oak levels are generally restrained to one-third or less during maturation. Leesy characteristics frequently appear, and sweet citrus and melon flavors are common. Despite the level of its Chardonnay, Yarra Valley is best known internationally for the quality of its Pinot Noir. Yarra’s cool climate and generally lengthy growing season promotes a style that is, despite ripe red fruit character, somewhat leaner and lower in alcohol than those produced in Otago, the other premier Pinot Noir-growing region in Oceania. The valley contains two sectors: the warmer Lower Yarra Valley in the north, with its ancient sandy loam soils, and the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley in the south, where the soil is composed of younger red basalt. Pinot Noir from the Upper Yarra Valley tends to be more defined and mineral, whereas those from the valley floor in the Lower Yarra are often plumper and less aromatic. Preferences in clonal selections, so often at the forefront of Pinot Noir conversations elsewhere, are less emphasized in Yarra, yet many producers are focusing on Dijon clones 667 and 777 and/or MV6, a “mother vine” selection James Busby brought into the country in 1831 from Clos Vougeot.

The Yarra Valley in fall and spring.

South of the Yarra Valley, the slender Mornington Peninsula GI divides the Port Phillip Bay from the Bass Straight. Much of its expensive oceanfront real estate has been gobbled up by the wealthy elites of Melbourne for weekend homes, but winegrowing has taken hold between the tourists and holidays. Today there are about 900 ha of vines in the Mornington Peninsula, and over 60 wineries. With such significant maritime influence, Mornington Peninsula is overall—no surprise—quite cool, but climate can vary more than one might expect from such a small area. Red Hill, near the peninsula’s western tip—an area Ten Minutes by Tractor Winemaker Martin Spedding refers to as “up the hill”—is considerably cooler than the “down the hill” northeastern area near Moorooduc (a southern suburb of Melbourne), where the same grape variety might be harvested three weeks earlier. Despite these differences, the region can produce thrilling Pinot Noir—which accounts for almost half of the GI’s planted vineyards and about 85% of its red grape acreage—as well as good examples of Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. Across the bay, Geelong GI has revived its wine industry but it has never fully recovered its past glory. In 2012 Geelong was declared completely free of phylloxera, and today the region has almost 500 ha under vine, with producers—like their fellows around the Port Phillip Bay—pinning their hopes on Pinot Noir as the flagship variety. By Farr and Bannockburn are leading producers today. Geelong is the driest GI in the Port Phillip zone, and spring frosts and wind damage can be especially challenging here. The GI has three unofficial sub-regions: Surf Coast/Otways, the Bellarine—a peninsula that reaches out toward Mornington—and the Moorabool Valley, the beating heart of Victorian wine production in the 1860s and the center of the Geelong wine industry today. Port Phillip’s final two regions, Sunbury and Macedon Ranges, extend northward from Melbourne. Vineyards in the Macedon Ranges are generally between 400 and 600 meters in elevation; these are the highest vineyards in the Port Phillip zone and Macedon Ranges is the coolest region on the Australian mainland. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Shiraz are the most common varieties, and both still and sparkling wines are produced. Bindi Wine Growers is the most recognizable Macedon Ranges name worldwide, and one of Australia’s top boutique producers.

Central, North East, and North West Victoria Zones

Gold was discovered near Bendigo in 1851 and at Beechworth in 1852, and small wine industries followed. However, with the collapse of Geelong in 1875 the bulk of Victorian wine production moved northward. So did phylloxera. In Central Victoria, phylloxera landed in the neighboring wine regions of Heathcote and Bendigo in 1891 and 1893, respectively, and laid waste to their vineyards. Over a half-century would pass before viticulture was renewed in either region. Today, both are predominantly red wine-producing areas, and Heathcote has become highly regarded for the quality of its full-bodied, densely flavored Shiraz. Jasper Hill is one of its foremost producers in the region, and one of the marquee names in blockbuster-styled Shiraz in the country. Heathcote is a fraction cooler than Bendigo, but both are similar in climate and terrain: dry, warm, continental, and undulating in aspect, with Heathcote experiencing a more pronounced variation in elevation due to the ridgelines of the Mount Camel Range. The major difference lies underfoot: on the eastern side of Heathcote, a strip of red earth rich in 500-million-year-old Cambrian volcanic greenstone is especially prized for growing vines.

Northeast of Bendigo and Heathcote is the Goulburn Valley GI, a region with a lengthy—and continuous—history of viticulture. Tahbilk, Goulburn Valley’s first commercial winery, planted 25 hectares of vines in 1860, and managed to persist despite the advance of phylloxera in the late 1800s. A half-hectare of Tahbilk’s original, ungrafted vineyard survives today—thanks to alluvial, sandy soils deposited along the course of the Goulburn River that kept the bug at bay—and from this plot the winery produces one of Victoria’s most acclaimed bottlings of Shiraz. Shiraz is the most important grape in Goulburn Valley today; here it is more in line with the fuller, bolder styles of South Australia than the elegant, lifted Syrahs of Yarra. Tahbilk also counts some of the world’s oldest Marsanne vines (planted in 1927) amongst its holdings, and the estate was the sole operating winery remaining in the region during the dark years of the early 20th century. Today, Tahbilk and many of the other Goulburn Valley properties are clustered within the southern sub-region of Nagambie Lakes GI, where a complex of inland lakes and lagoons helps to moderate the otherwise quite warm and continental climate of the region. As one moves southeast from Nagambie into the folds of the Great Dividing Range, the climate turns cooler still with a corresponding increase in elevation. Here, Strathbogie Ranges GI and Upper Goulburn GI are sparse areas with no great tradition of viticulture. The highest vineyards in each zone climb to 600 and 800 meters above sea level, respectively, and vintner interest is increasingly shifting to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Rutherglen GI surrounds the historic, 19th century gold-mining town of the same name, and the Murray River provides its northern border. This warm, continental area is famous today for its unique—if somewhat unfashionable—sweet, fortified “stickies,” but the quiet, bygone region got its start slacking prospectors’ thirst with heavy red table wines in the heady gold rush days of the mid-19th century. Morris Wines was established in 1859 and All Saints Winery—the first in Rutherglen to win international acclaim—opened its doors in 1864. By 1906, seven years after phylloxera’s arrival, Rutherglen had nearly 3,000 hectares of vineyards. At the time it produced one-quarter of Australia’s wine and provided one-third of its exports, almost wholly destined for markets in the United Kingdom. Regrettably, phylloxera delivered one blow and the Great Depression delivered another: UK exports dried up and producers in the foothills around the old gold rush town shifted to fortified wine production in bulk to sate local palates. Fortified wines boomed through the mid-century; successes came in the form of fortified Muscat, “Sherry,” “Tawny,” “Tokay,” and other styles modeled on European wines. A small resurgence in table wines followed in the 1960s and 1970s. In the '60s, more than half of Victoria’s wineries were located in Rutherglen; however, the region has remained rather stagnant in plantings and size since then, particularly in comparison with Yarra Valley’s ascent. Today Rutherglen has about 800 hectares of vineyard landscape. Shiraz and Durif/Petit Sirah are the principal red grapes for table wines, and wineries in the region have invested in the (still unclear) success of white Rhône varieties. Despite waning interest in the category, the region’s most emblematic and exceptional wines remain its top fortified styles: Muscat and Topaque.

Rutherglen Muscat is one of the world’s sweetest, most ambrosial, and liqueur-like wines. It is released as a blend of vintages, whether in its fresh and floral youth or after years—even decades—of aging, during which the wine darkens and develops nutty, rancio complexity and concentration. The Muscat of Rutherglen Network, a producers’ syndicate established in 1995, has developed a voluntary and self-regulating four-tier classification system for the Muscat wines based on taste profile. The basic level, Rutherglen Muscat, showcases the orange and rosy aromatics of young Muscat in a saccharine, mouthcoating frame. “Classic” Muscat retains intense varietal aroma, but adds concentration and slight rancio tones. The greatest shift in color and style is at the “Grand” level, where the wines take on decidedly more oxidative tones and begin to show mature rancio character. The oldest, sweetest, most concentrated and most viscous wines are labeled “Rare.” Minimum age guidelines and residual sugar ranges are suggested rather than absolute: a “Rare” Muscat should taste as though it is at least 20 years of age—and often it will be much older—but there is no technical analysis to prove it. According to Colin Campbell (Campbells), “the whole system works on peer pressure,” much like the aging designations for Tawny Port.

Rutherglen GI

Zone: North East Victoria
Climate: Hot Continental
Degree Days (°C): 1770 (Region III)
Top Varieties: Shiraz, Brown Muscat, Durif
Secondary Varieties: Muscadelle

Brown Muscat (Muscat de Frontignan, or Muscat Rouge à Petit Grains) grows on deep “Rutherglen loam” and shrivels on the vine through long, dry late summers and early autumns. Botrytis is undesirable—and historically uncommon—as it ruins the varietal, terpene-laden character of Muscat grapes, but this process of passerillage is essential for concentration of sugar. By the Muscat harvest, usually carried out by early April, Brix levels may exceed 36°. Locals are fond of noting that, “it never rains until it rains on the march,” (Anzac Day, April 25) but climate change has brought summer showers and the specter of mold in recent years.

After the harvest, Rutherglen producers typically allow the Muscat grapes to undergo a short fermentation on the skins, consuming 20-40 g/l of sugar over the course of one or two days. The wine is then pressed and immediately fortified with a neutral 96° grape spirit, added—as in Port—in a one-to-four ratio. The wine matures for years, even decades, in various formats of old wood: 225-liter barriques, 300-liter hogsheads, and occasionally 500-liter puncheons and even larger oval casks, depending on the producer and the wine. As the wines mature in cask, evaporation sends a share to the angels, resulting in a net loss of around 5% per year and a greater concentration of sugar, acid, and alcohol in the remaining wine. Some producers use a solera system; others tend to keep lots and vintages separate, preferring to assemble blends just prior to bottling. Eight wineries today produce fortified Muscat wines: All Saints, Morris, Campbells, Chambers, Stanton & Killeen, Rutherglen Estates, Buller, and Pfeiffer.

Fortified Muscat may be the most concentrated and well-known wine of Rutherglen, but Topaque is perhaps the region’s most unique style. Formerly known as Tokay—a designation phased out through agreement with the EU—Topaque is a fortified wine made with Muscadelle grapes. In fact, it may be the world’s only fortified wine produced with the grape, an uncommon aromatic variety found in Bordeaux and Southwest France, and totally unrelated to any Muscat grape. Like Muscat, Muscadelle concentrates through passerillage, but it often hangs on the vine until the end of April, and accrues noticeably less sugar. Fermentation, fortification and aging procedures are similar to the processes associated with Muscat, and the same categories (Classic, Grand, etc.) are in place for Topaque. The final wines are lighter in color than Muscat, as they are produced from white rather than red grapes, and typically exhibit 30-40 g/l less residual sugar than Muscat wines in the same category. Winemaker Chris Pfeiffer (Pfeiffer Winery) highlights common Topaque aromatic descriptors: honey, cold tea, and sardine oil—the latter a not-at-all unpleasant, seaweed-like character that offers interesting counterbalance to otherwise sweet-smelling and candied aromas. With less intensity and greater acidity than fortified Muscat, Topaque is a better wine for the table, and the basic styles can be offered as a chilled aperitif (In place of Apera, perhaps?) over ice.

Other regions of the North East Victoria Zone include Glenrowan GI, which produces similar styles of dry reds and fortified wines as Rutherglen, and the progressively higher-elevation GIs of Alpine Valleys, Beechworth, and King Valley. Rainfall increases and climate cools slightly with altitude as one moves upward into the foothills and low ranges of the Victorian Alps (part of the Great Dividing Range). While red wine production continues to outweigh whites—particularly in Beechworth—white grapes like Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris have assumed greater importance. The most important red varieties currently are Pinot Noir and Bordeaux grapes; Shiraz and Durif, so popular in both Glenrowan and Rutherglen, take a backseat in these cooler appellations. In King Valley, much of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir fruit actually becomes blending material for sparkling wines. Wangaratta (King Valley’s northernmost point) and Rutherglen are separated by only 23 miles, but there is a nearly 700-meter difference in elevation between the highest vineyards in King Valley and those in Rutherglen—sparkling wines are plausible in the former and hot-climate fortified wines are the latter’s best bet.

Victoria’s warmest wine regions, Murray Darling GI and Swan Hill GI, are located in the North West Victoria zone, and they are shared with New South Wales. These dry inland areas, like South Australia’s Riverland GI, straddle the Murray River (Australia’s longest) and sustain viticulture and other commercial agriculture through steady irrigation. In drought cycles, such as the period that lasted through most of the 2000s, the Murray’s reduced flow becomes a serious cause for concern. Overall, Murray Darling GI and Swan Hill GI contain nearly 9,000 hectares of vines, accounting for about 6% of the entire Australian vineyard, and this is supermarket-brand territory: 92% of the wines produced in these GIs (which invariably carry the “South Eastern Australia GI” moniker) sell for less than five Australian dollars per liter.

Western Victoria and Gippsland Zones

Grampians GI and its single sub-region, Great Western GI, lie at the western end of the Great Dividing Range, where moderately high elevation (rising to 440 meters) tempers the climate. The cool but extremely arid area developed a historical reputation for sparkling wines, shouldered on the efforts of Great Western Winery, founded by Joseph Best in 1865 but now under the Seppelt name. In 1890 Charles Pierlot, a French winemaker who trained at Pommery, made Australia’s first-ever traditional method sparkling wine, at Great Western. In 1894, Pierlot’s boss, Hans Irvine, showed the winery’s first “Sparkling Burgundy” at a Melbourne wine show, and under legendary winemaker Colin Preece Great Western shepherded Australia’s unique sparkling red style through the depression-era years of 1930s, when all others had abandoned the style. Red grapes dominate Grampians today: in 2018 they accounted for over 80% of the harvest, led by Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Despite its historical image, Grampians is primarily a still red table wine producer, and styles of Shiraz from the region are often elegant, defined, and peppery—although the occasional sparkling example does appear. Pinot Noir and Riesling are also becoming winemaker favorites in the area, and the region’s best modern producer is, aptly, Best’s.

The Pyrenees GI is adjacent to the northeastern border of Grampians. Its name is yet another example of the Australian colonial prerogative to simply name new places for the old ones to which they bear the most resemblance. Here it was perhaps wishful thinking: the Pyrenees in Australia, one of the last ranges within the Great Dividing Range, rarely rises above 700 meters. Like Grampians, the focus is on red varieties like Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are richer and more full-throttled in Pyrenees than in Grampians. Henty GI, located along the southern coast in Victoria’s southwestern corner—and closer to Coonawarra than the regions of Port Phillip or Central Victoria—is on the opposite end of the spectrum: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Riesling are the dominant grapes in this genuinely cool region, and sparkling winemaking is a common pursuit. As in Grampians, Seppelt is the largest producer in this tiny region: their 100 ha vineyard at Drumborg, originally planted in 1964, accounts for nearly two-thirds of Henty’s total vine acreage.

On the eastern side of coastal Victoria, Gippsland is unique among the state’s zones in that it does not currently have any smaller GI regions within it. The sprawling zone extends eastward from the Yarra Valley along the Bass Strait coastline, and reaches into the Great Dividing Range just south of the King and Alpine Valleys. Viticulture first sprung up in the 19th century in the area of East Gippsland, but modern efforts are concentrated nearly 125 miles away, in West Gippsland—which abuts the Yarra Valley—and in the cooler, maritime climate of South Gippsland, home to one of Australia’s top producers of Pinot Noir, Bass Phillip. As in Yarra, Pinot Noir is currently the most planted grape in Gippsland. Given the huge distances and significant differences in climate between the three unofficial subzones, many producers would like to see GI regions within the zone defined, but the low level of production is an obstacle. As a region must produce at least 500 tonnes of fruit annually to merit consideration for GI status, the entire Gippsland zone, with only 190 ha under vine in 2019, is simply not large enough to currently warrant the creation of three distinct Geographical Indications.

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Western Australia

Capital: Perth

In 2019, the state of Western Australia (WA) comprised 7% of the total Australian vineyard area, and produced under 2% of the country’s total harvest. With over 1300 miles separating SA’s Adelaide from Perth (Western Australia’s only real center of population), the GI zones of Greater Perth and South West Australia are a world removed from the growing regions in southeastern Australia. Viticulture in WA is essentially confined to the coastal regions in the southwest, as much of the state’s vast inland desert and northern tropical regions are totally unsuitable for grape-growing. Like any major winegrowing region, growth usually occurs in proximity to a major market; that the wine industry in WA first developed in the hills and valleys surrounding Perth is no surprise. Thomas Waters, a botanist, planted Western Australia’s first vineyard in Swan Valley—now a sub-region of the Swan District GI—after his arrival with the first European fleet of settlers in 1829. Two of the state’s oldest wineries, Houghton and Sandalford, were founded in Swan Valley in 1836 and 1840, respectively. Today Perth’s northeastern suburbs are encroaching upon Swan Valley, and it has the rather notorious distinction of being Australia’s hottest GI in an era when pursuit of cooler climes drives the fine wine industry. In the 1980s more than half of WA’s wine was produced in Swan Valley; today, the volume of production has shifted from the Greater Perth zone to the South West Australia GIs of Margaret River, Great Southern, and Geographe.

South West Australia Zone

As far this writer is aware, this region has never been seriously proposed as suitable for commercial viticulture. Nevertheless a study of its climate shows that it merits serious consideration.
– Dr. John Gladstones on the potential of the Busseltown/Margaret River area, 1965, “The Climate and Soils of South-Western Australia in Relation to Vine Growing”

Margaret River GI, a coastal region bounded by the Geographe Bay and the Indian and Southern Oceans, is the state’s most acclaimed appellation and among the foremost areas for Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blends in the country today. This despite relative youth: Margaret River as a commercial wine region is barely a half-century old, and its original development was the result of scientific planning rather than historical accident. In 1965, Dr. John Gladstones, a local agronomist, presented his research on the suitability of the region for grape-growing to a group of local landowners—“mad doctors in run-down dairy country,” one elder winemaker recollects—and the first experimental plantings followed in 1966. In 1971 Dr. Tom Cullity’s Vasse Felix label produced the first commercial Margaret River wine—a Riesling. That first, raucous release party, attended by local farmers used to the alcohol levels of beer (rather than wine) is the stuff of local legend! Efforts with Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Shiraz followed soon thereafter. The “Gladstones Line”—the line of longitude 115° 18’ E—established the modern appellation’s eastern border, essentially following alongside the Whicher Range. With further research in 1999, Dr. Gladstones proposed six unofficial subzones, cataloged not by soil profile but by the drainage direction for the region’s numerous rivers and creeks, which corresponded to the direction of air flow systems. The coastal zones, from north to south, are Yallingup, Wilyabrup, Wallcliffe, and Karridale. Carbunup lies on the Geographe Bay east of Cape Naturaliste in Yallingup, and Treeton is an inland region, with the warmest summer daytime temperatures but also the greatest diurnal variation. The heart of the appellation is Wilyabrup, home to three of the appellation’s “first five” producers: Vasse Felix, Cullen, and Moss Wood. The other two pioneers in the region, Leeuwin Estate and Cape Mentelle, are located in Wallcliffe, a cooler subzone that follows the course of the Margaret River as it flows westward into the Indian Ocean. The Blackwood River flows into the Southern Ocean in Karridale, home to some of the region’s best Sauvignon Blanc—crisp, cool, and often reflecting a pure snow pea character.

Margaret River GI

Zone: South West Australia
Climate: Warm Mediterranean with Maritime influence
Degree Days (°C): 1690 (Region III)
Top Varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chardonnay
Secondary Varieties: Shiraz, Merlot, Malbec

Margaret River stands alongside Coonawarra as one of the country’s premium sources of Cabernet Sauvignon, and has pushed in the last decade to surpass it. According to local folklore, the grape arrived in Western Australia with Thomas Waters and other early European settlers, who picked up pre-phylloxera cuttings on their voyage around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and planted vines near Perth. From these original South African cuttings came the “Houghton” selections, first established at the 175-year-old winery of the same name in Swan Valley, which provided the original source material for Cabernet vines in Margaret River. Margaret River’s general climate is Mediterranean—dry summers and rainy winters—and while marginally warmer than Coonawarra or the Médoc, Dr. Gladstones determined that its similarity in climate to Bordeaux held promise for varieties from that region. Cabernet Sauvignon from the red gravelly loam soils of Wilyabrup is the star: in warm vintages they are ripe yet moderate in weight, with bright acidity, dark berry, savory bay leaf herbal flavors and red capsicum notes. South of Wilyabrup, the cooler Wallcliffe often produces more austere and herbal Cabernet Sauvignon wines, but the sub-region excels with Chardonnay. The “Golden Triangle” within Wallcliffe—coined by James Halliday, the Golden Triangle comprises Leeuwin Estate, Cape Mentelle, and Voyager Estate—has been home to top Australian Chardonnay for two decades, and the entire region today delivers inspiring examples. Many of Margaret River’s Chardonnay vineyards are planted with the Gingin clone, a hen-and-chicken Chardonnay clone named after a town north of Perth, but better known as Mendoza elsewhere. While some producers are moving to Bernard (Dijon) clones in Margaret River, Gingin provides the base for the region’s classic style of rich, phenolic wines framed with taut acidity, accented by flavors of peach and lime. New oak is prominent but handled with finesse, and flinty, sulfite-derived character in “Chardy” has become a regional signature.

In the 1980s, all Cabernet was picked at 12.4° Baumé. In the '90s people started to pick on flavor ripeness and wines got bigger, but in the '00s we started to look at the vineyards more, and make wines in a more ‘sympathetic’ way. From the mid-2000s forward, we are starting to see more of the elegance and finesse of great Cabernet coming in, and we have entered an era of more attention to our vineyards and wines.
–Virginia Willcock, Chief Winemaker, Vasse Felix

Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay are the region’s most respected wines internationally, but the engine room of local production is the Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend. Varietal Semillon was a regular entry in producer portfolios two decades ago, but today the blend (SBS or SSB) is a much more saleable venture. A wide array of crisp, unoaked wines are available, but the region can also produce high quality, oak-driven wines with Graves-like character, a style introduced by veteran Margaret River winemaker Stuart Pym (Stella Bella) after a season’s stint at Domaine de Chevalier.

The first bottle of red wine commercially
released in Margaret River.

Margaret River joined the winners’ circle of Australian wine regions in fairly short order, whereas the expansive Great Southern GI—another area promoted by Gladstones in 1965—remains emergent, still struggling to carve a cohesive regional identity. In a 1956 report, Professor Harold Olmo (UC Davis) recommended a shift in table wine production from the hotter climate of the Perth Hills to the cooler apple-growing regions of Mount Barker and the Frankland River, which lay inland off the southern coastline of WA. Gladstones’ endorsement followed: “Certainly, this area, lying on the borders of Region I and II (Winkler heat summation zones), would be greatly superior to the Swan Valley for table wine making.” Although the commercial possibilities of the Mount Barker region were explored as early as the 1930s, Olmo and Gladstones amplified enthusiasm for viticulture in the area. Riesling vines at Forest Hill in Mount Barker date to 1965, and respected Houghton’s winemaker Jack Mann, whose career spanned five decades, Great Southern’s first red wine from Forest Hill Cabernet grapes in 1972. In the isolation of Western Australia, he developed some of his own intuitive techniques—Mann crushed his grapes with a butcher’s mincer.

Today, the Great Southern GI includes five official sub-regions: the inland GIs of Mount Barker, Frankland River, and Porongurup; and the coastal GIs of Denmark and Albany. Albany is the site of Western Australia’s oldest permanent settlement and the spot from which Britain formally claimed Western Australia for the crown, on Christmas Day 1826. Climate in Albany and Denmark is strongly influenced by cool ocean breezes moving northward from the Antarctic, and diurnal temperature range is minimal. Both areas produce promising, if not totally evolved, examples of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In the inland areas of Porongurup and Mount Barker the climate turns more continental, and Riesling and Shiraz are the most dominant varieties. Mount Barker, the Great Southern’s most established sub-region and its center of production, is home to the regional pioneers Forest Hill Vineyard and Plantagenet. Overall, the wine industry in Great Southern continues to grow, but—with over 250 miles separating Albany from Perth—the region remains isolated, a wide expanse of rocky and savage coastline, gum tree forests, rolling hills and pastureland, where grazing animals outnumber persons and the nearest continent is Antarctica.

85% of Western Australia’s vines are located in the South West Australia zone, and the lion’s share is divided amongst Margaret River and Great Southern. Geographe GI is the state’s third-largest appellation (nearly 800 ha of vines in 2019) and another relative newcomer to viticulture—Capel Vale, Geographe’s most important producer today, planted the region’s first vines in 1974. The GI sweeps northward from the Gladstones Line along the seaboard of the bay of the same name—so named in dedication to le Géographe, vessel of the French explorer Nicolas Baudin, who mapped its coastline in 1800. It contains four distinct areas: Donnybrook, Ferguson Valley, Harvey, and the Capel-Busselton coastline. The focus in Geographe has always been on red varieties, with Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon leading the pack, but Semillon-Sauvignon Blanc blends are gaining steam as their popularity inflates next door in Margaret River. Other GIs in the region are younger still, and less tested: Blackwood Valley GI’s first vines were planted in 1976, whereas Pemberton GI—home to some surprisingly good Chardonnay—and Manjimup GI did not see the advent of commercial vineyards until the 1980s.

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Tasmania

Capital: Hobart

Located off the coastline of Victoria, the island state of Tasmania is Australia’s coolest and southernmost wine-producing area. Bartholomew Broughton planted Tasmania’s first commercial vineyard in 1823, predating the vine’s arrival in South Australia and Victoria. With about 1,700 hectares of vines, the state’s wine industry is dwarfed by that of many single regions and most zones on the mainland. Individual, unofficial regions exist on the island, but Tasmania GI is the state’s sole appellation. (One winemaker, Natalie Fryar of the Jansz Wine Company, describes further division as little more than “late night private talk,” as the focus in this tiny state is best kept on “Tassie” itself.) The island can however be broadly divided between its northern and southern sectors. The center of production is the Tamar Valley region in Northern Tasmania, where over one-third of the state’s vines are located, and the most important region in Southern Tasmania is the Coal River area, just north of Hobart. The climate of Northern Tasmania is similar to that of Champagne or the Rheingau, and Southern Tasmania is even cooler, although long sunshine hours during the growing season promote slow, even ripening. Overall, white grapes—Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Riesling—outnumber red plantings by a slim margin, but Pinot Noir is still by far the most planted variety. Overall, the island’s climate is perfectly suited for sparkling winemaking, as finesse, elegance, and acidity are easily maintained. In 2019, Tasmanian producers transformed 71% of the total Chardonnay harvest and 37% of the Pinot Noir fruit into sparkling wines. One in every two bottles from the island is bubbly, and Tasmania’s traditional method sparkling wines are without a doubt Australia’s best efforts in the category. Jansz, a property now owned by Yalumba but founded in the early 1980s as a joint venture between Louis Roederer and Heemskerk Wines, is the eldest commercial producer of sparkling wines and one of the premier wineries in Tasmania.

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Queensland

Capital: Brisbane

Queensland is the least significant state in Australia in terms of wine, and conditions throughout much of it render viticulture improbable. Inland climate turns desert-like west of the Great Dividing Range, and coastal climates shift from subtropical to tropical as one moves north. The summer-dominant rainfall patterns evidenced further south in the wine regions of Hunter and Hastings River intensify in coastal Queensland. To date, Granite Belt GI, a region on the border with New South Wales and adjacent to New England Australia GI, has produced the state’s best wines. Granite Belt is situated in the high country along the Great Dividing Range’s spine, with vineyards planted at 700 meters above sea level and higher. With its altitude, climate becomes continental despite the majority of rainfall occurring during the growing season. The region’s first modern vineyard—one hectare of Shiraz—was planted in 1965, and Shiraz remains its most successful variety. Over two-thirds of plantings are red grapes. The state’s other GI, South Burnett, is the northernmost wine region in Australia, and it experiences a fully subtropical climate. South Burnett was approved in 2001 as Queensland’s first GI, yet the first commercial vineyards in the area were planted as recently as 1993. Producers in the region have had some success with Verdelho, but this is an unequivocally hot and humid region, and challenges for fine wine production are legion. Other unofficial wine regions in Queensland include Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and the environs of Brisbane, but as of 2013 none meets the minimum level of production required for GI approval. The state of Queensland experienced more rapid wine industry growth than any other in the early 2000s, but it has reversed with the contraction of Australia’s overall wine sector in recent years. While the local market of Brisbane provides a home for the state’s wines and tourists for its cellar doors, any future for the state as an internationally recognized producer of quality wines will be an uphill battle.

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Contents

Introduction to Australia

Wine Australia: The Label Integrity Program and Geographical Indications

Technology in Viticulture and Winemaking

South Australia

New South Wales

Victoria

Western Australia

Tasmania

Queensland