WINES OF AUSTRALIA

  • Australia in terms of wine making is pretty young and new in the field.
  • Captain Arthur Philip, first Governer of new south wales, in 1788 planted the first vines.
  • He took help of French prisoners of war whom he brought from England.
  • Australia viticulture owes most to James busby, a teacher in an orphanage.
  • He collected 20000, cuttings of 678 varieties of vine in 1834 and planted the same in Victoria, near Melbourne and in south Australia.
  • Australia’s best wines are named after the grape, they are made from, known as varietal wine.
  • Grape varieties used for making wines in Australia:
  • Dry white:- Chardonnay, Rhine Riesling, Muscat, Chenin blanc, Semillon, Gewurzteraminer, Sauvignon Blanc.
  • Sweet White: Muscat, Riesling
  • Red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Shiraz, Melboc.

LAW OF AUSTRALIAN WINE

  • PFDR (PURE FOOD AND DRUG REGULATION: It is the governing body for regulating the production of wines. Federal government custom officers from the excise department maintain vigil over wine production.

WINE REGIONS OF AUSTRALIA

  1. SOUTH AUSTRALIA:

It produces more than 50% of all the wine produced in Australia. The wine growing areas range from enormous (River Land), to medium size (Barossa –Eden, Adelaide Hills, Southern Vales and Langhorne Creek), to small (Adelaide plains, Clare Valley and water vale, Connawarre and Padthaway.

  • RIVER LAND: produces everyday wine. Muscat and Shiraz are most popular.
  • THE ADELAIDE PLAINS: this region produces Australia’s most famous wine, max Schubert;s Grange Hermitage from Penholds.
  • BAROSSA: it is responsible for over 25 percent of Australia’s grape production. Good Shiraz wines are made here.
  • ADELAIDE HILLS: It is famous for Petaluma wines and wines from Piccadily vineyards.
  • CLARE VALLEY AND WATERVALE: they produce best Rhine Rieslings, crisp herbaceous Sauvignon Blanc.
  • PADTHAWAY/KEPPOCH: it is known for their Chardonnays. Area is controlled by producers like Hardy’s Seppelt and Lindeman’s.
  • CONNAWARA: it produces Cabernet Sauvignon Ired) and Shiraz (rich berry flavoured (red). The large companies like Lindemans and Mildara, small one like Bowen Estatre Operate in this valley.
  • Main producers of South Australia:

Berry Estates, Hardy’s, Henschke, Kaiser Stuhl, Krondorf, Lindemans, Orlando, Pen fold, Petaluma, Seppelt, Wolff Blass, Wynns and Yalumba.

WINES OF VICTORIA

  • One of the Victoria’s greatest assets is versatility because of its climate being very hot to more temperate.
  • It produces wide range of wines, although it is a smallest state.
  • Seppelts produces delicious sparkling wine using champagne grapes i.e. Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay.

WINES OF TASMANIA:

  • This island to the South of Victoria is a very small producer concentrating on Chardonnay, Rhine Riesling, Pinot Noir, and sparkling wines.

NEW SOUTH WALES:

  • It is a home to many of Australia’s smaller top white wine producers. The hunter valley is the state’s centre of quality wine production. The region is famous for Chardonnays, Classy Shirazes and dry rich Semillons.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA:

  • The best vineyards are the Margaret and Swan Rivers. The superb wines of this region are Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Shiraz and Pinot Noir.
  • Famous producers are: Broken wood, Hungerford Hill, Peterson’s, Robson, Rosemount, Tulloch, Wollundry

For more info go to link: https://vineyards.com/wine-map/Australia