Australia and New Zealand Study Guide

Although Australia’s history of viticulture is relatively short—vines arrived on the continent with the First Fleet of British prisoners in 1788—the country has made its mark on the global wine market and is now a huge exporter of both its wines and its winemaking methodology.

In its earliest days as an English penal colony, Australia’s winemaking suffered from little expertise. However, free settlers from Europe began to arrive, spurred by the promise of gold, and the vine flourished, spreading from New South Wales throughout the southeast by 1850. Over 6000 liters of wine was exported to Britain by 1854. A burgeoning population thirsted for wine in the colony as well, and many small wineries sprung up throughout New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia to meet the new demand. Penfolds and Lindemans, two of Australia’s most recognizable brands—both are now owned by Treasury Wine Estates—launched during this early period. 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, further harming the industry, but officials took strict and immediate measures to combat the spread of phylloxera, confining it to Victoria and a portion of New South Wales. While the root louse decimated the Victorian wine industry—Australia’s most important wine area in the late 1800s—it cleared the way for South Australia to emerge as the continent’s largest region of production. A second key factor in South Australia’s