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Australia

Contents

  1. Introduction to Australia
  2. Wine Australia: The Label Integrity Program and Geographical Indications
  3. Technology in Viticulture and Winemaking
  4. South Australia
  5. New South Wales
  6. Victoria
  7. Western Australia
  8. Tasmania
  9. Queensland

Introduction to Australia

In 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip landed the First Fleet, eleven ships whose passengcers 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,
Anonymous
Parents
  • over 2 years ago

    The section on Mudgee GI includes the following text: ‘Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are the region’s most planted varieties, and red grapes outnumber white grapes by four to one.’ I, for one, would be curious to know the source for that claim. James Halliday’s Wine Atlas of Australia 2014 Edition has Shiraz as the most-planted grape variety based on 2012 data. And it’s odd that Wine Australia’s site does not include Shiraz as one of the ‘Top Varieties Grown in Mudgee’, yet Wine Australia’s 2021 Vintage Report (available here) indicates that Shiraz had more tons produced than any other grape variety in the Mudgee GI. Furthermore, Wine Australia’s VinSites project states that area-by-grape-variety data have not been collected since 2015, which makes me wonder when the data were collected and where they were reported . . .

Comment
  • over 2 years ago

    The section on Mudgee GI includes the following text: ‘Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are the region’s most planted varieties, and red grapes outnumber white grapes by four to one.’ I, for one, would be curious to know the source for that claim. James Halliday’s Wine Atlas of Australia 2014 Edition has Shiraz as the most-planted grape variety based on 2012 data. And it’s odd that Wine Australia’s site does not include Shiraz as one of the ‘Top Varieties Grown in Mudgee’, yet Wine Australia’s 2021 Vintage Report (available here) indicates that Shiraz had more tons produced than any other grape variety in the Mudgee GI. Furthermore, Wine Australia’s VinSites project states that area-by-grape-variety data have not been collected since 2015, which makes me wonder when the data were collected and where they were reported . . .

Children
  • over 2 years ago in reply to Keith Mattrick

    Hi Keith, the data likely came from Wine Australia, but I can't be sure which report. I've softened the language above and included Shiraz. While tonnage and acreage %s can be wildly different, it's difficult to imagine that Shiraz is not among the most highly planted based on the 2020 data. However, it's worth keeping in mind that 2020 was a not a typical vintage there, and it's difficult to know the role that drought and fires/smoke may have played on the yields.

    Taking a look at Mudgee's regional site, it looks like they may be trying to deemphasize Shiraz and Cabernet in the future, so perhaps this is why Shiraz does not appear on Mudgee's page on Wine Australia's site.

  • over 2 years ago in reply to Jennifer Angelosante

    At every turn, things only get more fascinating. Thanks for the additional background, Jennifer, very helpful to know!

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