Australia is the world's sixth-largest wine producer, with around 65 designated wine regions spread across every mainland state and Tasmania. What makes it unusual is not volume but age: because phylloxera, the aphid that destroyed Europe's vineyards in the nineteenth century, never reached South Australia, some of the oldest producing vines on the planet grow there on their own roots.
Barossa Valley
Lutheran settlers from Silesia and Prussia began planting in the Barossa in 1842. Their vines survived. Langmeil's Freedom vineyard was planted in 1843, Turkey Flat in 1847, and Henschke's Hill of Grace in the 1860s — all still producing Shiraz today. Nowhere else in the world can offer that continuity.
Barossa Shiraz is the archetype of Australian red: dark, ripe, generous, built to age. The valley is an hour from Adelaide, and most cellar doors are within twenty minutes of each other.
Penfolds Grange
In 1951 the winemaker Max Schubert made an experimental Shiraz inspired by a trip to Bordeaux. The company board tasted the early vintages, hated them, and ordered him to stop. He continued in secret from 1957 to 1959. When those wines matured, the board reversed itself.
Grange is now the most collected wine in Australia and was added to the South Australian Heritage Register in 2001 — the only wine anywhere granted heritage listing.
The other regions worth the drive
- Hunter Valley, New South Wales — the country's oldest wine region, planted in the 1820s. Its Semillon is unique: picked early, bottled at 10 or 11 percent alcohol, nearly neutral when young, and after fifteen or twenty years extraordinary. Two hours from Sydney.
- Margaret River, Western Australia — planted only from 1967, it produces about 3 percent of Australia's wine but a fifth of its premium bottles. Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Three hours south of Perth, with surf beaches attached.
- Coonawarra, South Australia — a narrow strip of terra rossa soil over limestone that makes Cabernet of unusual precision.
- Clare Valley — dry Riesling with piercing lime acidity, and the region that led the switch to screwcaps in 2000. Around 90 percent of Australian wine is now sealed that way, including bottles meant to age for decades.
- Yarra Valley and Tasmania — cool climate, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and increasingly serious sparkling wine.
Visiting
- Cellar door is the local term for a winery tasting room. Most are open daily; small producers may ask you to call ahead.
- Tastings often carry a small fee, usually waived if you buy a bottle.
- Drink-driving limits are strictly enforced at 0.05. Take a tour, hire a driver, or stay in the valley.
- Wineries will arrange international shipping, which is generally cheaper and simpler than carrying bottles home.