Australia
Varied: warm Mediterranean to cool maritime
A warm, dry Southern Hemisphere powerhouse where old-vine Shiraz, modern winemaking and cool-climate refinement coexist.
Overview
About Australia
Vines arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, and by the 19th century South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales all had established wine industries. Australian wine regions are defined by Geographical Indications, and its best-known are Barossa, Hunter Valley, Coonawarra, Margaret River and the Yarra Valley. Shiraz is the leading red and Chardonnay the leading white.
Australian producers were early adopters of the screwcap, notably the Clare Valley Riesling producers who switched in 2000. Phylloxera never reached much of South Australia, which is why vines there — in Barossa, McLaren Vale — can be more than a century old.
Where is a grape grown?
Hover a marker to see what's grown there, and click it to open that place. On a touch screen, tap once to preview and again to open. Bigger markers have more grapes linked to them.
Australia
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Varied: warm Mediterranean to cool maritime
Mostly warm to hot and dry, with cooler conditions created by latitude (Tasmania), altitude and the influence of the Southern Ocean (Yarra Valley, Margaret River).
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Some of the oldest and most weathered soils on earth: nutrient-poor, ancient and often leached, alongside the red terra rossa over limestone of Coonawarra and deep loams in the warm valleys.
Go deeper
How the wines are classified
Australia's wine regions are nested legal areas, and the country has no official quality ranking of wines.
Geographical Indications
A nested hierarchy: state, then zone, then region, then sub-region, such as South Australia, Barossa, Barossa Valley.
The 85% rule
A wine must contain at least 85% of the stated region, grape and vintage.
Langton's Classification
An independent ranking of collectable Australian wines, not a legal system.
Within Australia
Regions
Barossa Valley
Australia's most famous old-vine Shiraz country, in the warm hills north-east of Adelaide.
Clare Valley
A cool, high valley north of Adelaide, and the home of Australia's most distinctive dry Riesling, with Shiraz and Cabernet on the warmer slopes.
Hunter Valley
Australia's oldest wine region, north of Sydney, known for long-lived, low-alcohol dry Sémillon.
McLaren Vale
A coastal wine region south of Adelaide, known for generous Shiraz and Grenache from old vines and some of Australia's oldest plantings.
What's grown here
Grapes
Grapes linked to Australia or to a place within it. Each grape's page links back here.