Australia Wine Regions: Not Just Shiraz

Australia spent millions of dollars to build a brand around Shiraz –Australia’s word for Syrah. The marketing paved the way for Australia wine production to triple since 1990. However, despite the success, Australian wines have suffered some serious drawbacks in the media. Wine critics often disregard most Aussie wine as “Critter Wines” –referring to the cute animal designs that adorn wine labels.
 
It’s time to dig deeper than the bottom shelf at the grocery store and find out what Australia wine regions are all about. There’s more to Australian wine than Yellow Tail and Little Penguin.
 

Major Australia Wine Regions Map

 

What is Australia Known For?

As you might guess, Australia’s main vineyard produce is Shiraz followed by Chardonnay. The two varieties make up 44% of the total wine production. What the production totals don’t say is that Australia is trying to diversify. Many of the Chardonnay and Shiraz plantings are being ripped out in favor of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc.

Where is Australian Wine Country?

The largest wine production region by far is South Australia. One major city in South Australia is home to the Australian Wine Research Institute (awri). AWRI is responsible for much of the world’s research on dry farming techniques and commercial wine operation. Besides South Australia, keep your eyes peeled for the two up-and-coming wine regions: Western Australia and Victoria.
 

 

Top Australia Wine Regions

The three major wine regions in Australia by shear volume are South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. South Australia and NSW tend to be more famous for their warm climate varieties such as Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon whereas Victoria is known for cool climate-loving Pinot Noir.

South Australia

Adelaide is the hub of the largest wine growing region in Australia. A few miles from Adelaide is Barossa Valley, South Australia’s most prestigious growing area. It’s interesting to note that the majority of the wine from the area is actually grown in Lower Murray and Fleurieu (see the geeky list of GIs below)

 
Barossa Valley–oldest living vineyards in the world?!
45 minutes from Adelaide are the rolling hills of Barossa Valley. The region is unique because of its isolation from the rest of the world. Phylloxera hasn’t yet infected vineyard soils in Barossa, which means it’s home to some of the oldest living vineyards in the world.
 

 
What to seek out from South Australia
Old Vine Shiraz is definitely top notch, it’s both smoky and rich with spice. Famous producers in the area include Penfolds, Elderton and Rockford. Keep your eyes peeled for red blends called GSM: Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre –The major blending grapes used in French Southern Rhone wines.

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Barossa Valley is flanked by 2 famous regions for white wine. Clare Valley produces some of the richest Riesling in Australia and Eden Valley is known for its very minerally and dry Rieslings.

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New South Wales

The major production in New South Wales comes from the inland Big Rivers Zone. This area has historically produced much of the commercial Chardonnay and Shiraz from Australia. However, because of severe drought in recent years, more wine grape growers are experimenting with drought friendly varieties like Tempranillo and Verdelho.

Victoria

Commercial winemaking in North West Victoria makes up the majority of wine production in the entire region. However, the growing areas of interest are cooler and closer to Melbourne such as Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. The cool climate areas in Victoria have received a lot of praise for their Pinot Noir.

 

 

List of Australia Wine Regions

South Australia

Zone	Geographic Indication (GI)
Barossa	Barossa Eden Valley
Mount Lofty Ranges	Adelaide Hills Adelaide Plains Clare Valley
Fleurieu	McClaren Vale Southern Fleurieu Kangaroo Island Currency Creek Langhorne Creek
Limestone Coast	Coonawarra Mount Benson Robe Mount Gambier Padthaway Wrattonbully
Lower Murray	Riverland
Far North	Southern Flinders Ranges

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New South Wales

Zone	Geographic Indication (GI)
Big Rivers	Murray Darling Riverina Swan Hill Perricoota
Hunter Valley	Hunter
Central Ranges	Mudgee Orange Cowra
Northern Rivers	Hangings River
South Coast	Shoalhaven Coast Southern Highlands
Southern NSW	Canberra District Hilltops Gundagai Tumbarumba

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Victoria

Zone	Geographic Indication (GI)
Port Phillip	Mornington Peninsula Geelong Yarra Valley Macedon Ranges Sunbury
NW Victoria	Murray Darling Swam Hill
Central Victoria	Goulburn Valley Strathbogie Ranges Upper Goulburn Heathcote Bendigo
Western Victoria	Henty Grampians Pyrenees
NE Victoria	Glenrowan King Valley Beechworth Rutherglen Alpine Valleys

Western Australia

Zone	Geographic Indication (GI)
SW Australia	Margaret River Geographe Great Southern Pemberton Blackwood Valley Manjimup
Greater Perth	Peel Perth Hills Swan District

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Queensland

Granite Belt and South Burnett

Tasmania

Tasmania has a Southeastern growing area and a Northern growing area both under the Tasmania GI
 
Sources
Australia wine statistics including Chardonnay and Shiraz accounting for 44% of production, size of acreage, production volume statistics and variety breakdowns from wineaustralia.com

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