New World
Australia wine
Shiraz country, but also home to some of the world’s oldest producing vines and a serious cool-climate sector.
Overview
Australia holds vineyards planted in the nineteenth century that have never been grafted, because phylloxera never reached South Australia. Barossa Shiraz and Grenache from these old vines are among the country’s most distinctive wines.
The style story of the last twenty-five years has been a deliberate move away from very ripe, heavily oaked wines towards fresher, more restrained expressions — most visibly in Chardonnay, where Australian producers substantially reset the international style.
Clare and Eden Valley Riesling is a category of its own: bone dry, intensely limey and long-lived, quite unlike German Riesling despite the shared grape.
Predominantly warm to hot, with important cool pockets in Tasmania, the Adelaide Hills, the Yarra Valley and Margaret River.
Regions
cool · high-altitude
Adelaide Hills
A cool, high region above Adelaide, producing precise Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
warm · mediterranean
Barossa Valley
South Australia’s most famous region, and the home of dense old-vine Shiraz.
moderate · continental
Clare Valley
South Australia’s other great Riesling region, producing bone-dry, lime-driven wines.
cool · maritime
Coonawarra
A narrow strip of red *terra rossa* soil producing Australia’s most distinctive Cabernet Sauvignon.
cool · high-altitude
Eden Valley
A cool, high sub-region above the Barossa, producing benchmark Australian Riesling.
maritime · cool
Geelong
A cool, windy region west of Melbourne, and the site of Australia’s most thorough phylloxera eradication.
maritime · moderate
Great Southern
Australia’s largest wine GI by area, in the far south-west corner of the continent, with five distinct sub-regions.
warm · maritime
Hunter Valley
Australia’s oldest wine region, and the source of a Semillon style found nowhere else.
maritime · moderate
Margaret River
Western Australia’s premier region, known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon–Sauvignon Blanc blends.
mediterranean · warm
McLaren Vale
A maritime South Australian region known for supple Shiraz and a strong Grenache revival.
maritime · cool
Mornington Peninsula
A cool maritime peninsula south of Melbourne, surrounded by water on three sides, specialising in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
continental · hot
Rutherglen
A hot inland region in north-east Victoria making fortified Muscat of a concentration produced nowhere else on earth.
cool · maritime
Tasmania
Australia’s coolest wine state, and its most important source of traditional-method sparkling wine.
cool · maritime
Yarra Valley
A cool Victorian region near Melbourne, central to Australia’s move towards restrained styles.
Wines
Grapes grown here
Reading the label
Terms that appear on Australia labels, with the meaning they carry there specifically.
| Term | What it means | Legal status |
|---|---|---|
| Old Vine | Almost universally undefined — a claim rather than a standard. | not defined |
Sources
Sources consulted
- Wine Australia — regions, GIs and market information — Wine Australia
- The Australian Wine Research Institute — AWRI