Wine travelling in Australia

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Question submitted by William Richmond, USA

Good day.While I’m sure you must get this question frequently, the answer is bound to change as regions and wineries develop. I’m planning a three week trip to Australia later this year and am wondering which wine producing regions I should visit – I’m well-acquainted and rather fond of Napa/Sonoma Cabs & Chards, if that’s of any help. Thank you for your guidance!
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There has never been a better time to visit Australia’s wine regions. Today most wineries are focusing more than ever on how they can make their visitors’ time memorable. Many now operate excellent restaurants and offer visitors to the cellar door a wider range of wines than they sell through retailers and restaurants. Here are a few suggestions for the wine traveler. It’s far from exhaustive, so if you want to find out more, talk to your local Australian tourism office.

South Australia produces around half the winegrapes crushed in Australia and is still the heartbeat of this country’s wine industry. Its capital, Adelaide, is close to a number of excellent and distinctive regions, and it’s possible to move easily from one to the other by car.

An hour north of Adelaide is the Barossa Valley, which over the two decades has developed remarkably. Its heritage has been respected and restored, while the new developments like the Wolf Blass Winery of Fosters Wine Estates are nothing short of spectacular. Home to its traditional reds of shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, plus its local speciality of lightly oaked semillon, the Barossa is perhaps also the only region in Australia with a truly authentic and indigenous food culture.

If you leave the Barossa through Angaston, a stunning road indeed one of my favourite drives in all Australia takes you through the Eden Valley and into the Adelaide Hills. Eden Valley is rocky and dry, but produces some of the finest rieslings and shiraz in the country. While some warmer Adelaide Hills sites are proving very successful with shiraz and viognier, this essentially cool region overlooking the city of Adelaide is really a specialist in the white varieties of chardonnay and sauvignon blanc.

South of Adelaide is McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula. Another major shiraz destination, McLaren Vale has retained its modest rustic and timeless charm. Boasting great local food, it’s another must-visit region in South Australia. North of the Barossa is the Clare Valley, the other benchmark riesling region also famous for shiraz, semillon and rustic blends of cabernet and malbec. It’s a little further from Adelaide and an essential stop en route to the Flinders Ranges, but its patchwork quilt-like combination of rolling hills, bushland, vineyards and ancient by Australian standards, at least townships is memorable in the least.

The southeast of South Australia, which lies about half-way between Adelaide and the Victorian capital of Melbourne, contains some pretty serious red wine regions such as Coonawarra and Wrattonbully, plus the spawling Padthaway area. The best visits in this area are around Coonawarra, a cabernet specialist region that is rediscovering its shiraz, where it’s possible to visit a large number of wineries clustered very closely together.

Victoria is a wine visitor’s dream come true. A large and ethnically diverse city, Melbourne is unquestionably Australia’s capital of wine and food, with an extremely competitive and highly capable hospitality industry. It’s surrounded by wine regions, from Geelong to the Macedon Ranges and Sunbury, to the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula. A little further afield are the Goulburn Valley, Bendigo, Heathcote and the Yea Valley. Most of the regions close to Melbourne focus on chardonnay, pinot noir, sparkling wine and shiraz, while the Yarra Valley can produce outstanding reds from Bordeaux varieties as well.

Any wine visitor to Melbourne would have to plan a day in the Yarra as well as another in the Mornington Peninsula, because these regions offer the greatest diversity of producers, the best infrastructure and a wide range of restaurants and other activities. Further out of town are the fortified and red wine regions of northeast Victoria, as well as the emerging shiraz and chardonnay mecca of Beechworth.

Home to a large number of outstanding cabernet-based reds, chardonnays and semillon-sauvignon blanc blends, Margaret River does perhaps provide the best visitor experience in Australian wine. The most famous wine region in Western Australia boasts brilliant food, accommodation and scenery, plus a disproportionately high percentage of the country’s finest wines. Other than the Swan Valley, most of the other Western Australian regions require some additional time to reach, but in the case of the Great Southern home to exceptional riesling, shiraz and cabernet, it’s certainly worth the effort.

By some margin the leading wine region to visit in New South Wales is the Hunter Valley, whose traditional wines from shiraz and semillon have been augmented by a fruit salad of varieties, of which chardonnay can be first-class and verdelho interesting. It’s rustic, hot and usually dry other than at vintage, and boasts some of the finest food and accommodation in all Australian wine regions. Mudgee, home to earthy wines from shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, is further from Sydney, but a delightful place to enjoy local food and wine.

Tasmania’s wine industry is dominated by small family-owned businesses, an increasing number of which are creating outstanding cool-climate wines mainly from chardonnay, riesling, pinot gris and pinot noir grown in typically picturesque surrounds. It is fast becoming the capital of the country’s sparkling wine industry. By Australian standards, Tasmania is a small place, and it’s easy to drive from one end of the island to another without difficulty. The wine regions are clustered towards the north and the south, where you will find outstanding food and boutique accommodation.

Queensland’s wine industry is expanding dramatically, and has been developed with tourism in mind. Many of its wineries provide an excellent experience for visitors and tasters.
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