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Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 4

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Part 4 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Smaller Wine Regions

In Part 1, we discussed why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.   In Part 2, we described where Australia’s prominent wine regions were located.

Discussing, even in simplest terms, each region, takes up some space, so I broke the wine regions up into the four large wine regions which I described in Part 3 (last  post):

  • Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
  • Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close-by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
  • Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close-by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
  • Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia

In Part 4 (this post), we will now describe what makes each smaller region so special and what grapes grow best in those regions:

  • Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
  • Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
  • Tasmania
  • Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

    Rutherglen:

    Rutherglen is one of the best wine regions in the world for Muscat.  They make a wide variety of great Muscats.  They also are known for their Durif wines.  Durif is a secondary grape, easy to confuse with other red grapes if you have not had it before.  They also make some spectacular Tokays, the Hungarian grape often used as a dessert wine.  See me blog entry on “What an Affogado!” for an overview on how special a Rutherglen Tokay can be!

    I have not been there yet myself, but friends tell me it is a very nice region to visit with a lot of good food events and sightseeing outside of just tasting wine.

    Rutherglen Top Wines:  Durif, Muscat, Tokay

    Mudgee:

    Mudgee is much higher up and inland than a lot of wine regions, making a perfect climate for cold weather grapes.  Robert Oakley has some of his best vineyards in Mudgee.  Mudgee vineyards also ship a lot of grapes to wineries around Australia.

    Some very good Cabernet Sauvignons come from Mudgee and a number of organic wines are made in Mudgee.

    But Mudgee is mostly known for its dessert wines and iced wines.  They have a lot of sweet late harvest and Botrytis Semillon dessert wines.

    While 4 hours outside of Sydney, it can make a nice weekend getaway.

    Mudgee Top Wines:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Botrytis Semillon and other Desert Wines

    Tasmania:

    Tasmania is a significant newer entrant to Australian wine regions.  With its cooler climate, it produces great Pinot Noir wines.

    Tasmania Top Wines:  Pinot Noir

    Riverina:

    Riverina is not known for its great wines, but rather as the largest producer of wines in Australia.  About half of all Australian grapes come from Riverina, and many of them find there way into cask (box) wines.  Decent enough and very cheap, but not the type of thing I like to drink or write about.

    Riverina Top Wines:  Cheap Cask Wines

    This concludes the very short four-part overview of Australia’s wine regions.  I will be following up with several blogs on where and how to buy wines in Australia and also with blogs in more detail on each of the major wine regions, including recommendations on some of the best and best-valued wines on the market.

    Stay tuned and keep drinking smartly and safely!

    Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 3

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    Part 3 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Larger Wine Regions

    In Part 1, we discussed some of the reasons why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.   In Part 2, we described where Australia’s prominent wine regions were located.

    Discussing, even in simplest terms, each region, takes up some space, so I am breaking the wine regions up into the four large wine regions which I describe in Part 3 (this post):

    • Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
    • Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close-by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
    • Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close-by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
    • Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia

    In Part 4 (next post), we will then describe what makes each smaller region so special and what grapes grow best in those regions:

    • Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
    • Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
    • Tasmania
    • Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

    Hunter Valley:

    The Hunter Valley is divided into the Lower Hunter and the Upper Hunter.  However, the Upper Hunter only has four cellar doors remaining, and a number of vineyards that produce and sell grapes. The Lower Hunter is where the action is.  There are about 150 wineries in the Lower Hunter.  The Hunter Valley is close to the ocean, but not right on top of it, so it gets some good breezes, decent rainfall (some years far too much rain fall!), and has some great soil conditions.  The best known grapes in  the Hunter Valley are Semillon, Shiraz and Chardonnay.

    Hunter Semillons are un-paralled anywhere in the world.  A multitude of Hunter wineries make great, great Semillons, in three styles which really relate to their age in the bottle and when they are released.  They are:

    • Crisp, new Semillons a year or two in the bottle
    • Semillons stored for 5 years before being released
    • “Museum” Semillons being bottled and stored 10 years before being released

    The Shiraz of The Hunter Valley tends to be more spicy than fruity often described with labels as “peppery”, “smokey”, “leathery”.  Hunter Shiraz’s also tend to contain slightly less alcohol and is more refined than the Shiraz of Barossa Valley, by comparison.  I would consider the Hunter Shiraz’ to compare with “old world” style Hermitage.

    I have recently become a real fan of Hunter Valley Chardonnays and believe both the lighter crisper Chardonnays and the aged Chardonnays of the Hunter are as good as any in Australia now.

    Hunter Valley Top Wines:  Semillon, Shiraz, Chardonnay

    Barossa Valley:

    The Barossa Valley is often labeled as Australia’s “Best Wine Region”, even though I am sure many wine producers from other regions would deny that claim!  However, the Barossa Valley has a lot going for it which justifies that label.  They produce great grapes, have a variety of micro-climates and regions, variety of elevations, and some of the best wine labels in Australia, including Penfolds, Henschke, and Grosset among many others.

    The Barossa is known for big, robust, fruity, Shiraz, often high in alcohol.  It is also know for superb Rieslings, especially in the Clare and Eden Valleys.  As testimonial, I have about 6 Australian Rieslings in my cellar and they all come from around the Barossa Valley.

    McLaren Vale, south of Adelaide is known for making superb Cabernet Sauvignons.  McLaren Vale is close to the sea and gets some nice breezes to help the grapes mature in a consistent manner.

    There are a lot of other grapes that do well across the Barossa Valley, given its variety of micro-climates and great overall growing conditions.

    Barossa Valley Top Wines:  Shiraz, Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon

    Yarra Valley:

    The Yarra Valley makes some of Australia’s best sparkling wines.  They are also know for great Shiraz, as is the Heathcote region nearby.

    But what I love most about the Yarra Valley and the surrounding areas of Geelong and the Mornington Penisula are the great Pinot Noir wines that come from this region.  The slightly cooler climate is perfect for growing the Pinot Noir grape.  Everyone is talking about New Zealand Pinot Noirs, but my favorites all come from Victoria.

    Also, for pure enjoyment and if you only have a day to tour a wine country, the Yarra Valley is quicker to get to than The Hunter Valley or Margaret River from the closest big near-by city, so you can pack in more fun in a twelve hour day than with a number of the other regions, which almost demand two, if not three days.

    Yarra Valley Top Wines:  Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Sparkling

    Margaret River:

    For pure elegance, I love the wines from the Margaret River.  Sea breezes and some of the best soil in Australia for growing wine exists in Margaret River.  It is often compared to Napa Valley and some great American wineries have purchased vineyards here.  In fact, this is the Australian wine region most noted for Zinfandel, a popular California grape.

    Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays are the stand-out wines from Margaret River.  A number of premium brands such as Leeuwin Estate, Pierro and Moss Wood come from this region.  While one of the smaller regions compared to the three described above, Margaret River still “punches above the line” with so many premium labels.  Winery per winery, you will get more quality wineries from this region than from any other region.

    Margaret River Top Wines:  Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc

    Each region will be described in more detail, including recommendations of specific wineries and wines in subsequent posts.  But first, onto “Part 4 – Characteristics and Grapes of Australia’s Smaller Wine Regions.”

    Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 2

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    Part 2 – Australia’s Prominent Wine Regions

    In Part 1, we discussed why Australia has become a renown wine producing country, and that all states and territories other than the Northern Territories and Queensland produce high quality wines.  (Surprisingly, every state in the US, including Alaska, now has a least one winery.  Having grown up in Minnesota, I find this surprising as there is nothing about the growing season in Minnesota or the conditions that would inspire me to drink a Minnesotan wine.  However, my parent’s friends own a winery in Canon Falls, Minnesota, so we will try it out on our next trip there and let you know!)

    Below is a map of the Australian wine growing regions, even though it seems to be missing the recent growth in great Tasmanian wines.  Don’t let this mis-lead you:  there are some great Tasmanian wines, especially Pinot Noirs and Sauvignon Blancs.

    As you can see, most Australian wine growing regions are located in the southern part of the country.  The northern part is just too hot (and often too dry) to be able to grow grapes of any quality.

    For touring purposes and geographical simplicity, I categorize the major wine regions as follows:

    • Hunter Valley – about two hours north of Sydney, New South Wales
    • Barossa Valley – just north of Adelaide, South Australia with close by regions of Clare and Eden Valley, and with McLaren Vale south of Adelaide
    • Yarra Valley – about an hour north of Melbourne, with close by regions including Mornington Peninsula and Geelong, south of Melbourne, and Heathcote, Victoria northwest of Melbourne and on the way to Bendigo, Victoria
    • Margaret River – about 4 hours south of Perth, Western Australia
    • Rutherglen – about half-way between Sydney and Melbourne, close to the New South Wales and Victorian border and the cities of Albury and Wodonga
    • Mudgee, NSW – about 4 hours northwest of Sydney, with some wineries relatively close by around Orange
    • Tasmania
    • Riverina – in southwest New South Wales

    I have tried to categorize the major regions around the major cities you would fly into and then drive out of to visit the wine regions.  As you can see from the map, there are a number of smaller and well-define regions also that are close by and associated with the better known region names.  But when it comes down to it, the four most prominent regions by name are Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley, Yarra Valley and Margaret River.  Rutherglen, Mudgee and Tasmania are worth visiting and growing in popularity, but less known (and more distant from a major city).  Riverina is a large rural area that produces a lot of grapes, but not great wines in general.

    I have included a link to more detailed maps of the major wine regions for you to review.  Again, they fail to mention Tasmania, but an Internet search of ‘Tasmania and wine’ will provide you with ample information on Tasmania as a popular Australian wine region.

    In Part 3, we will discuss the unique characteristics and grapes that each major region is known for.  Part 4 will similarly do this for the smaller wine regions.

    Overview of Australia’s Wine Regions – Part 1

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    Part 1 – Australia as a Prominent Wine Producing Country

    An American friend of mine who follows my blog and has a real appreciation for wine wanted to develop a better understanding of Australian wines.  I have been thinking about how to help him and have come up with several ideas such as sending him some books or links on the Australian wine industry and specific wines, sending him a mixed dozen wines to sample (but I always get concerned about US wine distribution laws), or recommend some top-notch liquor and wine stores in the US that specialize in better Australian wines.  I decided, the first and easiest thing I can do, is to write a blog overviewing (is there such a word?) the Australian wine regions and describe some of their unique characteristics.  At least that way, he will be able to target getting some Australian wines from the regions that are best known for being suitable to different types of grapes and styles of wine.  I think an introduction to some of the great Australian wine families and history would also provide useful information.  Therefore, I have decided to create a short series of blog entries on the Australian wine industry.

    Over the last 40 years, Australia had developed into one of the most prominent wine regions in the world and arguably could be the most prominent “new world” wine region.  (I am certain my American friends might protest!)  The “old world” wine regions (basically Europe – most notably France, Italy, Germany and Spain) still produce some magnificent wines.  More recently, “new world” wine regions have evolved, including Napa Valley and surrounding regions in California,  along with some other great wine growing regions in the US such as Oregon (especially for Pinot Noir), Chile and Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.  In addition, China is now starting to come up fast and is producing some fine wines.

    (BTW, it really surprised me to find out that all 50 US states now have at least one winery!)

    The distinction between “old world” and “new world” has real meaning and influence on wine making in terms of culture, style of wine making, terroir, and the age of vines.  The age of the vines can play a large part in the flavor of the wine produced.  Most vines do not start to produce enough usable grapes until they are about three years old.  Some vines are over 100 years old with some going on 130 – 140 years of age!  For my general purposes of specifying “old vines,” I use the figure of 40 years or more as being necessary to call a vine an old vine.

    Why is vine age so important?  Vines develop character over time, continuing to pick up that character from the soil and surrounding elements, and the manner in which they are cared for.  And look at the thickness of the vines to the left!  With this type of size and strength, the vines are more likely to produce a consistency of wine from vintage to vintage, far more consistent than the annual changes imputed on younger vines.  Additionally, after a number of vintages, a particular style becomes known and expected and influences our belief in what defines a particular style for which the wine is known.  You may asked the question, “When does a vine become too old that it stops producing good wine?”  I have never seen a good answer to that, but will be researching the question and get back to you in a later blog.

    Unfortunately, many of the oldest vines in Europe were destroyed by a disease called “phylloxera,”  a plant lice which kills the root of the vine.  Australia vines were first planted with some scale and success around 1840 (and has never suffered from phylloxera), so Australia now has some of the oldest vines in the world.

    The other things that Australia has going for it with respect to wine production is a wide variety of climates, weather patterns, elevation levels and soils.  All of this makes for a wide variety of truly outstanding wines.  Except for the most northern part of Australia, being Queensland and the Northern Territories, all other Australian states and territories produce some magnificent wines.  An overview of those regions will be presented in “Australia’s Wine Regions (Part2).”

    But for now, I hope you agree that Australia, among all countries, is a special place for growing wine.  There are a few good reasons why – as an American – I have decided to call Australia home, none more important than the quality of its wine.  While I am opening my eyes (really my lips!) to many other global wine regions, I still find the best and best-valued wines are Australian wines.

    Four-Part Series on Australia’s Wine Regions

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    An American friend with a love of wine wanted to know more about Australian wines.  I decided a quick introduction to the Australian wine regions would be a good overview.  Therefore, I created a very short four-part series on Australian wine regions which will be released over the two weeks, along with some other postings on wine / food matching and other topics.

    The four-part review comprises:

    Please understand that this is not a deeply researched review, but a more generalized review based on my slim knowledge of Australian wines and their history.  However, it should provide a overview for the uninitiated on Australian wines and their regions.

    Once this series is complete, I will provide some more in-depth reviews of the various regions with recommendations on some great and great-valued wines from each region.