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Australian Wine
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For many, Australian wines can be a refreshing, user-friendly alternative to the sometimes difficult task of navigating through the regional wines of Europe.
They are not wines that lack confidence, however, and despite the fact that they must they face up against wines with hundreds of years of tradition behind them, they hold up just as well, if not better in many instances. The key to this lies mainly in the fact that Australian makers have focused on preserving as much as possible of the flavor of the grapes they work with; where structural complexity falls to the wayside, intense, forward fruit flavors are achieved. But this is not to say that they cannot posses a degree of delicacy—which certain of their soft, mouthfilling red wines may attest to.
All of the above makes Australian wine incredibly well suited to US export, and currently it is second in terms of shipments to the American wine market. The bulk of these exports are comprised of the old tried and true standards, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and of course, Australia's most famed and well traveled grape, Shiraz. But within Australia, the state of the wine industry today goes well beyond success with these few varieties; it includes dozens of other grapes that make excellent wines, from rich, honeyed Semillon, to bone dry, crisp, citrusy Rieslings. And despite the outshining fame of its prized red Shiraz, these and other white wines make up a majority of Australian wine production. Another of the more distinctive characteristics of Australian wine production is the preeminence of a relatively small number of quite large winemaking concerns. These wine giants hold properties in widely dispersed regions of the country, producing a full gamut of wines from hedonistic dessert wines, Muscat Liqueurs, to prestigious estate bottled wines, to mass produced bag-in-box varietals. Eighty percent of all these wines come from only four wineries: Penfolds, Wolf Blass, and Seppelts in South Australia, and Lindemans based in the Riverlands of Victoria.
Winemaking in Australia
Among the most modern and high-tech in the world, Australian winemaking operations have always embraced change and been eager to take advantage of the latest practices to improve wine quality. Where in other countries the word mechanization is something no winemaker would want to be associated with, in Australia it is the hallmark of an industry that proudly reaps its benefits. But while employing virtually every available aspect of mechanical vine cultivation and vinification, the Australians have managed to achieve unheard of quality in their wines. This is no small feat, and it has not gone unnoticed, as many other wine regions of the world have begun embrace the Australian influence.
It is also common for Australian winemaking practices to make a clean break from the classic European concept of terroir—inasmuch as they don't attempt to define the uniqueness of a wine by the land under tiny, specific plots of vines. The vast majority of Australian wines, on the contrary, are made of blends from many vineyards, sometimes residing in completely different regions of the country. Above all, for many Australian winemakers the main concern is achieving rich and complex flavors on a consistent basis, and though their blending practice, they have been quite successful at it. Still, in many cases, the high quality wines, of which there are many, look to emphasize a strong regional stylistic statement. Although many people simply associate the practice of wine blending in Australia with cheaper wines, some of the most well regarded wines in the country are made by the process. In fact, Australia's most famous and expensive wine, Penfold's Grange, is a mix of Shiraz grapes from vineyards as much as 500 miles apart. It is an aspect of Australian winemaking that is advantageous to Australian winemakers and consumers alike: it allows the winemaker to concentrate on making a brand with consistent flavors year after year, and it helps instill in the consumer a sense of brand confidence that they may not necessarily be able to enjoy with other regions (see: Burgundy).
Australian Wine RegulationsThe regulatory system for wine production in Australia is easily one of the simplest among the major wine regions of world. In short, the regulations are designed simply to assure that the label faithfully tells the consumer what they are getting. Four main points are covered by the regulations: 1. If the label indicates a region of origin, at least 85% of the grape must have come from that region 2. If the label indicates a varietal type, at least 85% of the wine be from that type of vine 3. If the year is indicated, at least 95% of the grapes must be from that year 4. If several types of grapes are mentioned, the type of vine dominating must be mentioned first, unless the other types of vines are present in equal proportions The system is beautifully simple, and in effect it affords winemakers a much greater freedom to experiment with growing techniques, blend combinations, and wine styles than certain wine regions with entrenched traditions and strict rules of practice.
Wine Styles in AustraliaAustralian Red Wines While classics such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay are grown extensively, Australian Shiraz is without a doubt Australia's benchmark red. In the south of the country, namely in the much famed Barossa Valley, Shiraz reaches its apex in a number of excellent brands. One of the most potent and powerful in the world, Australian Shiraz is an example of a European variety amplified to an exponential degree. But the power, and forwardness of these wines is a badge that the Australians proudly flaunt in the face of their more elegant European counterparts. Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, in many ways running side by side with California Cabernet, is of a quality that challenges classic conceptions of the grape. It is a seat of your pants style that dares to balance the fine line between power and elegance, finesse and sheer brute force. Today, many softer red styles do exist, despite the fact that they initially struggled in the early days. These are wines, such as Pinot Noir, which mostly thrive in cool climates, such as Burgundy, where they can develop slowly over the growing season. Being hot and sunny as it is, the first attempts at Pinot Noir in Australia turned out a bit ham-fisted, and lacking in the eloquence that the grape demands. Throughout the 1990's, however, the Australians looked to develop their own version of the wine—sometimes achieving unique and nuanced versions that the world had not yet had the opportunity to appreciate. In Western Australia, uniquely herb-scented wines emerged, and in cooler areas such as the Yarra Valley milder, fresher styles were formed along side of more classically strawberryish wines. The combination of the two styles has allowed winemakers to consistently create interesting, exotic wines. One may also find in Australia the wholly consumer friendly style of red that would typically be associated with easy drinking, fruity wines such as Beaujolais, or the Valpolicella of Italy. Often, these are proprietary concoctions that reap the benefits of Australia's liberal wine blending regulations. Rosemount's Shiraz-Cabernet is the prototype for this popular style: juicy, bright, and utterly uncomplicated.
Australian White Wines In the case of both reds and whites, it is true that Australia's very best wines are, for the most part, based on the classic European varieties. Each variety, however, does seem to enjoy several unique homes away from home within the larger region. Australian Semillon, for example, is closely tied to the Hunter Valley, where it is used to create what many wine drinkers will say is Australia's finest white wine. The Clare Valley and the Eden Valley have adopted the dry aromatic style coming from Europe, utilizing Riesling in a way that even an Alsace winemaker would be impressed with. These wines are typically vary citrus and dry, but in more breezy spots they can become stunningly delicate with soft hints of lemon blossom. Eden Valley is also home to Australia's headiest aromatic, Viognier. In cooler sites it is used to create beautifully complex wines with aromas of flowers and apricot. Alternatively, rich, warmer climate whites such as Marsanne and Roussanne thrive in the state of Victoria. There are plenty of plots of old vines there to produce full and weighty white wines that, while less aromatic than their counterparts in the Eden and Clare Valleys, become more and more honeyed and rich with age.
The Australian Chardonnay, however, is the wine that led the boom in white wine exports from the country. Full in alcohol and stunningly fat, rich, and ripe, they are pure “sunshine in a bottle,” as the winemakers in Australia describe them. These giant wines could be the poster-child for Australian wine success; a classic European cultivar amplified in stiflingly sunny and hot, mechanized vineyards. Warmer parts of South Australia do this wine very well, as does portions of Victoria. More specifically, it is in the Barossa Valley, Mclaren Vale, Riverina, and the Swan Valley that these excellent fat wines take shape
Wine Regions of Australia
It is no coincidence that the southern part of the continent, where cold Antarctic currents create cooling westerly winds, is the center for winemaking in the typically hot and arid landscape of Australia. Along with most of the population, virtually all of the vineyard land is situated in this part of the region. In the states of New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria, a fairly consistent, Mediterranean climate creates conditions where grapes may fully ripen, and thus allows Australian winemakers to create their potent, juicy, and jammy wines that they are so well known for. Moisture is generally provided for by weather systems traveling down the east coast and running into this southern area. Rainfall is well distributed here, for the most part, but in the sharp transition zone, where the maritime climate approaches quickly on hot and arid deserts, irrigation becomes an integral factor to winemaking. But Australians don't let the change to arid lands inhibit the spread of their vineyards. In the hotter, drier areas, plantings are focused more upon creating the ripe and powerful fruit that goes into their excellent fortified wines and brandies. The larger region of the Murray River Valley, containing contiguous areas of New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria encompasses a majority of this planted land. In addition, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, the famed European cultivars, are regularly used in these hot regions along the Murray River Valley. The wines they make are in many cases excellent, a fact that, from a European perspective is nothing short of miraculous considering the common conception of how these grapes should be planted. The Australians prove time and time again that they can wrangle a fine wine out of an extreme range of grape and land combinations.
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