Australian wine

Encyclopedia : A : AU : AUS : Australian wine

Although the early Australian wine industry faced many difficulties, it also achieved considerable success. "At the 1873 Vienna Exhibition the French judges, tasting blind, praised some wines from Victoria, but withdrew in protest when the provenance of the wine was revealed, on the grounds that wines of that quality must clearly be French." Nevertheless, Australian wines continued to win high honors in French competitions. A Victorian Syrah (also called Shiraz) competing in the 1878 Paris Exhibition was likened to Château Margaux and "its tasted completed its trinity of perfection." One Australian wine won a gold medal "first class" at the 1882 Bordeaux International Exhibition and another won a gold medal "against the world" at the 1889 Paris International Exhibition. That was all before the destructive effects on the industry of the phylloxera epidemic.

In the decades following the devastation caused by phylloxera until the late 1970s, Australian wine production consisted largely, but not exclusively, of sweet and fortified wines. This was true of much New World wine until the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 and subsequent wine competitions demonstrated that wines of the very highest quality could be produced in diverse regions of the world. Since then, Australia has rapidly become a world leader in both the quantity and quality of wines it produces. For example, Australian wine exports to the US rose from 578,000 cases in 1990 to 20,000,000 cases in 2004 and in 2000 it exported more wine to the UK than France for the first time in history. Australia has become a formidable competitor to both Old and New World producers around the world.

Major grape varieties are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Riesling. The country has no native grapes, and Vitis vinifera varieties were introcuced from Europe and South Africa in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although Syrah was originally called Shiraz in Australia and Syrah elsewhere, its dramatic commercial success has led many Syrah producers around the world to label their wine "Shiraz".

Australian winemaking "results have been impressive and it has established benchmarks for a number of varietals, such as chardonnay and shiraz. Moreover, Australians have innovated in canopy management and other viticultural techniques and in wine-making, and they have a general attitude toward their work that sets them apart from producers in Europe. Australian wine-makers travel the wine world as highly skilled seasonal workers, relocating to the northern hemisphere during the off-season at home." They are an important resource in the globalization of wine and wine critic Matt Kramer notes that "the most powerful influence in wine today" comes from Australia (Kramer).

In the early 2000s, Australian winemakers have been facing a massive over-supply and a resulting drop in prices on their home market. They have reacted to this by introducing "cleanskin", or unbranded, wine, which is sold cheaply in bulk quantities and has been enjoying great popularity among consumers.

Major wine regions

| width=1% | | valign=top width=24%| | width=1% | | valign=top width=24%| | width=1% | | valign=top width=24%| |}

Australia's most famous wine is Penfolds Grange. The great 1955 vintage was submitted to competitions beginning in 1962 and over the years has won more than 50 gold medals. The vintage of 1971 won first prize in Syrah/Shiraz at the Wine Olympics in Paris, just three years after the Paris tasting showed that New World wines could beat France's best in blind tastings. The 1990 vintage was named 'Red Wine of the Year' by the Wine Spectator magazine in 1995, which later rated the 1998 vintage 99 points out of a possible 100. Wine critic Hugh Johnson has called Grange the only First Growth of the Southern Hemisphere. The influential wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr., who is well known for his love of Bordeaux wines, has written that Grange "has replaced Bordeaux's Pétrus as the worlds most exotic and concentrated wine" [link].

Other red wines to garner international attention include Henschke Hill of Grace, Clarendon Hills Astralis, D'Arenberg Dead Arm, Torbreck Run Rig and other high-end Penfolds wines such as St Henri shiraz.

See also

• Max Schubert Leading winemaker who developed Penfolds Grange
• Len Evans Pioneering leader of Australian wine
• James Halliday Respected wine writer and critic
• James Busby "Father of Australian wine"
• Penfolds Grange
• Yellow Tail (wine)
• Noble One
• Australian Wine Research Institute
• Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology
• Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal

Sources

• The globe in a glass. The Economist (London), December 16, 1999 [link].
• Kramer, Matt. Making Sense of Wine. Philadelhia: Running Pres, 2003.
• Mccarthy, Ed, and Ewing-Mulligan, Mary. Wine for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us. Foster City, CA: IDG Books, 1995.
• Phillips, Rod. A Short History of Wine. NY: HarperCollins, 2000.
• Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
• Zraly, Kevin. Windows of the World Complete Wine Course. NY: Stterling, 2005.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.