Wine

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The Australian Wine Industry is the fourth largest exporter of wine around the world, with 760 million litres a year to a large international export market and contributes $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy. There is also a significant domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming nearly 500 million litres of wine per year. Wine is produced in every state, with more than 60 designated wine regions totaling approximately 160,000 hectares; however Australia’s wine regions are mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country, with vineyards located in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. The wine regions in each of these states produce different wine varieties and styles that take advantage of the particular Terroir such as: climatic differences, topography and soil types. With the major varieties being predominantly Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Semillon, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Wines are often labeled with the name of their grape variety, which must constitute at least 85 percent of the wine. The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism.[1][2]Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).[3][4][5][6]


In 2009 multi-million-dollar Australian wine initiative Australia’s First Families of Wine was established, aimed at resurrecting the fortunes of the AU$6 billion industry, by raising the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. Together the group represent seventeen wine-growing regions across Australia and forty-eight generations of winemakers. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. First Families chairman and Tahbilk chief executive Alister Purbrick said: “We desperately need to change the global perception of Australian wine. We don’t believe as individual companies we can stem the avalanche of news stories about Australia producing nothing but cheap industrial wines. But together we can present a powerful showcase of terrific regional wines of great diversity.” Some industry commentators lay the blame for this negative opinion on the giant, publicly listed multinational corporations, such as Constellation Wines and Foster’s, which have dominated the industry for years and concentrated on the cheap commodity end of the market, rather than building the reputation of Australia’s finer, regionally distinctive wines. The twelve member companies are Brown Brothers, Campbells, DeBortoli, D'Arenberg, Howard Park, Henschke, Jim Barry, McWilliam’s, Taylors, Tahbilk, Tyrell’s, and Yalumba.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]



Australia’s First Families of Wine is an Australian wine as a multi-million-dollar initiative aimed at resurrecting the fortunes of the AU$6 billion industry, by raising the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. Established by a collective of twelve multi-generational family-owned wine producers. Together the families represent seventeen wine-growing regions across Australia and forty-eight generations of winemakers. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.[7][8][9][15][8][16][8][10][17]


The Australian wine industry is the fourth-largest exporter in the world, [18] exporting 760 million litres a year to a large international export market that includes "old world" wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain.[19] There is also a significant domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming nearly 500 million litres of wine per year.[20] The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism.




The Australian Wine Industry is the fourth largest exporter of wine around the world and contributes $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy. Wine is produced in every state, with more than 60 designated wine regions totaling approximately 160,000 hectares; however Australia’s wine regions are mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country, with vineyards located in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. The wine regions in each of these states produce different wine varieties and styles that take advantage of the particular climatic differences and soil types. With the major varieties being predominantly Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Semillon, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Wines are often labeled with the name of their grape variety, which must constitute at least 85 percent of the wine.[21]Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).[3][22][23][24] In 2009 Australian wine initiative Australia’s First Families of Wine was established to raise the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.[7][8][9][10][25]Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).



The Margaret River area was chosen for what was at that time a highly experimental exercise through studies undertaken in 1955 by Professor Harold Olmo. In 1961 Dr John Gladstones from the University of Western Australia, published a paper in the Journal of the Australian Institute for Agricultural science which stated in part “As far as the writer is aware, the Busselton-Margaret River region has never been seriously proposed as suitable for commercial viticulture. Nevertheless, a study of its climate shows that it definitely warrants consideration.”[26][27] The climate of Margaret River is more strongly maritime-influenced than any other major Australian region and has been described as similar to that of Bordeaux in a dry vintage.[28][29] The region produces just three percent of total Australian grape production, although produces over 20 percent of Australia's premium wine market.[30][31]


  1. ^ OIV, "Situation of the world viticultural sector in 2006" (June 24, 2002). "Winebiz - World Comparisons". Australian Wine. Retrieved 2010-09-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "Australian Wine Industry Statistics". Retrieved 2010-10-22. {{cite news}}: Text "Winebiz - Wine Industry Statistics" ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b T. Stevenson "The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia" Dorling Kindersley 2005 ISBN 0756613248
  4. ^ "Wine Australia". Retrieved 2010-10-22. {{cite news}}: Text "wineaustralia" ignored (help)
  5. ^ Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson. The World Atlas of Wine. Mitchell Beazley; 6th Revised edition edition year=2007. ISBN 978-1845334147. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ Oz Clarke. Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas: Wines and Wine Regions of the World. Harcourt; 6th Revised edition edition year= 2002. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |publisher= (help); Text "ISBN-978-0151009138" ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b c Funding First Families of Wine to boost exports
  8. ^ a b c d e The Australian: Our wines need to step up in class Cite error: The named reference "The Australian" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c Grant to promote Aussie wines abroad
  10. ^ a b c Simon Evans, The Australian Financial Review, Tuesday 18 August 2009, Page 61
  11. ^ Chris Snow, Decanter Magazine, August 17 2009, Top Australian wineries team up to push super-premium wines
  12. ^ "First Families forge pact to promote wine". Jamie Freed, Business Day. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  13. ^ "Clans push merits of Aussie wines". Max Allen, The Australian, page 5. 2009-08-18. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  14. ^ "The Heart & Soul of Australian wine to launch in Sydney on Monday 31 August". Winetitles, Australias wine industry portal. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
  15. ^ Agri Business Australia
  16. ^ Graeme Lofts (2010). Heart & soul : Australia's First Families of Wine. John Wiley & Sons Australia. ISBN 9781742469249.
  17. ^ Chris Snow, Decanter Magazine, August 17 2009, Top Australian wineries team up to push super-premium wines
  18. ^ OIV, "Situation of the world viticultural sector in 2006" (June 24, 2002). "Winebiz - World Comparisons". Australian Wine. Retrieved 2010-09-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  19. ^ "Wine industry statistics". Winebiz. 2006. Retrieved 2007-06-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  20. ^ "Australian Wine Industry Statistics". Retrieved 2010-09-06. {{cite news}}: Text "Winebiz - Wine Industry Statistics" ignored (help)
  21. ^ "Australian Wine Industry Statistics". Retrieved 2010-10-22. {{cite news}}: Text "Winebiz - Wine Industry Statistics" ignored (help)
  22. ^ "Wine Australia". Retrieved 2010-10-22. {{cite news}}: Text "wineaustralia" ignored (help)
  23. ^ Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson. The World Atlas of Wine. Mitchell Beazley; 6th Revised edition edition year=2007. ISBN 978-1845334147. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ Oz Clarke. Oz Clarke's New Wine Atlas: Wines and Wine Regions of the World. Harcourt; 6th Revised edition edition year= 2002. {{cite book}}: Missing pipe in: |publisher= (help); Text "ISBN-978-0151009138" ignored (help)
  25. ^ Chris Snow, Decanter Magazine, August 17 2009, Top Australian wineries team up to push super-premium wines
  26. ^ Dr John Gladstones, Viticulture and Environment, Winetitles 1992
  27. ^ "Margaret River wine region history". Margaret River wine region history. Retrieved 2009-06-29.
  28. ^ James Halliday (2009). The Australian Wine Encylopedia. Hardie Grant Books. ISBN 978-1-74066-774-6. {{cite book}}: Text "page 166-167" ignored (help)
  29. ^ Campbell Mattinson, ‘Why the French hate us’, Hardie Grant Books 2007
  30. ^ "Margaret River wine region". Margaret River wine region. Retrieved 2009-09-07.
  31. ^ The Australian and New Zealand wine industry directory, 27th Annual edition, 2009, Winetitles.