The Australian wine story

The first vines arrived with the first European settlers in Australia in 1788. Initially wines were produced in the coastal region around the fledgling settlement of Sydney. John Macarthur established the earliest commercial vineyard.

In 1822, Gregory Blaxland shipped 136 litres of wine to London, where it was awarded the silver medal by the forerunner of the Royal Society of Arts. Five years later, a larger shipment of Blaxland’s wine won the gold Ceres medal.

The planting of vines accompanied the spread of European settlement across the Australian continent, and by the beginning of the 20th century Australia was exporting some 4.5 million litres of mainly full-bodied dry red wines to the United Kingdom.

The end of the Second World War saw a rapid influx of migrants from Europe, who brought with them a strong culture related to wine. This provided an important impetus to the Australian wine industry.

However, it was the period from 1996 to 2007 that saw spectacular growth in exports, following rapidly increasing appreciation of Australian wines overseas. Major wine producers from abroad have invested in Australian wineries, and Australian companies have taken controlling interests in wineries in countries such as France and Chile.

Australia has some of the oldest grapevines in the world. Many of Europe’s established vineyards were destroyed by disease in the 1800s, and only the vines brought to Australia survived. In order to preserve these, Australian viticulturalists developed new vine management techniques, some of which are now used throughout the world. Australians have also invented ways to produce wines using fewer chemicals, and Australia is the home of the wine cask.