The Commonwealth of Australia in the southern hemisphere with its capital Canberra comprises the mainland of the continent, the island of Tasmania to its south, the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island with its outlying islands and, as outer territories, the Pacific Norfolk Island, the Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, the Ashmore and Cartier Islands as well as Heard and the McDonald Islands in the Indian Ocean, totalling 7,688,287 km². The neighbouring countries are New Zealand in the south-east and Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea in the north.

Australia is a parliamentary monarchy on a democratic-parliamentary basis in the "Commonwealth of Nations" (largely former territories of the British Empire) with a democratic constitution. The British monarch is King and Head of State of Australia, who is represented by the Australian Governor-General.

History

In January 1788, an English ship with 300 convicts and guards landed on the south-eastern coast of Australia in the harbour of the city of Sydney, which was founded in the same year. The commander was Captain Arthur Phillip (1738-1814), who later became the first governor of the state of New South Wales. He recorded in writing "that viticulture can be carried to any degree of perfection in such a favourable climate".

He immediately began planting the vines he had brought with him where the heritage-listed Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney now stands. The garden, which opened in 1816 and later became Sydney's first zoo, is now Australia's oldest scientific institution and one of the most important historical botanical institutions in the world. But it was to take 200 years before Australian viticulture could establish itself. For the first few decades, rum was drunk in such excessive quantities that the camp was called the "Rum Corps".

Australian winegrowing pioneers

The Scotsman James Busby is regarded as the "father of Australian viticulture". Busby (1802-1871), who founded a farm north of Sydney in the Hunter Valley in 1825. He brought back hundreds of grape variety cuttings from a trip to Europe in 1833, including Syrah, which became famous as Shiraz. Busby published on vine science, viticulture and winemaking. His instructions were used by Silesian immigrants from 1841 onwards when planting vineyards.

In 1845, the English physician Dr Christopher Penfold (1811-1870) founded his vineyard in the Barossa Valley, which still exists today under the Penfolds name. A second pioneer in this area was the German Joseph Ernest Seppelt (1813-1868) in 1851 with his Seppeltfield vineyard. John Riddoch (1827-1901) first planted vineyards in the famous Coonawarra area in the early 1890s, triggering a boom there.

Equally important was Thomas Hardy (1830-1912), who founded a vineyard in McLaren Vale in 1853. The Swiss, such as Hubert de Castella (1825-1907), who founded viticulture in the Yarra Valley, also played an important role. In 1919, a viticultural research centre was founded in Merbein (Sunraysia, state of Victoria), which then became part of the CSIRO research institute in 1927. Two other important viticultural institutions are the AWRI and Charles Sturt University.

Wine styles

For over a hundred years, Australia produced predominantly heavy, high-alcohol sweet wines, which were marketed in fortified form as "Australian Port". From the beginning of the 1960s, there was an initial shift towards fresh white wines. The well-known winemaker Len Evans (1930-2006) played a key role in this development. A milestone was the "Grange Hermitage", a Bordeaux-style red wine from the Penfolds estate, created by the legendary cellar master Max Schubert (1915-1994) in 1959.

From the mid-1960s, this was ultimately the starting point for the production of excellent red wines, primarily from the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Shiraz varieties, which are produced and marketed as single varietals or as cuvées. Another pioneer was Wolfgang Blass, who immigrated from Germany in 1961. Wolfgang Blass (*1934). Australian oenologists, known as Flying Winemakers, are sought-after consultants worldwide.

Wine journalists

Australia has become a true wine-drinking nation in just one generation. Journalists such as Len Evans, James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson and Jeremy Oliver have contributed to this through books, publications and wine guides.

Production volumes and grape varieties

In 2022, the vineyards covered 146,244 hectares of vines and the wine production volume was 13.1 million hectolitres. Around 80% of production is accounted for by multis. The majority are varietals (varietal wines). Around 70% are bulk wines bottled in bag-in-boxes. Large quantities of table grapes and sultanas are also produced. About 40% are white wines and 60% are red wines. Suitable new varieties such as Cienna and Tyrian have been created for the special Australian climate/soil conditions. The top 50 grape varieties (Kym Anderson...