If you aren’t, or haven’t been, in Australia and don’t know about Australian wines and Australian wine regions, well,you should.
Australian wines are carving a name for themselves in many parts of the world and are served in the best of places.
Take a tour
There's probably no better way to get acquainted than to drive to — or take a tour in — one of the Australian wine regions.
If you’re visiting Australia, take time to go wine-tasting in the vineyards at one or more of the Australian wine regions.
Hunter Valley
In New South Wales, the most notable of the Australian wine regions would be the Hunter Valley which should be less than a half day’s drive from Sydney unless, of course, you like dawdling along the way to catch other country attractions.
Visit Hunter Valley Wine Country for more information.
Sydney region
Sydney itself is developing its own wine region along the peripheries of the city and the wineries here would be among the closest to the city.
Mudgee
In country New South Wales -- if, for instance, you’re visiting the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo -- you could quite easily take a detour through Mudgee which is one of the established but smaller Australian wine regions in the state.
There are about 20 wineries in the Mudgee area and one of them, Craigmoor, has been producing wines since 1858 and is the second oldest operating winery in Australia.
Barossa Valley
In South Australia, you cannot go wrong by barreling up to the vineyards and wineries of the Barossa Valley northeast of Adelaide.
See Barossa Valley Wine County for more information.
Other South Australia wine regions
But while the Barossa claims to be the foremost wine region in Australia, naturally disputed by the Hunter Valley, there are other wine regions in the state including the Upper Murray, Clare Valley and the Coonawarra area as well as McLaren Vale and other wine growing areas in the Fleurieu Peninsula.
Melbourne to Mornington
Victoria’s main wine producing region is the Rutherglen/Milawa area in the northeast but smaller Victorian wine regions are at Yarra Valley, which is the closest to Melbourne, and those in the Mornington Peninsula and the Geelong area.
A distinctive advantage of Victoria’s wine regions is that all are within easy reach of Melbourne, particularly Yarra Valley with more than 70 wineries which lie just outside Melbourne’s greater city area.
Western Australia
Not to be outdone, Western Australia has its Margaret River wine region, also renowned as a surfing mecca, and the wineries at Albany, Denmark, Frankland River, Mount Barker and Porongurup.
Northern Territory
In the heart of the Australian continent, the Northern Territory has a winery in Alice Springs, the Chateau Hornsby, 15 kilometres out of town.
And Tasmania, too
In the island state of Tasmania, visit the vineyards close to Cygnet south of the state capital, Hobart, through Channel Highway from either Kingston or Huonville.
