New South Wales

Australia is the world's fifth-largest wine producer: around 146,000 hectares of vines, more than 100 grape varieties and 65 protected Geographical Indications, mostly in the cooler south-east and south-west of the continent. Shiraz leads with roughly a quarter of the vineyard area, followed by Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine history begins in 1788, when Captain Arthur Phillip brought vine cuttings from the Cape of Good Hope to Sydney; John Macarthur planted the first commercial vineyard around 1820, and German settlers shaped the Barossa Valley from the 1840s. Wine law is liberal: origin, vintage and variety on the label must each be at least 85 % true – beyond that, winemakers are largely free.

New South Wales is the historic origin of Australian wine: Arthur Phillip planted the first vines here in 1788, John Macarthur the first commercial vineyard around 1820. The Hunter Valley, some 150 kilometres north of Sydney, with first plantings in 1823, is one of the oldest and best-known wine regions in the country. Across about 14,000 hectares in the Lower Hunter, Upper Hunter and Broke Fordwich sub-zones, the climate is warm and subtropical with humid summers – unusual for fine wine, yet ideal for the regional speciality: Hunter Sémillon. Young, it is straw-yellow, citrus-fresh and light (often only 10–11 % alcohol); with ten or more years it turns golden and develops honey, toast and nutty notes – without ever seeing oak. Earthy, medium-weight Shiraz and Chardonnay complete the picture. Tyrrell's, Brokenwood, Mount Pleasant, McWilliam's and Audrey Wilkinson are among the defining houses.