Australia

Australia is not just a wine region, and rather more than a wine nation. It is a wine continent -- the oldest, geologically speaking, on earth. Its generous climate and ancient, heavily weathered soils, combined with Australian pragmatic ingenuity in wine-making and wine-marketing, have brought about the biggest world wine revolution of the last two decades. Australia's greatest wines are now hugely sought-after, especially by those who cut their wine-drinking teeth on its friendly and accessible brands. Stylistically, too, many of them represent an ultimate: these are some of the deepest, richest, most powerful and most lavishly endowed wines made by anyone, anywhere, any time.

Of Australia's many wine-regions, it is the Barossa Valley in the state of South Australia which leads the way. This may be due to its clay-loam soils and sunny, dry climate - but it may also be due to the long history of viticulture here which, combined with the absence of phylloxera, means that some of the oldest, most deeply rooted vines on earth are Barossa residents. Many of these are Shiraz, producing opulent, sweet, jet-black wines of almost explosive power and depth. The adjacent Eden Valley is higher and cooler, and the Adelaide Hills are higher and cooler still. McLaren Vale, to the south of Adelaide, has similar loamy sand soils to the Barossa, and an even hotter climate, though one more influenced by the nearby ocean. It rivals Barossa for the quality of its dark, smooth, chocolatey Shiraz. Coonawarra is a limestone-soiled region much further south; its climate is consequently cooler and windier. This is the home of many of Australia's greatest Cabernets: fragrant, dark, racehorse-lean thoroughbreds. Other great wine-producing regions include Margaret River in Western Australia and the Yarra Valley and Heathcote in Victoria.

Note, though, the tradition of 'cross-regional' blending in Australia: wines deliberately and knowingly crafted in the winery, by blending the finest parcels of fruit available in any one vintage together. This is the principle behind Penfold's Grange. The core of the wine comes from the Barossa Valley, but it may include smaller parcels from a wide range of other regions. Even if few smaller wineries are able to produce cross-regional blends, their ranges often include single wines based on fruit from different regions.