Eastern Australian Reisling

[bennylava]

I thought Germany dominated this area of the world of wines. I had a couple of glasses of this last night, and it was really actually better in some ways than the German Rieslings I've had!

 

[Diuretic]

The Clare Valley in South Australia has pretty good rieslings. Which eastern Australian one did you try? If you can get Jimmy Barry or Tim Knappstein where you are I'd recommend both.

http://www.winediva.com.au/regions/clare-valley.asp

 

[bennylava]

It was Black Swan, pretty cheap. I was suprised at the quality for the price!

 

[Diuretic]

It was Black Swan, pretty cheap. I was suprised at the quality for the price!

We're lucky in that we can produce some pretty good wine at a good price. I suppose that's our competitive advantage. We know that we won't get the reputation of the best European wines but we'll give it a run.

This is probably our best known wine:

http://www.winesoftheworld.com/news/static/article_52.asp

(I have to say I wouldn't call it "the most famous wine in the world", not when
there are some many famous French chateaux).

And a website for anyone interested:

http://www.wineaustralia.com/australia/

 

[bennylava]

You must be able to grow it very cheaply, because you're still shipping it a lot farther!

 

[Diuretic]

You must be able to grow it very cheaply, because you're still shipping it a lot farther!

I don't know how we can do it. I'm thinking though that we have a lot of areas under vines in nearly every state so that might help. The wine areas range from small, specialised areas such as the Coonawarra in South Australia which is a small, tightly defined area due to its terra rossa soil right up (or down) to huge irrigated areas where the wine is of lesser quality and is usually used for blending. I do know that winery workers are not that well paid and there's always a squeeze by the bigger exporters on grape growers so that might keep costs down too.

But anyway, don't forget our Kiwi cousins, they produce some excellent sauvingon blancs over there, I'd say they're better quality than ours but I'm no expert.

To quote the late Len Evans, doyen of the Australian wine industry, "Wine is a drink, so bloody well drink it!"

 

[bennylava]

Hee! What part of the country do you live in? I always thought it would be too sunny and hot there to do wine.

 

[Diuretic]

Hee! What part of the country do you live in? I always thought it would be too sunny and hot there to do wine.

I live in South Australia. Our climate is hot and dry summers with (allegedly) wet and cool (not cold) winters. The climate here is very good for grapes. Most of the major wine areas here have similar climates. But there is a winery just outside of Alice Springs and there are some attempts at growing vines in some of the more tropical areas in Australia (for us the tropical area is further north). Mixed results on the tropical attempts right now though.