Savour Australia – Experience the Latest From Wine Australia
Examiner.com
21st May, 2016
by Cori Solomon
The history of Australian wine goes back to the 1800s. With two centuries of winemaking many of the wines are created from old vines influenced by years of family traditions. At the same time many of the winemakers are utilizing the old vine grapes with a new innovative spin, old world meets new world wines. Savour Australia, a recent Los Angeles event, sponsored by Wine Australia brought together winemakers to showcase the expansive diversification, growth and development that is occurring in the various Australian wine regions.
One will find that most of the 66 wine regions in Australia lie in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wells. Western Australia comes in a close second.
Some of the oldest vines come from Hunter Valley. Probably the most famous region is Coonawarra while Margaret River is another very noted area for its Bordeaux varietals.
In Australia different varietals have different idiosyncrasies. Winemakers find Chardonnay has a lot of ripeness in the fruit. It is the winemaker’s duty to tame that ripeness. Grenache is considered the red headed stepchild. A commonality for Shiraz is the grape produces typically full, rich, ripe and delicate wine.
Here are some of my favorite from the region.
d’Arenberg’s ’Ironstone Pressings’ Grenache Shiraz Mourvédre from McLaren Vale in South Australia is a very dry yet subtle wine with accents of dried herbs and baking spices like cinnamon.