Australia has 65 different wine regions and the first grapes were planted in 1788.
MAY is Aussie wine month, an entire 31 days dedicated to celebrating everything great about our local drop. From wine tastings to festivals and dinners, the industry says it is better than ever as our wines soar in popularity around the globe.
Corinna Wright is a sixth generation winemaker in McLaren Vale, South Australia, who has been making her own wines since 1994 at her vineyard Oliver’s Taranga.
As a woman in the industry, she has faced her challenges — only eight per cent of winemakers in Australia are women.
“People assume I’m the sales girl or the marketing girl. If I'm with a male sales rep they’ll assume he’s the winemaker,” she laughs.
But that’s not the only misconception.
“Aussies tend to think, if it’s French, it’s better. But that’s not the case, even at the really high end Australia is still up there in terms of quality,” says Wright.
While shiraz is the most well known variety in Australia, Wright says alternative varieties are starting to become popular.
“The regions are starting to work with Spanish and Italian varieties including vermentino, fiano and tempranillo.”
Corinna Wright is the winemaker for Oliver Taranga in McLaren Vale, SA.Source:Supplied
Of course, working at a cellar door has its fare share of funny encounters.
“A younger couple came in from England and I asked them where they were staying, they said they were off to Alice Springs that afternoon then Darwin tomorrow. I looked at them perplexedly and said ‘You must be flying’
“‘Oh no’, they said, ‘we’re driving’,” recounts Wright.
“Or the woman who grabbed a handful of olive pips that other people had sucked on thinking they were sugared almonds, she shoved them in her mouth, crunching on them, trying to eat them.”
And then there’s the serial wine wanker.
“We get a lot of people who like to drop words (like) malolactic — you know they're just saying it for their mates,” she laughs.
So what’s her favourite wine? “Well”, she says, “it’s actually champagne.”
The vineyards of Oliver Taranga.Source:Supplied
Everything you didn’t know about Aussie wine:
• 30 million glasses of Aussie wine are drunk every day around the world
• Australia has 65 wine regions with different geography, topography, soils and climate
• The Australian continent has the oldest soils on the planet and there are more than 100 different grape varieties planted throughout the various regions
• The first grapes were planted in Australia in 1788
• There are approximately 600-800 crushed grapes in one bottle of wine
• The highest (and some of the coolest) vineyards in Australia are in the Granite Belt region of Queensland
• Australia has 25 vineyard areas colder than Bordeaux in France
• The wine region of Orange is renowned for its cherries, apples and pears
• Chardonnay and shiraz are grown in all of Australia’s 65 wine regions
• Malbec has more than 50 synonyms
• Australia has the oldest shiraz vines on the planet. Many that were planted in the mid-1800s are still producing today
• One barrel of wine equals 20 cases which equals 1,200 glasses
• Wine should be stored at a constant temperature between 10-15 degrees Celsius
• The oldest vineyard in Australia is Langmeil’s Freedom vineyard in the Barossa Valley, planted in 1843
• The newest designated wine region is Mount Gambier in South Australia’s south east
• Top 10 grape varieties grown in Australia are: shiraz 26 per cent, chardonnay 25 per cent, cab sav 15 per cent, merlot 8 per cent, sauvignon blanc 6 per cent, semillon 5 per cent, muscat 4 per cent, pinot gris/grigio 4 per cent, colombard 4 per cent, pinot noir 2
• Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass