Australia Wines
A few years ago Australians had had to pour over 4 million litres of table wine into the ground as a result of overproduction. Sudden overseas demand in the 1980s for powerful, overoaked, wines led many fruit farmers in Australia to jump on the winemaking bandwagon, often with disastrous results. This year, after a disastrous harvest in 2007, bulk producers are blending in wines brought over from the Languedoc (up to 20% permitted) in order to satiate demand. Tesco is still the Australian wine industry's biggest customer, but its days of selling generic blends at under £4 per bottle seem to be over.
We've sourced and listed a range of very individual wines below, usually from private and family run estates. Whilst still vast in comparison with their European equivalents, even the largest of the family estates, De Bortoli, is insignificant in comparison with some of the Australian 'giants' and this is reflected in their wines, which are all distinctly individual and not simply made to be blended into 'red' or 'white'.