Chances are, you know Australia makes wine. But do you know how varied it is, and the leaps the country’s winemaking has taken in just a few short decades?
While the country has a long history of producing vino—its oldest vines date to 1843 and still produce grapes—there is also a wealth of ambitious producers keen on trying new things. This includes reviving nearly forgotten varietals, turning vineyards into wildlife preserves, experimenting with natural and biodynamic wines and figuring out how to evolve in the face of climate change.
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“With 65 wine regions spanning a nation with roughly the same land mass as the United States, Australia is one of the wine world’s most diverse and—in this reviewer’s opinion—underrated wine nations,” says Christina Pickard, a Wine Enthusiast writer-at-large who reviews wines from Australia, New Zealand, New York and England.
While the country is best known for its full-bodied Shiraz and dynamic Chardonnay, Australia offers much more, including other cool-climate varietals like Gamay and Grenache. To celebrate the wealth of wine from the region—and to help make buying them easier—we’ve rounded up a lucky 13 of our favorite bottles.
“This list demonstrates the country’s astounding diversity of wine styles, from gorgeously complex Margaret River Chardonnay to perfumed McLaren Vale Grenache and world-class Tasmanian bubbles,” Pickard says. “To add to the fun, they’re wines from a mix of small batch, lo-fi producers, medium ones with larger-than-life
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
