The Riverina is one of Australia’s biggest and most important wine regions.
It’s the largest NSW wine region and the second-largest Australian wine region, embracing the key towns of Griffith and Leeton, and is home to several wineries and brands that are household names in Australia: Yellow Tail, Casella, De Bortoli, McWilliam’s, Calabria, Nugan Estate.
From around 22,000 ha of vineyards the Riverina produces about 300,000 tonnes of grapes, and exports over 12.5 million cases of wine overseas to over 60 destination countries.
From around 22,000 ha of vineyards the Riverina produces about 300,000 tonnes of grapes, and exports over 12.5 million cases of wine overseas to over 60 destination countries. Situated on an inland flat plain, with a hot dry climate, the Riverina relies on water from the Sow Mountains channelled to the inland in a vast network of canals to supply life-giving water to the vineyards, farms, orchards and vegetable growing and grazing enterprises.
Key to this is the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA), a green and fertile part of the Riverina. The Riverina is actually a much bigger area than the Riverian wine region, and embraces the Murrumbidgee, Darling and Lachlan which all eventually flow into the mighty Murray River. The MIA feeds water to the fertile red-brown soils enabling the area to be a food bowl for the country.
The MIA was started by Sir Samuel McCaughey in
This Article was originally published on The Real Review
