Australian Wine - An Overview

G Blaxland - an important Australian wine pioneer.Over 1.5 million bottles of Australian wine are sold overseas every day. That's a staggering figure but it has not been an overnight achievement. The wine industry here has taken almost 200 years to bloom into its current state after its first taste of international acclaim in the early 1800s.

The first vines arrived in Australia in 1788 with Captain Phillip on board one of the ships of the First Fleet. Unfortunately, the vines did not bear as expected, and were soon transplanted to a new location at Parramatta.In following years, many others attempted to establish winegrape growing and wine-making ventures in various regions of the colony.

Notable amongst these were the pioneering efforts of Captain John McArthur, to whom a grant of land some thirty miles from Sydney was made, and which he named Camden Park.

Another important figure was Mr G. Blaxland, who in 1822 shipped 136 litres of wine to London where it won the Silver Medal of the Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, now known as the Royal Society of Arts. Five years later, a larger shipment of 1800 litres of Blaxland's wine won the Gold Ceres Medal.

The first export excursions of the fledgling Australian wine industry were certainly successful and showed great promise for the future.

As European settlement spread over the Australian continent, so did the planting and propagation of the vine. By the turn of this century, Australian exports to the United Kingdom had developed to the stage where annual shipments reached almost one million gallons (4.5 million litres) of mainly full-bodied, dry red wines.

By the end of World War II, Australia was producing almost 26 million gallons (117 million litres) of wine per year. It was however the rapid influx of post-war migrants from continental Europe who brought with them their well-established wine culture which pushed the Australian wine industry into the next phase of growth.

wineozlogoThe annual production of beverage wine as at 2004 stands around 1 034 million litres of which more than 50% is now exported to over 104 countries throughout the World.

Winegrape growing and wine-making are now carried out in every State and Territory of Australia, employing around 30,000 people.

Translate

English Arabic Chinese (Simplified) French Indonesian Italian Malay Spanish Thai Vietnamese

G Blaxland - an important Australian wine pioneer.

wineozlogo

Wine Quotes & Toasts

Quickly bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may whet my mind and say something clever."

Euripedes

Good wine ruins the purse; bad wine ruins the stomach.

Spanish saying 

Wine is the pearl in the oyster of the grape.

Charles A. Nardone, Mirabella Ranch, Texas USA 

Drink no longer water but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

St. Paul, 1 Timothy 5:23

Wine is a constant proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Benjamin Franklin 

A waltz and a glass of wine invite an encore."

Johann Strauss

Wine is the most healthful and most hygienic of beverages."

Louis Pasteur

Good wine is a good familiar creature if it well used."

Shakespeare 

Wine cheereth God and man."

Judges 9:13

It is well to remember that there are five reasons for drinking: the arrival of a friend; one's present or future thirst; the excellence of the wine; or any other reason."

Latin saying 

No thing more excellent nor more valuable than wine was ever granted mankind by God."

Plato

A man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry."

Ecclesiastes 8:15

Both to the rich and poor, wine is the happy antidote for sorrow.

Euripides

What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.

Diogenes

Wine is bottled poetry."

Robert Louis Stevenson  

Wine is sunlight, held together by water."

Galileo Galilei

Now is the time for drinking, now is the time to beat the earth with unfettered foot. "

Horace

God made only water, but man made wine.

Victor Hugo

A meal without wine is like a day without sunshine."

Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin 

Drink wine, and you will sleep well. Sleep, and you will not sin. Avoid sin, and you will be saved. Ergo, drink wine and be saved."

Medieval German saying 

Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues."

Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

Contact Details

Nardone Baker Wines

Admin/Production
PO Box 386, McLaren Vale, South Australia, 5171, Australia.

Sales/Distribution:
10 Gray Street, Kilkenny, South Australia, 5009, Australia
Phone +61 8 8445 8100 
Fax +61 8 8445 8200

Or use our contact page