Sipping Great Grapes in Australia

Despite the image of Aussies as a nation of beer-swilling Crocodile Dundees, the truth is that most know their way around a wine shop better than across the outback. And no wonder. Although the country has only 16 million people, there are more than 700 vineyards and 600 wineries, some of which are open to the public. And much of this is new since the 1960s, when the wine boom began.

In the days when many Australians thought a Cabernet Sauvignon was a French cupboard, picking a wine was a simple decision between red or white. Today it means choosing from more than 10,000 labels of Pinot Noir, Merlot, fume blanc, Chardonnay and others. Australia now has an annual wine consumption of more than five gallons per capita, the highest of any English-speaking nation.

Australia’s commercial wine industry began with a series of vineyard plantings between 1838 and the early 1850s. One of the most important was that of British physician Dr. Christopher Penfold, whose winery is still operating. However, the present boom was ignited by Italian, German and Yugoslavian immigrants who arrived in the 1960s and brought their wine-drinking tradition with them.

Australian wines are different in character from European, especially the reds, which are often full-bodied and robust compared with France’s dry, light reds.

Whites are more popular in Australia than reds and are fruity, crisp and clean, though there tends to be more oak in Australian whites such as Chardonnay than in their French and California counterparts. But even that trend seems to be softening in recent years.

Unlike European wine-growing areas where Bordeaux wines are produced in the Bordeaux region of France and Champagne in the Champagne region, in Australia it is not uncommon for a single winery to produce everything from red and white table wines to champagne, sherry, port and brandy.

Wine is grown in all seven Australian states. But the two most important and interesting wine regions to visit are the Hunter Valley, northwest of Sydney in New South Wales, and the Barossa Valley, near Adelaide in South Australia.

The Hunter, 110 miles northwest of Sydney, is close enough to tour on a day trip, but its peaceful rolling countryside of back roads--with wineries tucked amid the eucalyptus--has an almost English air about it and deserves at least a couple days’ exploration, with overnight stays in a country inn.

It is possible to tour the wineries at leisure by hiring a horse-drawn carriage that includes a champagne picnic lunch (at the Carriages Guest House in the Hunter Valley) or glide above the vines in a hot-air balloon (contact Balloon Aloft in North Rothbury).

That the Hunter Valley makes only about 4% of the national production belies its importance as the birthplace of the wine industry in Australia. Most of the well-known old family wineries are clustered around the town of Cessnock in the Lower Hunter. International exporter Lindemans is here, as well as Wyndham Estate, one of Australia’s most popular labels.

The vines grow right up to the old whitewashed sheds at Wyndham, now classified by the National Trust as a historic site. Another favorite is Tyrrell’s. Its tasting room is a traditional outback slab hut with a dirt floor where visitors sample among old oak barrels.

Between these legends are boutique wineries created by a stream of Sydney doctors, lawyers and advertising executives who abandoned their professions to chase the dream of running their own winery.

Max Lake was one of the first. He gave up his career as a surgeon to open a winery called Lake’s Folly, now one of the most respected small wineries in the Hunter Valley. Also close by is Rothbury Estate, which holds lavish candlelight dinners for guests in the Great Cask Hall.

The Upper Hunter Valley, 35 miles farther northwest, is a well-kept secret. Less traveled and slower paced than the Lower Hunter (which can be as busy as the Napa Valley on weekends), it is as much known for its horse studs as its wines. Arrowfield, for example, is both a winery and a world-class racehorse breeding facility. Around the town of Muswellbrook are Rosemount Estate, which makes one of the country’s most popular Chardonnays, and the Richmond Grove winery.

Near the country town of Denman, Pam and Niel Burling have restored their 1827 home into a charming, gingerbread-trimmed bed and breakfast inn on 1,000 acres of countryside where kangaroos come to graze at dusk. There are several bed and breakfast inns in the Lower Hunter Valley, too. The Carriages is a charming new guest house on a quiet country lane in the middle of wine country in Pokolbin. Each suite has its own open fireplace and veranda and is decorated with antique pine furniture.

One of our favorites on the alternative Wollombi Road back to Sydney is Mulla Villa, which is in a lush country setting just a mile from the historic village of Wollombi, half an hour’s drive from the Lower Hunter. Francisca Maul and her family run their three-room inn in an 1840 house that is classified as a historic site by the National Trust. Meals are excellent; her son ventures out at dawn each morning to catch stream fish that are served as dinner appetizers.

The gracious city of Adelaide in South Australia is lucky to be encircled by a wealth of wine-growing areas. To the north is the lovely Clare (the setting for the Australian movie hit “Breaker Morant”); to the south are the seaside vineyards of the Southern Vales. Southeast is the fertile sliver of the Coonawarra, where some of the country’s most sought-after reds are born. But of all Australia’s wine-growing regions, the Barossa Valley--an hour’s drive north of the South Australian capital--is the most enchanting.

It has everything you would expect of classic European wine country: stately French- and German-style chateaus rise from rows of vines, silver Lutheran church spires tower above country towns. Oom-pah-pah bands pump out music in parks and in the streets, and a peculiar German dialect still lingers.

The valley is just 20 miles long and seven miles wide (the same dimensions as the Napa Valley), with the Barossa Valley Highway--more of a country road--knitting together the four main towns, which are scattered amid the low, summer brown hills. Each has its own distinctive character, but they all share an obsession with the fine food for which the region is as renowned as it is for its wines.

At Die Gallerie, a bistro and art gallery in Tanunda, the biggest and most German of the towns, summer dining is beneath a courtyard shaded with vines. At the Pheasant Farm Restaurant, which was recently ranked one of Australia’s top restaurants by a major Australian news magazine, the fare includes such home-grown specialties as eucalyptus-smoked kangaroo. Country bakeries such as the gingerbread-trimmed Linke’s in Nuriootpa sell fresh-baked apple strudel, streusel and mounds of weighty European breads.

The 54 wineries that make 30% of Australia’s national production (the Barossa Valley is also the nation’s biggest producer of award-winning wines) are scattered along the main route or on dusty side roads. They range from tiny family operations to the country’s biggest wine corporations. There are opulent affairs with names such as Chateau Yaldara that would be at home on the banks of the Loire. Yet some of the loveliest wineries, such as Yalumba and Seppeltsfield, are built in Australian colonial style. Rows of date palms line the country road to the Seppeltsfield winery complex.

One of the valley’s biggest success stories is that of Wolf Blass, whose Bilyara Winery produces wines that are among Australia’s most popular. Blass arrived in Australia from his native Germany as a winery consultant in 1960 and set about pressing his first grapes in a tin shed at what is now Bilyara Winery near the Barossa town of Nuriootpa. Over the past quarter-century, the flamboyant Blass--never seen without his trademark bow tie--has created a $38-million industry and is selling half a million cases of wine a year around the world. His wines have scooped up more than 2,000 national and international awards and he is even exporting vintages back to his native Germany.

Most of the bigger wineries, such as Orlando and Penfolds, which is Australia’s biggest winemaker, offer tours of production facilities and storage areas with tasting rooms open seven days a week. (One Penfolds wine, Grange Hermitage, rivals any of the greatest French reds.)

Such wineries also export large quantities of reasonably priced wine to the United States. Those with good distribution here include Orlando, Penfolds, Rosemount, Lindemans and Wolf Blass.

At small boutique wineries such as Bethany or High Wycombe, winemakers have time for a glass and chat with patrons.

The Barossa is particularly popular with tourists when the vines are turned out in their best yellow and red autumn dress, from February through late March. Every odd-numbered year, harvest is celebrated with special gusto during the Barossa Valley Vintage Festival. What began in the 1940s as a small village get-together after the harvest has blossomed into the world’s biggest wine festival.

Though the festivities now attract up to 250,000 people, there is still the feel of a local country celebration. The festival kicks off on Easter Monday with parades and continues for seven days with a packed calender featuring grape treading, wine tastings, a wine auction, outdoor markets and music festivals.

The Barossa offers all manner of accommodations--from the Landhaus, an 1850s shepherd’s cottage with room for just two, and the luxury of The Lodge, the original family homestead within the Seppeltsfield winery complex, to the Barossa Junction, a cluster of refurbished railway coaches set on a siding near Tanunda.

As with many of the larger wine-growing regions of the world, Australia has its share of appointment-only wineries, so it is a good idea to call ahead before visiting. Those planning a tour that will include off-the-beaten-path wineries could benefit by the book, “The Simon & Schuster Pocket Guide to Australian and New Zealand Wines” by Jane MacQuitty ($10.95), which offers a complete look at the areas with maps.

GUIDEBOOK

Sipping Wine in Australia

HUNTER VALLEY

Hungerford Hill Wine Village restaurant and tasting room: Broke Road, Pokolbin, New South Wales, local telephone (049) 987-584.

Mulla Villa inn: Old Northern Road, Wollombi, N.S.W., (049) 883-254; $90 double with full breakfast and afternoon tea included.

The Carriages Guest House: Halls Road, Pokolbin, N.S.W., (049) 98-7591; $75 to $100 per night, double occupancy, 10% discount Monday to Thursday.

Pickering Guesthouse: Mangoola Road via Denman, N.S.W., (065) 472-358; $105 double, including full breakfast.

Balloon Aloft: Balloon rides leave daily from North Rothbury, N.S.W., (049) 381-955.

BAROSSA VALLEY Die Gallerie restaurant: Murray Street, Tanunda, South Australia, (085) 63-2704.

Pheasant Farm restaurant: Samuel Road, Nuriootpa, South Australia, (085) 62-1286; open Wednesday to Sunday for lunch, Saturday only for dinner.

Landhaus restaurant and inn: Bethany Road, Bethany, South Australia 5352, (085) 63-2191; $100 double, including full breakfast.

The Lodge: Main Road, Seppeltsfield, South Australia 5360, (085) 62-8277; $200 double, including full breakfast.

Barossa Junction: Barossa Highway, Tanunda, South Australia 5352, (085) 63-3400; $55 double, including light breakfast.

For more information on Australia’s Wine Country, contact the Australian National Tourist Commission, 2121 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 1200, Los Angeles 90067, (213) 552-1988.