Dr. David Muhleman

The-Wine-Educator    WINE & SPIRITS EDUCATION AND CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE CONSUMER AND THE PROFESSIONAL

How Australian Wines are Named

By and large, Australian wines get their names similarly to wines made in the Americas—by grape variety. If so labeled, at least 85% of the wine must be made from the named grape.

Unique to Australia, though, are wines named after two or more grape varieties. If more than one grape variety constitutes a wine (and neither alone reaches 85%), then the grape varieties must be named on the label both in order of importance and by percentage used. So, for example, a blend of Chardonnay–Sémillon might state “Chardonnay 60%-Sémillon 40%.” (Aussies pronounce Sémillon as SEM-eh-lawn.)

Around the world, in addition to (or in place of) grape names, many countries also designate some sort of place on the label. The Australians do this also, but again in a unique way.

Australians are not as fond of terroir (terr- WAHR)—or, a single grape-growing place—as Europeans. Instead, grapes for an individual wine may come from many places, some of which are very far apart. An Australian winemaker will make individual wines from these grapes and then select and blend from among the wines for a final wine. As a result, the geographic designation on the wine’s label will be the genera,l or overarching area, from which all the constituent wines came from— say, “South Australia,” an area as large as all of Germany’s vineyards combined.

In a similar way, this is the case with Three Rings Shiraz, made of grapes from three vineyard sites spread out in one larger growing area, the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Even so august a wine as Penfolds’ Grange is a blend of Shiraz grapes grown in various vineyards as much as 300 miles apart. (To make Grange, Penfolds begins with the equivalent of 40,000 cases of wine, then selects and blends from that to make around just 7,000 cases.)

By labeling wines this way, Australians are saying that style—especially fruity freshness—trumps terroir. However, more & more higher-ranked Australian wines come from smaller place designations.