Max Allen
22 Jan 2024
Everybody knows this country does great wine. What many don’t realise is that some of that comes from lesser-known regions that also make for happy travels.
The Hunter Valley. The Barossa. The Yarra. These regions between them attract millions of wine tourists a year. And for good reason: they boast hundreds of cellar doors and long, rich wine histories.
But Australia is also home to more than 60 other official wine-producing areas – from sprawling zones such as Gippsland, which spreads all the way from Phillip Island south of Melbourne to the NSW border in the east of the state, to small, precise sub-regions such as Great Western in the Grampians, home to just a handful of vineyards.
And then there’s the unofficial (not yet formally mapped or registered) districts like Ballarat in western Victoria, the east coast of Tassie, or Bathurst in NSW’s central ranges. Many of these regions are also home to outstanding wine producers and cellar doors and can be great places to visit.
Here, then, are five (mostly) under-the-radar regional suggestions to whet your appetite and hopefully set you off along a new wine route.
South Australia: the Limestone Coast
Most interstate and international wine tourists heading to Australia’s south-east make a beeline for the famous Coonawarra wine region to sample its legendary, ageworthy cabernets. But South Australians know that there are also quite a few newer vineyards and wineries over on the coast at Mount Benson and around the tourist (and crayfish) mecca of Robe – vineyards that often boast similar soils to Coonawarra but also a cool, maritime climate and beautiful sea views.
Cape Jaffa Wines was one of the first to plant vines here over 30 years ago and is still one of the best of the region’s producers, making often adventurous styles of wine from vineyards that were certified biodynamic in the mid-2000s.
Among the more recently established labels, I’m excited by the wines of Wangolina. Originally planted with conventional varieties such as cabernet, shiraz and sauvignon blanc, Wangolina has become a specialist in alternative varieties, excelling with a host of less-mainstream grapes such as gruner veltliner, mencia and lagrein.
More: limestonecoast.org.au/locale/limestone-coast-wine-trails and mtbensonwineregion.com.au
NSW: Bathurst
One of the most intriguing wines I tried last year was called “Murnang di Renzo”. It featured a drawing of a yam daisy – murnang in the local Wiradjuri language – and was made from vermentino (and a splash of sauvignon blanc) by Renzaglia Wines, a producer new to me.
Turns out that the winery is just south of Bathurst, one of a growing number of vineyards taking advantage of the area’s high altitude and cool climate to produce some very good wines (I subsequently tasted – and can recommend – Renzaglia’s intense, textural chardonnay).
You may think of Bathurst as somewhere to go to watch souped-up cars hurtle around a racetrack, or somewhere to pass through on your way to the more established and better-known Orange wine region. I confess that my own view of Bathurst was as the home of the annual National Cool Climate Wine Show, and of Stone Pine, which became one of NSW’s first craft distilleries when it was established back in 2008.
It’s obviously time to re-think our preconceptions of the place.
More: winesofbathurst.com.au
Western Australia: Ferguson Valley
A few years ago, as I was speeding up the highway towards Perth after a few days in Margaret River, I remembered a tip-off from a winemaker about a lush green valley inland from Bunbury where a handful of vineyards were growing red grapes – shiraz, grenache, tempranillo –quite different in style from those grown further south, towards the coast.
My initial discovery – and one of the first to put the Ferguson Valley on the map – was the relatively well-established Willow Bridge Estate. More recent wines to have emerged from the region are the award-winning alternative varieties from the small Green Door vineyard, the Spanish and Portuguese varietal wines and blends from Mazza Wines, and the light but earthy grenache made by Margaret River producer LAS Vino from grapes grown on bush vines in Ferguson.
More: fergusonvalley.net.au
Victoria: South Gippsland
Back in 2021, I wrote in The Australian Financial Review Magazine about how the southwestern edge of the huge Gippsland wine zone was on the cusp of becoming Australia’s “hottest new wine region”. While not developing quite as fast I predicted (or hoped: I spend quite a bit of time at a holiday house in the region and would selfishly love to see lots more vineyards there), there have been some very welcome recent additions to the wine scene.
Corner Inlet Vineyard near Foster, down towards Wilsons Promontory, and Fleet Wines near Leongatha both opened new cellar doors before Christmas, selling exquisite expressions of the cool region’s top grape, pinot noir (Corner Inlet also produces excellent vermouth under the Cinq a Sept label). And Gurneys – the remarkable cidery with stunning views to the Prom – goes from strength to strength. Every time I visit there’s new building, new planting and new products – and more and more visitors.
More: winegippsland.com
Tasmania: East Coast
Grape growing and winemaking (and wine tourism) in Tasmania is centred around the island’s two poles of Launceston in the north and Hobart in the south, but you’ll find vineyards and wineries in other, slightly more remote spots, too.
The spectacular east coast, with its sweeping coastline and stunning seafood, has long been home to some of Tassie’s top wine producers such as the pioneering Freycinet Vineyard, Apsley Gorge and Spring Vale.
OK, so the region is hardly under-the-radar. As well as being well-known for its deep, rich, pinot noirs it is also a general tourism magnet. But recent developments have helped further build the quality wine buzz here.
A couple of years ago, for example, the already-striking Devil’s Corner cellar door was given a multimillion-dollar revamp, tripling capacity and expanding the food offering. And this followed the impressive debut of a brand-new east-coast wine label, Ossa, whose inaugural vintage took the top gong at the Australian Pinot Noir Challenge.
Even more reasons to visit.