I pleasantly discovered Aussie wines about ten years ago. I knew then they were going to be a big hit in the future. I'm a red wine drinker so I haven't really tried a lot of their whites. Go Aussies, between you and a few South American countries, you are ruining France, and that's a good thing.
How times have changed ! From Monty Python :
Monty Python's Flying Circus -
"Australian Table Wines"
[ from the album Monty Python's Previous Record, 1972 ]
The Players:
Eric Idle - Wine Expert;
The Scene:
Soft introduction music plays .....
WINE EXPERT:
A lot of people in this country pooh-pooh Australian table wines. This is a pity as many fine Australian wines appeal not only to the Australian palate but also to the cognoscenti of Great Britain.
Black Stump Bordeaux is rightly praised as a peppermint flavoured Burgundy, whilst a good Sydney Syrup can rank with any of the world's best sugary wines.
Château Blue, too, has won many prizes; not least for its taste, and its lingering afterburn.
Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret, whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half an hour.
Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.
Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat.
Quite the reverse is true of Château Chunder, which is an appellation contrôlée, specially grown for those keen on regurgitation; a fine wine which really opens up the sluices at both ends.
Real emetic fans will also go for a Hobart Muddy, and a prize winning Cuivre Reserve Château Bottled Nuit San Wogga Wogga, which has a bouquet like an aborigine's armpit.
Nice work, good wine.
Australian wines are great, and it's such a good range that's being produced. I've seen $50 bottles and $3 bottles, and all of them are drinkable. On the cheap end, it's only real competition in the US is from the "Charles Shaw" brand (a Californian wine) affectionately known as "Two Buck Chuck." Although, it's actually about $3 per bottle in most places now.