This article first appeared in Cellar Press, 2009
Tyson Stelzer

If you have had opportunity to travel the great wine regions of the world and taste their finest fruits, you will appreciate just how good we have it in Australia. We are privileged to live in a country that produces world-class examples of virtually every wine style, and often at a fraction of the price of their counterparts in Europe and North America.

Australia’s greatest cabernets rival the classed growths of Bordeaux up to and including at least second growth, while our top pinots give premier cru Burgundy a run for its money (and a lot less money, in our case, at that!). Across the wide diversity of our shiraz-growing regions, there is no rival country anywhere on earth.

It is for this reason that my cellar contains more Australian wines than any other style. In spite of drought, rising international competition and economic downturn, wine for wine, dollar for dollar, Australia remains at the top of its game.

Australian makers employ some of the most fastidious viticultural practices and the most innovative winemaking procedures in the world, and these certainly have a large part to play in the upward spiral of quality. But more than this, it is the hard-working, down-to-earth determination of our most talented winegrowers that ensures that there isn’t a single grape out of place in their finest wines. That’s certainly something worth drinking to!