Ep. 988 Map 17 Australia | Jumbo Shrimp Maps

Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. This episode is brought to you by Vinitally International Academy, announcing the twenty fourth of our Italian wine Ambassador courses to be held in London, Austria, and Hong Kong. From the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Are you up for the challenge of this demanding course? Do you want to be the next Italian wine Ambassador? Learn more and apply now at viniti international dot com. Welcome to jumbo shrimp wine study maps. We have specially created this free content for all our listeners who are studying for wine exams. This has been a journey of development since Stevie Kim discovered Rosie Baker's hand drawn maps on Instagram through two years of work by our in house editorial and graphics team, and now the maps are available to purchase in beta form while they undergo the final briefing and editing by our expert advisory board. It's a three layered project because we know everyone learns differently. We now offer the complete box set of thirty nine maps. This series of podcasts with the maps narrated by our crack team of wine educators. And finally, the study guide book, which will be published later this year. Our map project is in no way a substitute for the materials set out by other educational organizations, but we hope all the wine students out there will find our map project a new exciting and useful tool for learning. For more information and to buy the maps, please visit our website at mama jumbo shrimp dot com. I'm Jill Gordon Smith, and this is the jumbo shrimp guide to wine study maps. And today, we're covering Australia. Diverse climates, elevations, and soil types heavily influence the sixty five different legally protected wine regions of Australia, and regionality is the cornerstone of the Australian wine community. Australia is divided into six states and two territories. New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Australia, Western Australia, Australian, capital territory, which is home to Cambra, our capital city, and also the Northern Territory. Vidiculturally, vineyards in Australia are grouped into geographical indications or GI and these make up the wine regions. The GI system is really similar to the naming system used in Europe. It's recognized by international law and it's designed to protect the use of regional names. Geographical indications are the names of Australian wine producing areas, and they're broken down into zones, regions, and subregions. So a zone is a large area without any particular qualifying attributes. They can either be states, such as South Australia, or cover several states such as that large area of Southeast and Australia that basically goes from Queensland right until the border of Western Australia. Zones can also make up part of a state with the possible exception of barossa these zones are really seen on labels. There are sixty five wine regions in Australia, and a region is an internationally protected, and and it's also defined as a single tract of land that usually produces at least five hundred tons of wine grapes in a year and comprises at least five independently owned vineyards of at least five hectares each. The area of land must be discreet and homogenous in its grape growing attributes. Regents such as Kunawara, Clear Valley, and Margaret River, can vary in size, and are much smaller than zones. Many regions are further split into subregions if there are notable areas in those particular regions that have distinct and unique qualities. Although a subregion must fall within one region, some regions are covered by several zones. For example, Eden Valley is a region within the barossa zone, which is within the zone of South Australia, which in turn is within south eastern Australia zone. What this does is give producers plenty of options when it comes to making up their blends. Australia's land mass is similar in size to that of the United States, and it's larger than that of Europe. So there's a very diverse range of climates that are found here. But due to Australia's latitude, the main growing regions have warmer hot climates. Now many of these regions are tempered by their proximity to either the southern or Indian Ocean or the Murray river system. Others such as Adelaide Hills and Eden Valley are called by altitude. Rainfall is a big issue in Australia, and in many regions it's low, and irrigation is essential. So drought is probably one of the biggest problems that we have, and even in extreme years, even the Murray River, which provides water for irrigation can run low. So the dry conditions combined with high summer temperatures mean bushfires are a really big risk. Even if the vineyard is not damaged or destroyed, the smoke from such fires can come into contact with the grapes and cause some issues. Many producers are seeking sites with cool or moderate climates, and plantings have increased in high altitude locations on the mainland. For example, Queensland actually has the Sandthorpe area, which is nine hundred meters above sea level and gets quite a lot of snow in winter, even though Queensland is well known for its sunny climate. Tasmaniaia is probably one of the more up and coming regions in Australia now because it has a southerly latitude and provides much more cooler climate opportunities. Shardonnay is the most widely planted white grape in Australia, and it's planted widely throughout the vineyard regions and it's made in a wide range of styles. Australians chardonnay is often a blend of fruit from different regions and produced an oak to give preachy, fruity characters to the wine. And then at the other end of the spectrum, we have very high quality chardonnays, which are aged in oak, and they come from the cooler regions such as the Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula, and Yara Valley. Thank you for listening to Italian wine podcast. We know there are many of you listening out there, so we just want to interrupt for a small ask. Italian wine podcast is in the running for an award. The best podcast listening platform through the podcast awards, the people's choice. Lister nominations is from July first to the thirty first, and we would really appreciate your vote. We are hoping our listeners will come through for us. So if you have a second and could do this small thing for us, just head to Italian wine podcast dot com from July first to the thirty first and click the link. We thank you and back to the show. Even warm regions such as Margaret River produce some beautifully balanced chardonnay from specific clones that have grown there for years. The main red grapes in Australia would be shiraz, Cabnay, and also Granash. Mcclaren Vale has a climate and a field that's very close to Mediterranean wine regions. And here, not only Sharaz, but lately, southern Italian grape varieties are excelling, Narodavala and Vermentino, for example, The region's shaping up for many varieties, including Fianno, Tempreneo, Sanjay, and of course, we have superb old vine ganache, some of the oldest in in the world, grown on its own roots. The riverland is home to many different grape varieties. Including Fiano, montepulciano, Zibbo, Derif, Naradavala, Lagrain, Caminair. It's a warm region, and it's working towards further diversity. And the use of Mediterranean varieties, really well known for their low consumption of water, is making a difference here. The Adelaide Hills is home to Australia's largest concentration of Groenavoltliner plantings, and the region is showing that it has more personality than the shardname pin and wire for which it is the most known. It's also planting sevenyon, montipuliano, Arnese, Nebiola, and sangiovese. Western Australia, especially Margaret River, is known for the Bordeaux style blends, and also Sabignon blanc and Semillon blends. If you go a little bit further down to the great southern, you'll find awesome Cabernet sauvignon Sharazan riesling grown here. If we move along the coast, to past South Australia to Victoria, you'll find Victoria's wine producing areas such as Yara Valley for Pin and Warren sparkling, Wilmington Peninsula, with Pin and Warren chardonnay, Geelong, and Heathcoat. That produce fantastic examples of these wines. The Golden Valley is really well known for its outstanding Marsan and also for some of the oldest Charazvines in Australia. Tasmaniaania has very, very varied soils. And there are three hours separating the north and south of the region, and we have lots of different soil types here, which enable this cool climate region with varying aspects to produce delicate, pure floral, green apple, and citrus character rieslings, as well as some fantastic pinograchael, and also some fantastic pinot wire coming out of Tasmania. The diversity of soils and climates within Australia are allowing Australian winemakers to produce very different examples of Sharaz, allowing them to produce very different examples of many other cultivars. New varieties planted in the last two decades are joined by a host of older established varieties that sit alongside more mainstream grapes and wine styles. Increasingly these emerging grape varieties are being considered alongside concerns about climate change, and suitability varieties for Australia's warmer climates, our drier growing seasons, and our food culture. The imagination of Australian winemakers and the curiosity of Australian grape growers mean that many southern Mediterranean varieties have been very successful and planting sort of emerging varieties are increasing with the diversity of styles sending a new message about Australian wine globally. New South Wales has the longest history of wine production in Australia, and in fact grapevines came from the first fleet in seventeen eighty eight into New South Wales. The main region here is the Hunter Valley, which is very hot However, the regions of Mudgey, orange, and cower offer wine producers slightly cooler conditions. The vineyards are planted altitude and are capable of producing some very concentrated chardonnayes and structured Cavanay seven yachts. The hunter valley is well known, across the world for a particular type of semion, which is unoaked and ages absolutely amazingly. The wines are light bodied with low alcohol, high acidity, and flavors that are very neutral to start with, but evolve into a complex spectrum of toast, honey, and nut flavors with bottle age. Thanks for listening to this episode of Italian wine podcast brought to you by Vineetli Academy. Home of the gold standard of Italian wine education. Do you want to be the next ambassador? Apply online at benito international dot com for courses in London, Austria, and Hong Kong, the twenty seventh to the twenty ninth of July. Remember to subscribe and like Italian wine podcast and catch us on SoundCloud, Spotify, and wherever you get your pods. You can also find our entire back catalog of episodes at Italian wine podcast dot com. Hi, guys. I'm Joy Livingston, and I am the producer of the Italian wine podcast. Thank you for listening. We are the only wine podcast that has been doing a daily show since the pandemic began. This is a labor of love and we are committed to bringing you free content every day. Of course, this takes time and effort not to mention the cost of equipment, production, and editing. We would be grateful for your donations, suggestions, requests, and ideas. For more information on how to get in touch, go to Italian wine podcast dot com.