Sketch
from "The Vine in Australia" by A.C. Kelly.
|
 |
Grape vines were brought to Australia with the first fleet in 1788.
Grape cuttings and seeds were collected in Rio de Janiero and from the
Cape of Good Hope and planted at Port Jackson in Farm Cove, the site
of the present Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens. In 1791 Governor Phillip
established the first vineyard when he planted 1.2 ha of vines at Parramatta.
Unfortunately there was very little knowledge of grapegrowing amongst
the convicts and soldiers and in 1801 the Duke of Norfolk sent out two
Frenchmen, Landrier and de Riveau, who had been prisoners-of-war held
at Portsmouth. They had little success in controlling a major outbreak
of ‘blight’ and were subsequently send home.
In 1816, G. Blaxland planted a vineyard at Parramatta with vines introduced
from the Cape of Good Hope. Wine from this vineyard was sent to London
in 1822, where it was awarded a silver medal. A subsequent parcel of
wine was awarded a gold medal in 1827. John Macarthur planted a vineyard
at Camden Park in 1820 and by 1827 produced a vintage of 90,000 litres.
Interest in viticulture in the colony increased rapidly and in 1831
James Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting cuttings of
grape cuttings for the colony. He was recorded as having collected 433
varieties from the Botanic Gardens in Montpellier, 110 from the Luxembourg
Gardens in Paris, 44 from Sion House near Kew Gardens in England and
91 from other parts of Spain and France. At this time, varieties were
not well characterised and it seems certain that some were repeated
in this introduction under more than one name, perhaps many more –
the same name may also have been used for more than one variety, It
is clear from the catalogue of the collection put out by the Sydney
Botanical Gardens in 1842 that some of the varieties may also have been
confused, for example Semillon is described as a black grape and Malbec
as a white. Unfortunately, this collection was removed in 1857 –
but not before cuttings has been distributed to Camden, the Hunter Valley
and the Adelaide Botanical gardens from where they spread throughout
Australia.
While the original collection and those established from it have been
lost, more of the varieties have survived in Australia than is generally
realised. From the localities in which they have been subsequently found,
it seems very likely that there are vines of varieties such as Crouchen,
Chenin Blanc and Ondenc, as well as better known varieties such as Semillon,
Riesling, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon which can be traced back to
Busby (even though the major plantings of some of these varieties may
have come from other sources). Among the minor varieties, the discovery
of surviving vines of Bourboulenc, Piquepoul Noir, Tocai Friulano and
Troyen was of great interest. Other varieties since found and identified
were Fer, Gamay, Gueche and Pougnet, and about 20 more varieties have
been distinguished but not yet identified. There are also varieties
from older collections with obviously local names which remain to be
identified.
Vineyards rapidly spread to the rest of the Australian colonies –
vineyards were planted in the Yarra Valley in Victoria in 1830 and Adelaide
in 1837. The first vineyard in the Barossa Valley in South Australia
was planted by Johann Gramp at Jacob’s Creek in 1847. The first
Western Australian plantings were made at Stanthorpe in 1859 and at
Roma in 1863.
The introduction of grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifolii, first
reported at Fyansford near Geelong in Victoria in 1875 devastated the
industry and necessitated the costly process of replanting the infected
areas with vines grafted onto resistant rootstocks. Strict quarantine
regulations have restricted the spread of this serious pest and today
most of Australia’s vineyards are free of phylloxera.
The arrival of the Chaffey brothers from California in 1886 saw the
expansion of the irrigated horticultural regions near Mildura in Victoria
and Renmark in South Australia. Further irrigated areas were developed
in NSW with the settlement of the Murrambidgee Irrigation Area commencing
in 1912. These three regions now produce approximately 75% of Australia’s
winegrapes. These regions initially included major plantings of the
classic table wine varieties, but in the early 1900s these were almost
all replaced by fortified vine varieties to supply the United Kingdom
market. This situation continued until the 1950s when an increasingly
multicultural Australian population began demanding high quality table
wines and the varietal mix again swung in favour of the classic wine
varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Australia was fortunate
in having large areas of Shiraz, originally planted for port wine styles,
which, in the warm Australian climate, has proved to be ideally suited
for the production of full-bodied red wine styles.
Reference: Wine Grape Varieties
– Introduction
|
