may 2015 BCBusiness 59
Before there were written records, there
was wine. Its cultivation spans the
course of Western civilization, with
wine having been in wide-scale pro-
duction in most of Europe, the Middle
East and Asia for thousands of years.
So, by that standard, Australia is a
relative greenhorn in the high-stakes
world of winemaking. The Land
Down Under—the spotlighted region
at this year's Vancouver International
Wine Festival—has been making wine
for a little over 200 years now, in
which time it has helped put Shi-
raz—its most popular varietal—on
the global map. The country is now
the world's fourth-largest exporter
of wine (only 40 per cent of Austra-
lian wine is produced for domestic
consumption), with exports to the
all-important U.S. market rising from
578,000 cases in 1990 to 20 million
by 2004.
But like any sort of business
with that kind of upward trajectory,
sometimes you fall victim to your own
The Aussie
Comeback
W
RichaRd i'anson/getty images
WINE COUNTRY
The McLaren Vale in South
Australia is home to half the
country's wine production
W i n e
Winemakers hope for
better times in the Land
Down Under
by Matt O'Grady
m ay 2 0 15
O
ou t of office
INSIDE
Six Australian wine picks ... Shirakawa + Broken Ladder cider ... John evans's famous friends
The Land Down Under—the
spotlighted region at this year's
Vancouver International Wine
Festival—has been making wine
for a little over 200 years now
