Ozwines does not sell wines but recommend Virtual Cellar Door as a place to browse and purchase great boutique Australian wines straight from the wineries cellar door.
The First Fleet brought vines to Australia in 1788.
Propagation and wine making developed rapidly with the establishment of numerous vineyards in and around areas of Sydney.
With the surveying and settlement of the country new areas were established rapidly.
By the 1890's the Hunter, Barossa and Yarra Valleys were producing wines.
German and Italian immigrants were largely responsible for the development of the Barossa and Riverina wine regions respectively. Many of their descendants still operate family wineries today. The Barossa in particular has a large and active German community.
The major changes in types of production started in the 1960's and saw a major shift in wine production to sweet and/or sparkling wines. In the later part of the 1960's and early 1970's saw the transition to red wines especially fuller bodied reds.
The next trend in the mid 1970's was to semi-sweet fruit driven styles such as Riesling.
The 1970's also saw the introduction the wine cask.
Angoves in South Australia were the first to introduce it to followed by Penfold's Wines.
By the end of the 1970's the wine preference changed to dry white table wines and the Chardonnay boom.
Chardonnay continued to be the wine of preference throughout the 1980's and has retained prominence amongst white wine drinkers even until today.
The late 1980's saw another major change and the break into the traditional markets around the globe including Europe.
Australian wines were and are perceived as being clean and fresh with fruit driven white styles and robust reds.
This export boom created a greater demand for our red wines than the whites fuelling the start of the red wine boom and this is still the trend today.