Terroir down under
Huon Hooke in Wine Classification Become a member to view this article
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Margaret River has excelled with three-merit wines. Voyager Estate Wines
The Real Review Wine Classification Feature Week
Which Australian winegrowing regions are the best, using The Real Review Wine Classification of Australia’s three-Merit tiered wines as our guide?
There are 67 three-Merit wines in this year’s revision.
We can expect Tasmania to have more top-tier wines in the future, when more of its best wines pass the minimum 10-vintage mark.Margaret River is the winner, by the length of the straight. It has 11 wines in the latest revision of the Classification.
Next best is a tie between two regions—the Barossa region (which, importantly, includes Eden Valley, where Henschke resides) and Rutherglen each have seven wines in the Classification’s top tier this year. Rutherglen’s are all venerable fortified wines.
Yarra Valley comes in next with six wines, then the Hunter Valley and South Australian regional blends are next with five each. South Australia is treated as a category by itself, because of non region-specific blends: Penfolds, with two reds and two fortifieds, and Wolf Blass Black Label.
| Region | Number of three-Merit wines |
| Margaret River | 11 |
| Barossa/Eden Valley | 7 |
| Rutherglen | 7 |
| Yarra Valley | 6 |
| Hunter Valley | 5 |
| SA blends | 5 |
| Clare Valley | 4 |
| Geelong | 3 |
| Grampians | 3 |
| McLaren Vale | 3 |
| Tasmania | 3 |
| Canberra District | 2 |
| Coonawarra | 2 |
| Gippsland | 2 |
| Adelaide Hills | 1 |
| Beechworth | 1 |
| Great Southern | 1 |
| Macedon Ranges | 1 |
| TOTAL | 67 |
If we look at states, we see South Australia, which has long been known as the ‘wine state’, has narrowly been eclipsed by Victoria.
| State | Number of three-Merit wines |
| Victoria | 23 |
| South Australia | 22 |
| Western Australia | 12 |
| NSW & Canberra | 7 |
| Tasmania | 3 |
We can expect Tasmania to have more top-tier wines in the future, when more of its best wines pass the minimum 10-vintage mark. I would expect to see more Adelaide Hills wines making the grade in future for the same reason.
The big news has to be Margaret River, which has excelled. The three-Merit wines were all cabernet sauvignons or cabernet blends (eight in all) and chardonnays (four), which are the great strengths of this extraordinary wine region. Hats off to the producers, and to the late Dr John Gladstones AO, who identified the potential of this region back in the mid-1960s.