Australia’s first vines arrived with a fleet of convict ships and promptly died. Two centuries later, the same country holds some of the oldest living grapevines on earth — and makes one of the world’s most collected wines.
For a wine country of such swagger, Australia’s story is remarkably short — and it begins with failure. The vines that came ashore with the First Fleet in 1788, planted at Sydney Cove by Governor Arthur Phillip, withered in the humid coastal heat.[1] But from that false start grew one of the most dynamic wine industries in the world.
The Scot who seeded a nation
The real founder was James Busby, widely called the father of Australian wine. A Scottish-born immigrant who had studied viticulture in France, Busby returned from a European tour in 1832 with a collection of some 543 vine cuttings — including Shiraz (Syrah) taken from the hill of Hermitage in the northern Rhône.[1] Planted in Sydney and then distributed to growers in the Hunter Valley, South Australia, and Victoria, those cuttings became the genetic foundation of the entire Australian industry — and Shiraz became its signature.
The Barossa and the world’s oldest vines
In the 1840s, German Lutheran settlers fleeing religious persecution founded the vineyards of the Barossa Valley in South Australia.[1] Here Australia holds one of viticulture’s great treasures: because South Australia’s strict quarantine kept the root louse phylloxera out, the Barossa is home to some of the oldest continuously producing grapevines in the world — Shiraz dating to the 1840s and pre-phylloxera Cabernet from the 1880s, still bearing fruit today.[1]
Elsewhere the great old vineyards were destroyed. In the Barossa, they simply kept growing.
From bulk to brilliance
For much of its history Australia made fortified and bulk wine, but a table-wine revolution arrived in the 1950s. At Penfolds, winemaker Max Schubert created Grange — first vintage 1951 — a Shiraz built to rival the greatest reds of Europe and now one of the most collected wines in the world.[2] A later export boom carried Australian wine to every corner of the globe, from cult bottles to household brands, on the strength of its sunshine, its old vines, and its confidence.
| First vines | The First Fleet, 1788 — and they failed[1] |
|---|---|
| The founder | James Busby’s 1832 cuttings, including Shiraz[1] |
| Signature grape | Shiraz (Syrah)[1] |
| A world treasure | The Barossa’s phylloxera-free old vines[1] |
| The icon | Penfolds Grange, first vintage 1951[2] |
A land of many wine countries
Australia is really many wine regions in one — the warm Barossa, the cool Mornington Peninsula, the terra-rossa Cabernet country of Coonawarra, the maritime Margaret River. Together they make Australia one of the essential wine-and-history destinations of the modern world.
Related reading: the Mornington Peninsula · wine & history destinations of the world · the Wine History Timeline
Frequently asked questions
Who is the father of Australian wine?
James Busby, a Scottish-born immigrant who studied viticulture in France and returned in 1832 with about 543 vine cuttings — including Shiraz — that became the foundation of the Australian wine industry.
Why does Australia have some of the world’s oldest vines?
Because South Australia’s strict quarantine kept out phylloxera, the pest that destroyed most of the world’s old vineyards. The Barossa Valley still has Shiraz from the 1840s and Cabernet from the 1880s in production.
Sources
- “Australian wine” (First Fleet vines 1788 at Sydney Cove; James Busby’s 1832 collection of ~543 cuttings including Shiraz from Hermitage; German Lutheran settlement of the Barossa in the 1840s; South Australia’s phylloxera-free quarantine and the world’s oldest continuously producing vines), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_wine
- “Penfolds Grange” (created by winemaker Max Schubert; first vintage 1951; a Shiraz that became one of the world’s most collected wines), Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penfolds_Grange
Want to read more?
Books we drew on and recommend for going deeper on wine history.
The World Atlas of WineHugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson
9000 Years of Wine: A World HistoryRod Phillips
A Concise Guide to Wine and Blind TastingNeel BurtonAs an Amazon Associate, Wine History Tours earns from qualifying purchases. This supports our research at no extra cost to you.
