Australia: Geography

Vine-growing in Australia is concentrated in the south eastern corner of this vast country. For more detail, see under the state or territory names which are, in declining order of importance as grape growers, south australia, new south wales, victoria, western australia, tasmania, queensland, and canberra. Considerable quantities of grapes and wine are trucked over state boundaries, however, for blending and bottling. eu laws demand that varietal wines, labelled with a grape variety, be labelled with an officially recognized region. The South Eastern Australia Zone was created for this purpose and is a vast area encompassing all three of the most important wine states, including the important irrigated regions riverland and riverina. This somewhat vague description is one of the most common on Australian lower-priced wine labels in export markets.