Australia | New South Wales

Sydney Harbour New South Wales Australia

New South Wales (NSW) was the first Australian state to be colonised by Europeans and subsequently was the first to grow the grapevine. The original grape vines came with the First Fleet and were planted at Sydney Cove in 1788.

Subsequent to the initial vines arriving in 1788, Captain John Macarthur planted vines near Camden and Gregory Blaxland planted vineyards around the Parramatta River in the early 1800s. James Busby’s collection of 362 vines, originally planted at the Botanical Gardens, was the most significant development in the early history as cuttings of these vines made their way to other parts of NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Lying on the continent’s east coast, New South Wales boasts a number of different wine producing zones spread across an incredibly diverse range of climates, including coastal, like the Shoalhaven Coast region lying south of Sydney, to Alpine, across the top of the Great Dividing Range, where hardy growers persist at over 500m above sea level.

Moving west over the Great Dividing Range and along the inland flowing Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers are the warm-climate regions of Riverina and Perricoota and the northern portion of the Swan Hill and Murray Darling. The Canberra region, first planted in 1971, is home to some of the most exciting cool climate wines in Australia; whilst one of Australia’s best known wine zones - the Hunter Valley - is also in New South Wales.