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THE PYRENEES

When we discovered this region on the east side of Victoria, near the famous Grampians, we found few similarities with the famous mountain range between France and Spain, except perhaps the similar altitude range (600m) and the fact that you can play the Petanque ! Named "the garden of Victoria", this green area has been designated for agriculture. In the 19th century the region was famous for its gold mining, later for grazing and today the Pyrénées are becoming famous for their red wines.

Thanks to its poor soils (clay, quartz and rocks) and to a continental climate, the Shiraz and the Cabernet Sauvignon are especially successful. Our tasting during a cheese and wine lunch at Dalwhinnie, and at the other wineries, confirmed the great potential of this area. We were also very surprised by the quality of the "sparkling wines" (méthode Champenoise) made in the area.

Whilst in Victoria, we also decided to visit wineries in the Yarra Valley and the Mornington Peninsula. Even though the wines are fairly elegant and you can certainly find some great wineries here, many found that the majority were rather over valued, maybe because of the proximity to Melbourne. We stayed a few days in the beautiful city of Melbourne, the first southern city to have held the Olympic Games. We then flew to Western Australia.

THE WINERIES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

After just a short visit to Perth, we went to the south of Western Australia, famous for its surf beaches gastronomy and its outstanding wines. We did not ride a wave on the Indian Ocean (water was too cold for us!) but we had a fantastic time tasting the elegant wines of Margaret River.

With a climate very similar to Bordeaux and surrounded by 3 oceans, it is only at the end of the 60's that the viticulture started in this woody region

What a great time spent in Australia! We especially enjoyed the very interesting workshop about Biodynamie at Cullen's winery where we experimented with the theories in their vineyard, or the convivial lunch with Erl Happs in his farm with a great old vintage wine selection, or the simply unexpected meeting with all kind of animals in the vineyards (even if those ones are pretty dangerous for the grapes!). The majority of the wineries are esthetic with different styles, and each has a great atmosphere and is very hospitable. Regarding the wines, bravo! Usually quite elegant and often very well balanced. We had a "coup de coeur" for this wine region.

We finished our tastings with Merum, the best winery from the emerging wine area of Pemberton, south of Margaret. Then, we went back to Perth to enjoy the good fortified wines of the Swan Valley.

DISCOVERING TASMANIA

Last stop in Australia was the Island of Tasmania. An island known for its wildlife, dramatic landscape and great walks and we can now add for its wines. We especially enjoyed the Pinot Noir in the south and the sparkling wines of theTamar Valley in the notrh. au nord. This is also one place we met one of the most interactive cellar door at, Meadowbank or some other great people, owners of boutique wineries (Apsley Gorge and Grey Sands ), sharing their passion for international wines .

Conclusion

At the end of our long wine route in Australia, we collected around 200 bottles of great wines for the auction for Action Against Hunger. A good participation of Australian wineries, from the very small boutiques to the big groups. Two different concepts of wine making and wine business.

The first ones are the wineries which focus on the region, working wines of terroir with low yields. If at the beginning of their existence they are struggling with the economics issues, they can achieve great wines with serious work and will, then beneficiating of the critics and the "boutique winery" appeal to sell all the production, sometimes before the release of the wines.

The second one is more focused on the marketing side with good communication but high yields, high irrigation and big production. The majority of these wineries can be usually found in the south-west of Australia. Now, these wineries helped a lot in the past to gain what is the Australian wine fame around the world today. For this, they used an agresive marketing and fantastic propaganda about Aussie's wines. But in 2007, this is time for most of the biggest group to change this and communicate about terroir (more and more appear wines of single vineyard in this big companies, with real success).

Thanks to all of them (see section wineries for the details), and thanks.

Now in June, we went visiting the magnificent New-Zealand and then we will fly to Chile in July.

Thanks to all our partners: JF Hillebrand, Oeneo Bouchage, Andes Wines, Koala Internacional, Dharma Wines, Winetourisminfrance.com, Chemins du Sud and Verema.com for their support