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Australia’s First Families of Wine

In 2009 multi-million-dollar Australian wine initiative Australia’s First Families of Wine was established, aimed at resurrecting the fortunes of the AU$6 billion industry, by raising the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. Together the group represent seventeen wine-growing regions across Australia and forty-eight generations of winemakers. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. First Families chairman and Tahbilk chief executive Alister Purbrick said: “We desperately need to change the global perception of Australian wine. We don’t believe as individual companies we can stem the avalanche of news stories about Australia producing nothing but cheap industrial wines. But together we can present a powerful showcase of terrific regional wines of great diversity.” Some industry commentators lay the blame for this negative opinion on the giant, publicly listed multinational corporations, such as Constellation Wines and Foster’s, which have dominated the industry for years and concentrated on the cheap commodity end of the market, rather than building the reputation of Australia’s finer, regionally distinctive wines. The twelve member companies are Brown Brothers, Campbells, DeBortoli, D'Arenberg, Howard Park, Henschke, Jim Barry, McWilliam’s, Taylors, Tahbilk, Tyrell’s, and Yalumba.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]}

Australia’s First Families of Wine is an Australian wine as a multi-million-dollar initiative aimed at resurrecting the fortunes of the AU$6 billion industry, by raising the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. Established by a collective of twelve multi-generational family-owned wine producers. Together the families represent seventeen wine-growing regions across Australia and forty-eight generations of winemakers. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.^{[8][9][10][16][9][17][9][11][18]}

The Australian wine industry is the fourth-largest exporter in the world, ^[19] exporting 760 million litres a year to a large international export market that includes "old world" wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain.^[20] There is also a significant domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming nearly 500 million litres of wine per year.^[21] The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism.

The Australian Wine Industry is the fourth largest exporter of wine around the world and contributes $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy. Wine is produced in every state, with more than 60 designated wine regions totaling approximately 160,000 hectares; however Australia’s wine regions are mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country, with vineyards located in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. The wine regions in each of these states produce different wine varieties and styles that take advantage of the particular climatic differences and soil types. With the major varieties being predominantly Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Semillon, Pinot Noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon Blanc. Wines are often labeled with the name of their grape variety, which must constitute at least 85 percent of the wine.^{[22][3][4][23][24][25]} In 2009 Australian wine initiative Australia’s First Families of Wine was established to raise the profile of Australian wine to the world, showcasing a representative of its landmark wines and to highlight the quality and diversity of Australian wine. It was officially launched at the Sydney Opera House on 31 August 2009 by former Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.^{[8][9][10][11][26][3]}

The Margaret River area was chosen for what was at that time a highly experimental exercise through studies undertaken in 1955 by Professor Harold Olmo. In 1961 Dr John Gladstones from the University of Western Australia, published a paper in the Journal of the Australian Institute for Agricultural science which stated in part “As far as the writer is aware, the Busselton-Margaret River region has never been seriously proposed as suitable for commercial viticulture. Nevertheless, a study of its climate shows that it definitely warrants consideration.”^[27][28] The climate of Margaret River is more strongly maritime-influenced than any other major Australian region and has been described as similar to that of Bordeaux in a dry vintage.^[29][30] The region produces just three percent of total Australian grape production, although produces over 20 percent of Australia's premium wine market.^[31][32]