1960 The U K B G Guide to Drinks (3 rd edition revised)

Part m

SECTION IV

BRITISH EMPIRE WINES

AUSTRALIA New South Wales is the cradle of the Australian wine- producing industry, but was superseded by Victoria, who in turn has been outpaced by South Australia, which is responsible for nearly three-quariers of the Australian wine production. In both Queensland and Western Australia a small amount of wine is also made, but not on a suffi ciently large scale to warrant export. The main types of wine and their centres of production are as follows:— (a) The Hunter River district (New South Wales), the great Western and Lilydale districts (Victoria) produce chiefly light beverage wines,suitable for home consumption. (b) The irrigation areas all along the borders of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, where the greatest quantities of wines are produced, mostly distilled into brandy for fortifying"sweet"wines. (c) The Rutherglen and Corowa district, partly in N.S.W. and partly in Victoria, which produces some of the best"sweet"wines. (d) The Watervale (Springvale) and other districts of South Australia, which produce the largest quantities of both sweet and dry wines suitable for export. (e) The Queensland and Perth vineyards, which produce a limited quantity of both light and fortified wines. The acreage of the Australian vineyards was 70,000 acres in 1919, with an average yield of 8^ million gallons of wine. The irrigation and other areas were then extended

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