Word: blaxland
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Soon after leading the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, explorer Gregory Blaxland was back on his New South Wales farm, tending his vines. By 1822 he had sufficient confidence in his winemaking skills to submit a quarter-pipe (about 37 gal.) of red wine for assessment by the London-based Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The society's judges awarded him a silver medal--and five years later a gold medal--for a wine they described with tepid enthusiasm as having "much the odor and flavor of ordinary claret...
...Blaxland was a colorful pioneer, but the business he started in Australia has become famed for producing wine that's not a cheap facsimile of other nations' wine but a unique, hardly ordinary invention. While Australia's wine matches the best in the world in technical expertise, there is something special about the taste of the country's top blends that has made it an irreplaceable flavor in many of the world's great wine cellars. This week Sotheby's and Christie's will conduct two of the largest wine auctions in history, each boasting impressive lots of the famous...
...years after Blaxland's first endeavors, the development of Australia's wine industry was steady but unremarkable. But the past decade has brought a renaissance. Partly it's been spurred by domestic growth: though historically not big wine consumers, Australians now drink an average of 26 bottles of table wine a year--more than any other English-speaking nation, although less than a third of the average Frenchman's needs. But the real growth has come overseas, where inexpensive (less than $30) Australian wines are hailed for richness, approachability and reliability--characteristics that put them on a footing with good...
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