Do Margaret River's beaches beat the Barossa's big names? Here's a tally sheet of our top wine spots.
In the 1990s and noughties, a new Australian wine producer was born every 61 hours.
It was a heady time and for every wine maker setting up vines there was an olive grove popping up nearby or a cheese factory, farm gate or small cafe. Sometimes they combined in one setting, becoming a destination in themselves, the reason for not just a detour but an entire weekend away.
And so winery tourism was born.
Today, it's a major Australian industry. With more than 60 wine regions, the choice is enormous, the possibilities endless. So much good wine, so much good food … there aren't enough weekends in the year to experience them all.
Margaret River has it all: buckets of sunshine, surf and world-class wines. And where there's wine, good food always follows. Mostly. Surfer vegetarian tofu burgers excepted.
The star of Western Australia's wine-growing regions is one of the most maritime-influenced wine and food areas in the country, with ocean winds moderating the warm climate.
Reason to visit: Sun, surf, caves, Margaret River Gourmet Escape.
Reason to bypass: To go straight to the whale watching at Albany.
Wine styles mastered: Elegant cabernet sauvignon, creamy chardonnay.
Foods mastered: Marron, venison, Farm House Arkady lamb and pork.
Needs more work: Sparkling wines.
Another reason to go: Picnic on Prevelly Beach.
Destination hot spot: Voyager Estate.
Late mining magnate Michael Wright founded Voyager Estate with a money-is-no-object philosophy. It looks it and it definitely tastes like it.
Cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay are the flagship wines and there are many thoughtful matches with local staples venison, marron and seafood on the menu in the winery restaurant. Try a wine flight, a good excuse to indulge in some creative food and wine pairing.
Voyager Estate, 1 Stevens Road, Margaret River. (08) 9757 6354. voyagerestate.com.au
The Barossa is the heartland of the Australian wine industry. Many companies that stride the world's wine stage originated here: Penfolds, Orlando, Wolf Blass, Henschke, Seppelt, Yalumba.
Its cultural touchstone is a mix of British landowning gentry and German and Silesian Lutherans fleeing religious intolerance who came to the region in the 1800s.
Reason to visit: Barossa Deutsch culture, Maggie Beer, Linke's smallgoods, shiraz rote grutze.
Reason to bypass: It's virtually a vegetarian-free zone.
Wine styles mastered: Bold shiraz, delicate riesling, warm semillon.
Foods mastered: Anything involving meat, especially preserved meats.
Needs more work: Anything involving vegetables, chardonnay.
Another reason to go: Bidding at Barossa Vintage Festival Rare and Distinguished Wine Auction.
Destination hot spot: Vintners Bar and Grill.
Everyone comes to Vintners: winemakers, wine growers, owners and vintage crews. Cast a look around the smart, modern interior and they'll be the ones with more than one bottle of wine on the table - a lot more. This is a good sign.
Vintners offers just enough mod Oz style to satisfy that special night out, while also retaining serious home-style cooking with fabulous local ingredients. And because winemakers go there, the wine list is, of course, comprehensive and exciting.
Vintners Bar and Grill, Stockwell Road, Angaston. (08) 8564 2488. vintners.com.au
Any wine lover's wish list of Australian chardonnay or pinot noir would definitely include one or more Peninsula wines.
For a wine region rediscovered in 1970s, it's grown up fast.
Reason to visit: Beaches, sailing, International Pinot Noir Celebration.
Reason to bypass: Cabernet sauvignon, traffic jams.
Wine styles mastered: Complex chardonnay, more complex pinot noir, bright pinot grigio/gris sisters.
Food styles mastered: Port Phillip Bay's pescatorial bounty, organic heirloom vegetables, Main Ridge goat cheese, strawberries, olives.
Needs more work: Road signs.
Another reason to go: Ferry to French Island Vineyards, Red Hill Community Market.
Destination hot spot: Montalto.
First, it is the view, a wide CinemaScope picture of lush lawns, vines and tall trees. It is always with you at Montalto. Then, it is the food: clean, precise flavours, nothing too heavy but flavoursome all the same, with much of it grown in the large kitchen garden over the back. If we eat with our eyes, this is the place to go. Pinot noir is the Montalto flagship, an exercise in looking at individual terroirs.
Montalto, 33 Shoreham Road, Red Hill South. 5989 8412. montalto.com.au
It could be argued that the Canberra district vineyards would not have got their start had it not been for politicians. When Canberra was declared our capital, government industries popped up and it was government research scientists who planted many of the first hobby vineyards around Murrumbateman in the 1970s. Of course, they're no longer hobbies.
Reason to visit: Wine, farm stay.
Reason to bypass: Canberra politics.
Wine styles mastered: Finely structured spicy shiraz, delicate floral riesling.
Food styles mastered: Lamb, poultry, orchard bounty.
Needs more work: Winery restaurants of note.
Another reason to travel: On way to NSW beaches.
Destination hot spot: Capital Wines Grazing Restaurant.
Good eating establishments can be sparse on the ground in the Canberra wine region. The owners of the Royal Hotel at Gundaroo are also part-owners of Capital Wines so the food and wine connection is strong at the hotel's Grazing Restaurant. The guiding principle is no-fuss country fare. Flavours are strong, serving sizes are generous and local ingredients are the star. The no-fuss approach is followed in producing wines that speak of the area rather than winemaking contrivances with a pretty, spice-rich Kyeema Vineyard shiraz and a lemon sherbety Gundaroo Vineyard riesling.
Capital Wines, Kyeema Vineyard and Winery, 42 Cork Street, Gundaroo. 6236 8555
There are two Hunter Valleys, the upper and the lower. It's a mighty big valley. The lower is the winemaking heart. By far its greatest wine is semillon, utterly unique in the world of wine, a variety traditionally picked early at low sugar levels, handled simply in the winery and raced into bottle early. And then you wait. An astoundingly rich, honeyed wine will come with time.
Reason to visit: Wine, golf, ballooning, long wine lunch at The Cellar Restaurant.
Reason to bypass: Weekend weddings.
Wine styles mastered: Earthy, generous shiraz, long-living semillon.
Foods mastered: Game, black angus beef, smallgoods, nuts.
Needs more work: Pothole-ridden roads.
Another reason to travel: Day on the Green at Tempus Two, vineyard picnics at McWilliam's Mount Pleasant Wines.
Destination hot spot Margan Restaurant.
Margan is not exactly on the main wine drag through the Hunter Valley. This is not a bad thing. Only people who are aware of it - which is increasing because it recently won the best restaurant award in the Hunter Valley Tourism Awards - make the detour. The epitome of the modern, relaxed cellar door, Margan makes great use of local products in a style likened to Mediterranean but which is really just country fresh.
Margan Restaurant, 1238 Milbrodale Road, Broke. 6579 1372. margan.com.au
It's cold in Tasmania. In fact, it's so cold it took decades for the wine industry to adapt viticulturally to its ways, but slowly the cream has risen to the top: pinot noir, chardonnay, sparkling wines. The slow ripening times, the brisk acidity, the mild summers all play an important role, whether it be growing vines or fruit or vegetables. Long may it thrive.
Reason to visit: Untouched beauty, sailing, hiking, MONA.
Reason to bypass: Winter.
Wine styles mastered: Layered pinot noir, taut riesling, intense chardonnay, top-line sparkling.
Food styles mastered: Everything from the sea and the orchard and the farm.
Needs more work: Winter.
Another reason to travel: Bruny Island Cheese.
Destination hot spot Moorilla Estate, The Source Restaurant.
Moorilla has gained international fame through its association with MONA. There's a sense of the theatrical about the backdrop, the cutting edge architecture; but in food and wine there is no whimsy or quirkiness, just quality.
The degustation menu is the best in the state. Moorilla Wines has a strong pinot noir and chardonnay focus but the aromatics are catching up: riesling, gewurztraminer and pinot gris.
Moorilla Estate, Source Restaurant, 655 Main Road, Berriedale. (03) 6277 9900. moorilla.com.au