Discover Australia's Top 7 Regions For Wine Lovers

Wine Australia Chairman Brian Walsh, on how to plan a seven-region tour for lovers of good Vino.

- Sourish Bhattacharyya

As chairman of Wine Australia, Brian Walsh is the global spokesman for his country’s wine industry. Suave and good humoured even after experiencing Delhi’s live-and-let-die traffic, Walsh had just settled down with a well-deserved cup of Darjeeling when I met him at The Imperial’s buzzy verandah.

Australia leads the table of countries exporting wine to India, ahead of France and Italy, but Walsh would love to see the Indian market trading up from supermarket wines to the best that his country has to offer. He was here for a one-of-its kind tasting, ‘A Century of Wine Heritage’, with the city’s prominent influencers and Australia’s former high commissioner, Patrick Suckling, that started with a para-vintage tawny dating back to 1915. I asked Walsh a question that made him stop and think for a minute before he spoke. If he were to advise first-time Indian travellers to Australia, I asked, which of his country’s 65 wine regions would he ask them to explore. After a moment of initial reluctance, Walsh agreed to name seven regions that are must-visits.

BAROSSA VALLEY, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Just three hours south of Perth in the southernmost tip of Australia, washed up by the waves of the Indian Ocean, Margaret River, according to Walsh, offers a “fab start” to a wine lover’s tour across Australia. Famous for its boutique wineries, the region is best known for its unoaked Chardonnay, a rarity in this world where winemakers are in love with oak, and I have found it to be among the most Indian palate-friendly whites.