Australia
Vine cuttings from South Africa were first brought in Australia in 1788, and though the settlers took a while to get to grips with the new conditions, wine exports began in 1822. By the 1880s, Australian wines were winning prizes in Europe, but then phylloxera struck, and the industry subsided into producing fortified wines for the domestic market. Then the interest in table wines came back and culminated in 2000 when Australia sold more wine to the United Kingdom than did France.
While early Australian wines, the Chardonnays in particular, were criticized for being over-oaked and over-ripe, Australian winemaking is now some of the most sophisticated in the world, with vineyards increasingly planted in cooler climates, such as Pinot Noir in Tasmania, and unoaked wines becoming popular.
Today, the Australian wine industry is the fourth-largest exporter in the world, exporting over 400 million liters a year to a large international export market that includes "old world" wine-producing countries such as France, Italy and Spain. There is also a significant domestic market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming over 400 million liters of wine per year.
The wine industry is a significant contributor to the Australian economy through production, employment, export and tourism.