South Australian wine

The South Australian wine industry is responsible for more than half the production of all Australian wine. South Australia has a vast diversity in geography and climate which allows the state to be able to produce a range of grape varieties-from the cool climate Riesling variety in the Clare Valley wine region to the big, full bodied Shiraz wines of the Barossa Valley.

Some of Australia's best-known wines like Penfolds Grange, Jacob's Creek, Yalumba and Henschke Hill of Grace are produced there, as well as many of Australia's mass-produced box wines.

As with most agriculture in Australia, irrigation is vital to the success of the South Australian wine industry.

The earliest recorded evidence of vine planting was in 1836 by a settler named John Barton Hack in Chichester Gardens, North Adelaide.

In 1838 George Stevenson planted a vineyard in Adelaide and may have been producing wine as early as 1841. Following the spread of urban development, Hack's vines were pulled up and replanted in a new vineyard at Echunga Springs near Mount Barker. In 1843, he sent a case of wine made from the vineyard to Queen Victoria, being the first Australian wine to reach the Queen.

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