Although it can take a lifetime to sample the entire spectrum of Australian wine varieties, the most common types that you’ll encounter when buying wine online or at your local wine shop are pretty easy to define, and there aren’t too many of them. To help make it easier for wine beginners to choose what to buy, here’s a guide to the basic types of wine, along with some of the most common varieties.
Red Wine
Red wine is made from the pulp and skin of red or black grapes, which gives it its distinctive dark color. Because it uses the skin of the grape and contains a higher tannin content than other types of wine, its flavor tends to be more complex, stronger, and a little heavier.
- Shiraz (or Syrah): This Australian specialty has a hearty, dark-fruity character that goes well with red meat dishes. It’s a versatile grape that’s used to make many mass-produced wines in addition to some of the finest, most elegant, and best-aging wines in the world.
- Merlot: One of the gentlest of red wines, Merlot is perfect for anyone who is not yet accustomed to the taste of wine. It can have all the depth and complexity of fine red wines, but it’s also accessible.
- Cabernet Sauvignon: This grape is grown in virtually all wine producing regions. It ages well, and it is often used to create unique blends with other varieties. When buying wine online, you’ll find many Cabernet blends.
White Wine
White wine is usually made from white grapes, but in other cases (such as White Zinfandel) it is made by pressing the juice from red grapes with minimal contact with stems and skin. It is generally softer, lighter, and more citrusy than red wine.
- Chardonnay: This classic white never fades in popularity, and it is grown abundantly all over the world, from France, to the U.S., to Australia and New Zealand. With a rich, lemon-y flavor with hints of vanilla, fine Chardonnays tend to age very well.
- Sauvignon blanc: This simple variety is the perfect introduction for newcomers to white wine. Going well with salad, seafood, and poultry, it has a subtle flavor with slight hints of fruitiness and herbs. Sauvignon blanc grows best in cooler wine regions such as southern Australia and northern Germany.
- Semillon: From the southern region of France, this grape thrives in Australia and other southern hemisphere wine producing areas. With a rich, berry-like flavor, Semillon goes well with pastas and seafood.
Rosé Wine
Rosé wines are basically red wines that are removed from contact with the skin early in the fermentation process, which gives them a much lower tannin content and a lighter color. This results in a wine that has many qualities in common with its red wine counterparts, but with a much softer flavor.
Sparkling Wine
During the winemaking process, yeast fermentation breaks the natural sugars in the grape juice down into alcohol and carbon dioxide. In most wines, the carbon dioxide is mostly released into the air, while the alcohol remains. In sparkling wines, however, an extra step in the fermentation process bottles up some of that carbon dioxide, which results in the distinctive bubbliness that you’ll find in sparkling wines such as champagne.
Dessert Wines
Sweet wines are made by preserving some of the sugar that is normally broken down during the fermentation process. This is done either by harvesting the grapes later than usual, which results in more concentrated sugar content, or by removing the yeast early in the process, which causes the breakdown to stop while some of the sugars remain.