Riverina – Click to Enlarge
Riverina Wine Region – NSW
Riverina is the largest wine-producing region in New South Wales. In addition, it is the second-largest in Australia with an annual fruit intake averaging around 300,000 tonnes. It grows over 60 varieties across 22,000 hectares, resulting in local wineries exporting over 12.5 million cases of wine annually to over 60 countries.
The region covers more than 78,000 square kilometres, making it a larger area than the entire country of Ireland.
This vast region is home to six of Australia’s top twenty largest wine companies and seven of Australia’s top 15 wine exporters. Centring around the city of Griffith, it is around 570km from Sydney and 450km from Melbourne.
The first plantings were in 1913 by JJ McWilliam, and the family remain in the region six generations later. However, it was waves of post-war European migrants that gave the Riverina and its wine industry, a cultural uniqueness not replicated anywhere else in Australia. Their descendants, all third or fourth generation family businesses, run the wineries driving the new face of Riverina premium wine-making. Consequently, they account for a significant proportion of Australia’s export success, winning accolades and recognition around the world.
John Dunmore Lang invented the term “Riverina” in the 1850s, to describe a type of country, the Riverina Plain. With a healthy food and wine culture, primarily due to its large Italian population, Riverina is not surprisingly, also famous for its food and wine events during the year.
