New Releases from Australia, Part 2

What this climatic diversity means to adventurous winos is the opportunity to do some highly rewarding sleuthing around a category that remains largely uncharted outside Australia. In fact, it’s not so much an opportunity as an obligation, as even the largest retail outlets in the U.S. weight their Australian departments heavily toward the full-throttle red wines of South Australia, especially those from the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. But most reports from the field say that this category is in a serious slump right now, with names that created buying frenzies in the late 1990s and early 2000s now languishing on the shelves or in warehouses. As the American palate shifts away from high-alcohol, high-oak wines of all colors, this category’s slump is only natural.