New World Wines
There was a time when the wine trade was firmly under European control, and dictated to, in the main, by the wine producers of France, Northern Italy, Spain and Germany.
But then things changed. European explorers discovered the New World and with it, vast expanses of vines and hitherto unknown grape varieties, flourishing in unimaginable regions, across the globe.
This was indeed an exciting discovery. Established European wine producers lost no time in introducing old world, indigenous grape varieties to New World countries. They also brought age-old wine making techniques traditions to new wine growing regions. New grape varieties, new terroir and a new alliance among wine producers around the world - wine production had, at last gone global.
In the southern regions of the USA and across South America, for example, Spanish missionaries began to cultivate vines for religious purposes. Vines were planted in countries that are now recognized as leading wine producers, including Chile and Argentina. Further north, vines were flourishing in sunny California, making it one of the most important wine growing regions of the New World.
European missionaries were also responsible for introducing the vine to New Zealand, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Australians got their act together a few decades earlier, when the first grapes to be harvested on Aussie soil were picked, in 1791, in the Governor's garden, from vines transported from the Cape Province of South Africa, three years earlier.
From humble beginnings, throughout the twentieth century, when inferior quality wines were produced largely for domestic consumption, the New World wine industry was beginning to take shape. And, the rest is history.
New World wine producers started experimenting with what are known as varietal wines. This meant that the grape variety was the main piece of information on the wine label. Gone, at last, were the days when wine appreciation was shrouded in mystery - when choosing a bottle of wine was a hit and miss affair.
The New World wine industry has continued apace, over the past decade or so. Today, we have the pick of the global bunch; and we're buying them by the caseload.