Wine
Best Alternative Wine Varieties
The popularity of alternative wine varieties is significantly on the rise across the country, and for good reason – viticulturists and winemakers have embraced their idiosyncrasies, creating fabulous wines suited to our climate, lifestyle and palate, and Australian wine drinkers are loving them.
What is alternative wine? In Australia, we refer to 'alternative wines' as wines other than popular and classic varieties like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, and Shiraz. Some examples of alternative wine varieties are Arneis, Fiano, Gewürztraminer, Barbera, Montepulciano, and Nero d’Avola.
As a regular judge at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show and the Co-Chair of the Wine Selectors Tasting Panel, Adam Walls is passionate about alternatives wines from all over the world.
Here, he takes you through the six best alternative whites and six best alternative reds making their mark in Australia.
BEST ALTERNATIVE WHITE VARIETIES
ARNEIS
In Italy, Arneis is predominantly grown in Piedmont, which is cool with lots of hills, so it makes perfect sense that the most successful regions in Australia for Arneis are cooler, with many having rolling hills like South Australia’s Adelaide Hills, Victoria’s King Valley, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley, and the NSW Southern Highlands.
Arneis produces very fragrant wines with notes of pear and apple. The elegance of the aroma hides the fact that the wines are medium to full-bodied with pear, apple, stonefruit and nutty notes. Arneis from a cool climate region gives good balance between fruit and acidity. In warm vintages, Arneis shows lower acidity and a more powerful fruit profile.
Dubbed the ‘little rascal’ in Italy as it can be a bit temperamental, however when made well, Arneis creates a compelling glass of wine,” says Adam. “Reminiscent of great Pinot G, it is easy to appreciate without food but works wonders with Mediterranean-inspired cuisine.
Given its soft acidity and texture, Arneis pairs well with lighter food flavours. Try seafood pasta, salads with creamy sauces, and shellfish.
Shop Arneis
FIANO
Famous for being full of citrus and stonefruit flavours, with racy and mouth-watering acidity, Fiano can range from light and fresh to rich and mouth-coating.
To me, Fiano is the most exciting white variety in the country at the moment,” says Adam. The wine it produces has something for those who like fresh and energetic wines and something for those of us who like wines with body, texture and presence.
An Italian white, Fiano thrives in hot, dry climates, making it perfect for many Australian wine regions. Its ability to handle the increasing heat spikes we’re experiencing during vintage also makes it a very environmentally friendly variety—as it requires far less water than most other varieties.
What’s more, Fiano retains its acidity in the heat. So, while whites like Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay often lose some acidity when the temperature rises, Fiano can be made into a beautifully balanced, refreshing wine.
Its love of hot and dry climates has seen it thrive in Australia, with regions including McLaren Vale, Clare Valley, the Hunter Valley, Riverland, and Riverina making superb examples. Not to be outdone, some top-class examples also come from the cooler climates of the Adelaide Hills and the King Valley.
Shop Fiano
GEWÜRZTRAMINER
Gewürztraminer is widely grown throughout Germany and France’s Alsace region, and although it’s a German grape, its spiritual home is Alsace, and its name means ‘spiced Traminer’. In English, it is often referred to colloquially as simply Gewürz.
Gewürztraminer is the most exotic and flavoursome of all white grape varieties,” says Adam. “If you like your wine with personality or you have a love of tropical aromas and flavours, then this wine is for you.
The hallmarks of Australian Gewürztraminer are its lifted aromatics, which offer rose petal, rose water, and Turkish delight aromas, and generally showing spicy notes. The palate is unctuous and richly-flavoured with lychee and citrus fruit, with a mouth-coating texture, and is generally full-bodied.
In the vineyard, Gewürztraminer needs an ideal site to produce its best; generally, this intensely flavoured wine performs better in a cool climate, as warm climate examples can often be flabby and high in alcohol. To produce an ideal balance of aromas and flavours, it performs best in cool pockets of Victoria, Tasmania, Adelaide Hills, Eden Valley and the Clare Valley where the conditions allow natural acidity to be retained.
Shop Gewürztraminer
MARSANNE
Marsanne is one of the world’s rarest grape varieties. While being native to France’s Rhône Valley, it is also grown in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Switzerland (where it is known as Ermitage Blanc), and Spain (where it is known as Marsana).
It is famous for its role in the winemaking process of the white wines from Hermitage. Still, it’s here in Australia at Tahbilk in Nagambie's central Victorian wine region where you will find Marsanne's largest and oldest single planting in the world.
Does Australia do Marsanne better than the French? Many would say we do,” says Adam. “Tahbilk is the key producer of Marsanne, and their fresh, energetic style is famously age-worthy. Be on the lookout for different renditions of it however from producers who are coaxing out the grapes weight and texture in the wine's youth.
Some other wineries across the Australia also work with Marsanne, with around 60 percent of Australia’s Marsanne vines planted in the Riverina. Australian Marsanne is most often blended with other Rhône Valley whites, such as Viognier and Roussanne.
Marsanne’s characteristics change as the wine ages. In its youth, it’s light in colour and body with a fresh acid backbone. Aromas and flavours of citrus and stonefruit are common alongside the signature character of honeysuckle.
Aged Marsanne will be a deeper colour in the glass, and the honeysuckle and stonefruit flavours will become more apparent. When aged, the wine can have a similar body to that of Chardonnay.
Shop Marsanne
VERMENTINO
The spiritual home of Vermentino is Italy, where it grows in Liguria and Piedmont in the north, Tuscany in the centre, and it excels on the island of Sardinia. It’s also found in Provence and other southern French regions, and is the major white variety on the island of Corsica.
In Australia, McLaren Vale’s Mediterranean-style climate and proximity to the coast are perfectly suited to Vermentino, as it is remarkably similar to the environment around Liguria, the original home of this variety. However, as a very hardy variety, it has adapted well across a variety of regions, such as the Hunter Valley and Central Victoria, predominantly the King Valley. All these different growing conditions, from warmer to moderate, encourage differing styles, from light and fresh to rich and textural.
Vermentino has refreshment and a subtle salty character at the heart of its DNA,” Adam explains. “It’s one to try if Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc or even Pinot G are your mainstays.
Vermentino's light to medium body has a similar weight and profile to Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, and Riesling. On the palate, there are notes of lime, green apple, blanched almond, white florals, a unique sense of sea spray, and refreshing acidity perfect for the Australian summer.
The key characters of Vermentino are stonefruit, citrus peel, dried herbs and a signature saline character. The variety is high in acidity, so the wines all have a refreshing and nervy acid backbone.
Shop Vermentino
VIOGNIER
Viognier’s spiritual home is in France’s northern Rhône appellations of Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie; however, it is thought to have originated in Dalmatia (Bosnia) and was imported into France around 280AD.
While Viognier is popular now, it came close to extinction in the 1960s, largely because of its low yields and unpredictability in the vineyard. By 1968 only around 14 hectares were growing in northern Rhône. Luckily for wine lovers, by the 1980s, a few Californian wineries and Australia’s Yalumba had become very interested in Viognier, ensuring its rescue and a new lease on life.
While Viognier is grown across Australia in regions including Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Hunter Valley, the Yarra Valley, Riverland, and the Limestone Coast, it has really flourished in the Eden Valley where it produces some of the world’s best white wines.
Viognier can be brash. It can be bold. In the best examples, it can also be fresh and lively,” Adam explains. “It’s a variety with flavour and presence and offers a tasty alternative to Chardonnay.
The distinguishing characters of Australian Viognier include stonefruit, predominantly apricot, with distinctive perfumed floral notes. Viognier responds positively to oak, adding richness to the texture, and a nutty complexity that complements the fruit flavours. It is also regularly co-fermented or blended with Shiraz to give further complexity and fragrance.
When great, the wines are seductive, luscious, opulent, viscous, and full-flavoured, with exotic aromas of lychee, musk, rose, pear, apricot, peach, nectarine, ginger, spice, citrus blossom and has a long, silken texture.
Shop Viognier
BEST ALTERNATIVE RED VARIETIES
BARBERA
Barbera is Italy’s third most planted grape and comes from Piedmont region in Italy. It arrived in Australia in the 1960s and is now growing in popularity.
In Italy, Barbera tends to live in the shadow of Nebbiolo. However, it is thriving in Australia due to its deep colour and flavour, and black fruit depth.” says Adam. “Its acidity and medium body nature make it easy to sip, which should never be seen as a slight.
In Australia, Barbera normally prefers a cooler climate like the Adelaide Hills, King Valley, Alpine Valley, Orange and Hilltops, where it produces richer, more complex wines. However, its high natural acidity also means it thrives in moderate and warmer regions, including the Hunter Valley, McLaren Vale, Mudgee, and Gundagai. If yields aren’t kept in check, Barbera can overcrop in warmer regions and resulting in thin wines. For that reason, in the warmer regions, yields are kept low.
Barbera is similar in weight to Tempranillo and Merlot and is known for its medium-bodied nature, black fruit flavours, and high acidity that makes it appear juicy and mouth-watering. It’s the perfect red wine for our warm climate as it is soft and approachable, with an abundance of dark cherry, plum, spice, liquorice, black pepper and floral violet notes on the nose and palate.
It is perfect for a wide range of dishes, especially those with deep flavours and higher fat content. It’s an absolute crowd-pleaser served with dishes like pizza and pasta - especially with meat or tomato-bases sauces, grilled sausages, pork belly, or an antipasto selection.
Shop Barbera
MALBEC
Used for decades in France as a blending grape, Malbec was resurrected and championed in Argentina as an excellent single-varietal wine. It's now having a similar resurgence in Australia, with some superb Australian Malbec wines appearing in moderate climate regions like Clare Valley, Langhorne Creek, Margaret River, and Great Southern. Cool climate Canberra, Orange, and Yarra Valley are also producing quality expressions.
Malbec has been planted in Australia for a long time,” Adam explains. “Historically appearing in blends, it’s now just as likely to be bottled as a straight variety so people can enjoy the deep, black fruit characters and flavour length it’s prized for.
Malbec is a powerhouse, featuring big, juicy, and plush flavours, a robust structure, and moderately firm tannins. It has a distinctive dark purple colour and notes of red plum, blueberry, vanilla, cocoa, and sweet tobacco.
It’s a great alternative to Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot and is super food-friendly. It pairs perfectly with a variety of offerings, especially dishes with bold flavours, particularly barbequed meats.
Shop Malbec
MONTEPULCIANO
Montepulciano is a red wine grape variety native to Italy, particularly prominent in the central regions of Abruzzo and Marche. It is known for producing deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with rich fruit flavours and supple tannins.
Fun to say and even better to drink, ‘Monte’, as it is commonly known, is one of the most well-loved Italian red varieties,” says Adam. “It’s a variety that is softer in tannin compared to many other Italian red varieties, and this makes it very appealing to wine lovers who have cut their teeth on Shiraz and Cabernet.
Montepulciano has really taken off in Australia over the past decade, perhaps due to its suitability to our climate, and a drinking trend that is seeing the rise in the popularity of Euro-style wines.
In its very short lifespan here in Australia, Monte has already won us international acclaim. At the 2016 International Wine Competition in London, for the first time, Montes outside of Italy were given Gold medals, and they were won by two Australian wines from Bird in Hand and Mr Riggs. This was a significant achievement, proving what we already knew—the quality of our winemaking in Australia is exceptional.
Monte has succeeded in our vast range of climates, possibly because it’s a relatively late-ripening variety. Like Shiraz, it’s hardy, disease-resistant, and can handle temperature variations. Look for examples from Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Barossa Valley, and Riverland.
Shop Montepulciano
NERO D’AVOLA
Another Italian varietal to reach our sunny shores, Nero d'Avola is proving to be a hero of both the vineyard and the wine glass, with Aussie wine lovers reaching out for this medium-weight red.
Hailing from the southern part of Italy, ‘Nero’ is gaining popularity in Australia,” says Adam. “It’s a heat and drought-tolerant variety that makes spicy, black-fruited wines. Generally, wines are light-bodied and crunchy, and made for early drinking. Some are bigger and bolder and would appeal to lovers of Grenache or Shiraz.
Plantings of Nero d’Avola in Australia are on the increase. It thrives in moderate to warm climates such as Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Riverland, Heathcote, and Murray Darling. It is similar in weight to Pinot Noir and Grenache, although some examples can be richer, depending on the vintage.
Nero d'Avola is made in two very different styles. The first is fragrant and crunchy, light to medium-bodied, almost like Pinot Noir. The second is dark and densely coloured, with black fruits and spice and a weight more reminiscent of Shiraz.
In Australia, you're more likely to come across the first style, as our Nero d'Avola vines are younger and will take many more years before they’ll begin to produce more concentrated wines that are associated with aged vines.
Nero d'Avola’s characteristically elevated acidity means it pairs well with crowd-pleasing and tasty tomato-based recipes. Try grilled fish and light meats in Mediterranean-style dishes for the lighter styles. You can even slightly chill these styles on a warm day. The richer expressions are more suited to braised and meat-based dishes.
Shop Nero d'Avola
SANGIOVESE
Sangiovese was not planted in Australia until the early 1970s. Penfold’s first trialled it in the Barossa, as did Montrose in Mudgee. However, Mark Lloyd at Coriole in McLaren Vale is known for kick-starting interest in the variety. He planted vines in 1985 after looking to plant something ‘not French.’
Sangiovese was one of Australia’s original alternative varieties. It has taken its time to shine, but with better clones selected and winemakers and growers more confident in handling the variety, we are seeing exciting examples produced across regions such as South Australia’s Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale, as well as Victoria’s King Valley, Beechworth and Heathcote. It is also being made well in the Hunter Valley, with more and more producers championing the variety.
Sangiovese is by far the most famous grape variety from Italy,” says Adam. “It’s taken Australian winemakers a few years and different clones to get it right, but now the wines are fabulous. It can be made into a light-bodied, younger-drinking style, or age- worthy, more robustly-structured wines that are great with food.
Quality Sangiovese is prized for its elevated acidity, firm tannins, and its lovely balance. Its characteristic notes include dark cherries and blackberries, which may be backed by secondary notes of tomato leaf, cigar box, leather and dried herbs.
Sangiovese comes into its own when matched with food – especially dishes inspired by its Mediterranean origins, so what does Sangiovese pair with? Its tangy acidity means that it pairs well with pizza, pasta, and tomato-based dishes, and its savoury nature means it’s ideal with barbequed, grilled and roasted meats.
Shop Sangiovese
TEMPRANILLO
Regarded as Spain’s noble grape, Tempranillo is most commonly known worldwide as the main grape variety used to make Rioja. Its name comes from the Spanish word, temprana, which means early, referring to the fact that it’s an early-ripening red variety.
Australian plantings of Tempranillo are increasing, and thanks to its attractive colour, juicy, rustic fruit profile and food-friendly nature, it’s popular with those keen to expand their vinous horizons.
Tempranillo has only been planted here for about 20 years, with two of the first producers being Victoria’s Brown Brothers and Yalumba in the Barossa. Their first vintages (around 1994) were encouraging enough to continue experimentation, with newer clones also being trialled. Since then, Tempranillo has been planted in many regions nationwide, all with relative success.
Tempranillo is a variety built on tannin rather than acidity,” Adam explains. “Some wines are similar to Cabernet – that is, robust and deeply flavoured, while some are made to drink young and fresh with little or no oak. You’d have to go a long way to find a red wine that is as easy to drink as some of Australia’s young ‘Temps’.
Tempranillo has shown in a relatively short time that it’s well-suited to many parts of Australia, both warm and cool. In warmer climes, its generosity of black fruits, spice and sunny disposition is welcoming. These styles tend to be more easy-drinking and better consumed early.
In cooler climes, where Tempranillo grapes are in top demand, the flavours are finer and more subtle, with red and black fruits, spice and herbs, and because these wines aren’t carrying a heavy weight, Tempranillo’s lower acid backbone isn’t taxed quite as much. It generally shows nuanced savoury notes, and lovely texture.
Shop Tempranillo
Now that you're armed with this exciting wine knowledge, it’s the perfect time to try something deliciously different. Plus, check out our Wine 101 articles for some great tips, tricks, and secrets to uncorking maximum enjoyment with every sip!
Shop Alternatives