From a hesitant start in the early 1840's, the growth of viticulture accelerated during that decade with the establishment of the Yarra Valley and Geelong districts, areas that were to remain of prime importance for the next 40 years. The development inland of Victorian state followed in the wake of the discovery of gold in 1851, and viticulture soon was extended over all of the centre and northeast.

The start of the long decline of the wine industry was triggered by the discovery of phylloxera at Fyansford, near Geelong, in 1875. This plague led to the immediate demise of the Geelong district and spread through central Victoria, finally reaching the northeast in 1899. While some vignerons of this district replanted their vineyards on grafted rootstocks, many others did not bother. It is exceedingly unlikely that Victoria will ever seriously challenge South Australia for the crown it lost at the end of the 1890's as the major producer.

Heavy fortified wines, as good as those produced in the northeast, came to dominate the Australian industry. An enormous diversity of wines and wine styles emerges, ranging from the luscious fortified Tokays and Muscats of the northeast through to the delicate but intense Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays from the Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley regions around Melbourne.

One is never far from a vineyard running from Portland in the southwest up through Great Western and Bendigo to Rutherglen, then southeast to Lakes Entrance, then back through Geelong to Melbourne. A great deal of the landscape is stunning, some extraordinarily beautiful - and it is constantly changing. Wine tours using Melbourne as a base can take anything from a day to a week - every winery, every district brings something new, something fresh.

VIC 2000 - 2001 wine production totalled 159,453,000 litres.