The Rutherglen Wine Region in North East Victoria has achieved iconic status with its fortified wines. It has also been associated with big long-lived red wines, a style that has gone out of fashion.

Many wineries around in this wine region have been in the same family for several generations and are housed in historic gold era buildings that provide an appropriate setting to taste the venerable wines. The winery buildings at All Saints, Gehrig Estate, Mount Prior and Pfiefer are well worth visiting for their architectural interest, quite apart from the superb table and fortified wines.

The region is centred around the town of Rutherglen and is bounded on the north by the Murray River. Other towns within the region include Wahgunyah and Chiltern, and immediately across the river in New South Wales is the substantial town of Corowa. See map of the region and wineries.

The wine industry was established in the middle of the nineteenth century. Unlike many other Victorian wine regions, Rutherglen escaped the Phylloxera pest, and was able to survive the fall in popularity of table wines by developing a specialty in fortified wine.

These wines are undoubtedly of world class quality. The ports and sherries match it with all but the best of the Iberian wines of those styles. But the region's unique gifts to the world are the muscats and tokays which have no equal.

The 'Tokay' that winelovers have come to know and love over the decades is made from the Muscadelle grape. But the name Tokay is derived from a region in Hugary which makes a different style of wine called Tojkaji. Australian Tokays will thus have to be renamed, maybe as something less appealing as Fortified Muscadelle.

The warmish climate means that many of the mainstream winegrape varieties are commonly grown. Among alternative varieties Durif has long been popular in this region. It is used for port style fortified wines, dry red table wines, and in recent years for sparkling reds.

As the big, robust and highly tannic red wines characteristic of Rutherglen have become less popular a few wineries have begun making sparkling red wines. This style has not attracted universal approval, but it certainly has its enthusiasts.

Some wineries in this Region that are using alternative varieties include

Rutherglen winemakers and the local tourism related businesses love to show off their town in festivals and other events. You can find out what's happening next in the region by looking at the Vinodiversity Blog.

A reader's story about a weekend in in this region, you can read it comment on it or send in your own.

Christobelle Anderson of Anderson Winery reports on the difficult 2007 vintage in this region

Dan Crane is winemaker at All Saints Winery and St Leonards Winery. In this article he describes how he softens the tannins in Rutherglen Durif by using a longer period of maceration.

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