This episode brings the South Australia and South Eastern Australia material into clear exam focus by working systematically from the prescribed text and making the cause–effect logic explicit throughout.
South Eastern Australia is treated correctly as a functional blending zone rather than a qualitative origin, with scale, irrigation dependence, Murray–Darling Basin economics, water pricing volatility, and grower viability all directly linked to wine style, price positioning, and labelling outcomes. The Murray–Darling sub-regions are clearly differentiated through climate, rainfall and irrigation needs, dominant varieties, and resulting wine styles, including a precise explanation of Riverina’s botrytised Semillon through autumn humidity and mist conditions.
Within South Australia, zoning and GI hierarchy are tied directly to blending practice and prestige wine production, clarifying why high-value wines may carry broad regional labels. Barossa Valley and Eden Valley are contrasted through altitude, rainfall, soils, old-vine material, Shiraz expression, and blending rationale, with the Old Vine Charter placed in its correct exam context.
Adelaide Hills, Clare Valley, and McLaren Vale are explored through altitude, diurnal range, rainfall timing, disease pressure, soil differences, vineyard management responses, and varietal proportions, with explicit links to style, quality, and price. Riesling expressions are differentiated by site and soil, and McLaren Vale integrates geology, old-vine Grenache, harvesting choices, and sustainable water sourcing as quality drivers.
Coonawarra is covered in full, including flat topography and maritime cooling at distance, cloud cover and cool nights, growing-season rainfall and frost risk, terra rossa soil structure and its effect on vigor and yields, aquifer irrigation, GI breadth versus core quality zones, varietal dominance, and labor constraints shaping vineyard practice.
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You’ll find the complete list of episodes, organized in syllabus order, here:
https://thesommpour.substack.com/p/wset-diploma-d3-wines-of-the-world
