Get past Australia's cheap and cheerful brands and you'll find brilliance and innovation, writes Joe Breen
It pays to know your way around. Maps help. When it comes to wine they are essential. Try understanding the complexity of Clos de Vougeot, an immaculate hill of multiple owners and layers of majestic soil in Burgundy, without some graphic assistance.
The same applies to the rather more massive wine-producing areas of Australia and their ever-increasing number of vineyards. From a European perspective it is all too easy to dump Australian wines into the same barrel, but there is huge variety, both in style and quality, including areas of world-class wine-making.
The brilliant Rieslings of the Clare and Eden valleys are just one example of where Oz wine has carved a niche for itself. James Halliday's newly updated Wine Atlas of Australiatrains the spotlight on these key producers in bite-sized profiles, as well as providing an overview of each main wine-growing area.
Halliday - both poacher and gamekeeper, in that he is a noted wine-maker and commentator - pinpoints the areas where his country's skills have been honed but is equally honest about the road yet to be travelled. There is much experimentation still as wine-makers struggle to find the best grapes for the best soil in the prevailing climate.
All this is happening against a backdrop of financial straits caused by overproduction and hasty expansion. Each year 100 more makers sink their dollars into the wine dream. But the Australian wine world is in flux.
The current vintage has been plagued by black frosts and an array of other weather problems. Ironically, this will help the business get back on track in the long term.
There are other big issues. There are fears that many of the most innovative wineries will disappear in a rash of huge mergers. And although the cheap "Château Chunder" of Monty Python is a thing of the past, low-price bulk brands such as Yellow Tail still dominate the export business, although the kudos goes to Penfolds' iconic Grange and its like.
This leaves Australia with a curious mixed message that it has yet to resolve. Is it a high-grade producer of middle- to high-quality wines or a purveyor of the cheap and cheerful?
These two positions represent the extremes. Between them is an array of brilliant wines and innovative wine-makers seeking attention. Some of these, such as Setanta Wines, are already available in Ireland.
Now Martin McCarthy of Hole in the Wall, the pub, restaurant and wine shop beside Phoenix Park in north Dublin, has assembled an impressive cast of bottles from about 30 small Australian wineries that he plans to put on an Irish stage in the coming months.
Halliday rates makers such as Tim Adams Wines, Rochford Wines, Eldridge Estate and Pondalowie Vineyards. These belong to a new generation of producers seeking to create very special bottles, such as Pondalowie's Vineyard Blend 2003, a beguiling combination of Shiraz, Cabernet and Tempranillo. Only Hole in the Wall stocks it at present, but it should be more widely available shortly.
Wine Atlas of Australia, by James Halliday, is published by Mitchell Beazley, £30 in UK.
Hole in the Wall is on Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin 7, 01-8389491/8685144. See also www.timadamswines.com.au, www.rochfordwines. com, www.eldridge-estate.com and www.pondalowie.com.au