Canberra District

Fast Facts

  • Latitude:
    35°0’S
  • Altitude:
    500–850 m
  • Heat degree days:
    1410
  • Growing season rainfall:
    360 mm
  • Mean January temp:
    20.2°C
  • Harvest:
    Mid-March to end April
  • Chief viticultural hazard:
    Spring frost; drought

Discover the wine and wineries of the Canberra District

Discover the Canberra District with James Halliday's Wine Atlas of Australia

Apart from some long-forgotten and small vineyards established near Yass in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the Canberra District is a reflection of the Real Politik of the late twentieth century. It is a wry commentary on the unreality of the political hothouse of Canberra that only two of the Canberra District vignerons should actually have had a vineyard in Canberra, and even more appropriate that none is a politician. The reason for the territorial exclusion was essentially a pragmatic one, however much the concept might have pleased Lewis Carroll: freehold does not exist within the Australian Capital Territory, and land used for anything other than housing, commerce or industry is liable to be rezoned (and the lease terminated) at short notice.

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Special Value

Wines considered to offer special value for money.