Geelong
Victoria's first serious wine district, pulled out completely when phylloxera arrived in the 1870s and not replanted until the 1960s. Cool and wind-exposed at 20.1°C in January, and Pinot Noir and Shiraz now.
Known for
- Pinot Noir
- Chardonnay
- Shiraz
Why Geelong tastes the way it does
Cool, dry and windy, with sites spread across three separate pockets. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Shiraz are the core, all in a restrained, savoury style. Wind cuts yields and thickens skins, and that shows in the tannin.
January averages 20.1°C here and the growing season adds up to 1,548 heat units, which is moderate by Australian standards.
A short history
Swiss settlers planted from 1842 and by the 1860s Geelong was Victoria's leading wine district. Phylloxera was found in 1875 and the government ordered the vines pulled out. The district stayed bare for close to a century until replanting began in 1966.
Geelong was registered as a protected wine name in 1996, which makes the boundary a legal definition rather than a marketing one.
What your house does to a bottle from Geelong
A bottle from Geelong ages at the rate its temperature sets, not at the rate the vintage chart says. Barello's model is the physical one: every 10°C above 13°C roughly doubles the rate, and at 25°C or more you are not ageing it, you are cooking it. Pick where you live and where the bottle actually sits.
Choose a city and a spot, and this line will tell you how much faster the bottle is ageing than it would in a cellar.
This is the same model that dates every bottle in Barello. Open the app to run it against your own wine. Or read how to store wine without a cellar, or the wine temperature chart.
Geelong in numbers
| Planted vineyard | 466 ha | number 41 of 64 in Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Region area | 2,821 km² | 0.17% of it under vine |
| Grapes crushed | 1,237 t a year | 2.6 tonnes a hectare |
| January average | 20.1°C | number 10 coolest of 64 |
| Heat units | 1,548 | warmth added up over the growing season |
| Land in the GI rises | 0 to 396 m | the boundary, not where the vines are |
| Registered | 1996 | as a protected name |
Nearby
- Mornington Peninsula73 km east, also Pinot Noir country
- Macedon Ranges91 km north, known for Sparkling instead
- Yarra Valley120 km east, also Pinot Noir country
Distances are between the registered centres of each region, so they are as the crow flies rather than as the road goes.
Where these numbers come from
Boundaries and figures: Wine Australia Geographical Indications register, used under CC BY 4.0. Climate figures are the register's own long-run averages, measured in the vineyard. The history and the tasting notes above are Barello's own.