Swan Hill
Irrigated Murray country cropping 21.7 tonnes a hectare, nearly five times the national average. Volume is the point, and 2.9% of Australia's entire crush comes off 2,086 hectares.
Known for
- Shiraz
- Chardonnay
- Cabernet Sauvignon
Why Swan Hill tastes the way it does
Hot irrigated Murray country producing large volumes of soft, simple fruit at 21.7 tonnes a hectare. Almost nothing is bottled under the region's own name.
January averages 25.2°C here and the growing season adds up to 2,337 heat units, which is hot, and the fruit ripens fast.
A short history
Irrigation from the 1880s made farming possible here and vines followed, alongside dried fruit and citrus.
Swan Hill 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 Swan Hill
A bottle from Swan Hill 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.
Swan Hill in numbers
| Planted vineyard | 2,086 ha | number 17 of 64 in Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Region area | 2,741 km² | 0.76% of it under vine |
| Grapes crushed | 45,302 t a year | 21.7 tonnes a hectare |
| January average | 25.2°C | number 62 coolest of 64 |
| Heat units | 2,337 | warmth added up over the growing season |
| Land in the GI rises | 47 to 129 m | the boundary, not where the vines are |
| Registered | 1996 | as a protected name |
Nearby
- Murray Darling154 km north west, 1.0°C warmer
- Bendigo175 km south, 2.5°C cooler
- Heathcote199 km south east, 2.4°C cooler
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.