Your cheatsheet to the must-know regions featured in this year’s Decoded Wine Awards.

From cool maritime sites, to crisp alpine zones and sunny inland bush, Australian wine is grown in a highly diverse range of soils and climates. It’s this diversity that made Lara Bingle ask “Where the bloody hell are you?” and it’s what stamps our drops with such wonderful complexity. This year’s Decoded Wine Awards features stellar bottles from right across our country, with wines and winemakers from many different regions stepping up to represent their hood.

As always with wine, the more you know, the better your drinking experience. So here’s your cheat sheet to the winning Australian wine regions and why they matter.

Why is region important anyway?

Great wine doesn't happen by accident. You can't just make it in your backyard. (Well, you can if you trust WikiHow). Critical to wine quality are factors such as climate, soil type and topography – or ‘terroir’ if you want to sound clever.

Which regions did our winning wines come from?

South Australia really shone this year, taking out the prize for the state with the most awarded regions. Wines from SA’s Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills all won a category. But Victoria and Western Australia also came to play, with The Yarra Valley, Mornington Peninsula, Margaret River, and Great Southern wine region also nabbing places on the winner’s list. It wasn’t only about Australia though, the Kiwis scored with a wine from Marlborough too. Take a look at all the winning wines right here.

What’s the most exciting wine region to look out for in 2022?

McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley are two of our oldest wine regions, best known for shiraz, but grenache is one of Australia’s unsung heroes and these two regions are producing some of the best in the world – perfumed, balanced on a knife-edge, and extraordinarily good.

What varieties is each region most known for?

Any one region might produce a range of different styles, but they tend to be known for one in particular. So what are the winning Decoded regions traditionally known for? When scanning the shelves or wine list and unsure what to go for, these are good places to start.

Barossa is synonymous with shiraz
Coonawarra creates top-notch cabernet sauvignon
Clare Valley and Great Southern are riesling hotspots
Adelaide Hills have perfected pinot noir
Yarra Valley excels at the sparkling wine game
Mornington Peninsula is pinot territory – noir and gris
Margaret River produces superb chardonnay
Marlborough make world-famous sauvignon blanc

What is a top regional fact you can pull out at a dinner party?

The Barossa Valley lays claim to the oldest shiraz vines in the world. You’d think those vines would be somewhere in Europe, right? Well, in the late 1800s a vine disease called phylloxera wiped out most of Europe’s vines. Shiraz vines transported to Australia before the outbreak were free from phylloxera and some of those vines are still going strong today.

So, how did our winning regions tally up?

You now know what these regions are usually know for, but where did they score this year? For a full breakdown of our winning wines and why they’re wonderful, take a look at here. Prefer a quick hit list? We’ve got you sorted: