Geelong Wine Region in Victoria: Wine History and Innovation in Australia

Geelong is Australia's "comeback kid" wine region.  Swiss settlers brought their knowledge of viniculture and viticulture with them to Geelong and other parts of what is now the state of Victoria in the 1840s.  Unfortunately, Geelong's vineyards were uprooted when phylloxera arrived in 1875.  Almost 100 years later, Daryl and Nini Sefton brought winemaking back to Geelong when they established Idyll Vineyard (now part of Littore Family Wines), beginning a new tradition of family-owned vineyards and wineries that persists today.  Emphasis on hands-on winemaking, coupled with the characteristics of Geelong's three distinct sub-regions, give this Australian wine region a character all its own.

Geelong History
According to local lore, David Pettavel was the first of Geelong's Swiss settlers to plant a vineyard in this part of Victoria, Australia, some time during 1845.  Many of his expatriate countrymen followed suit, and Geelong's wine industry was born.  As Melbourne attracted more and more residents, Geelong, along with nearby Yarra Valley, became a center of winemaking in Victoria.

In less than two decades, Geelong was the state's premier wine-growing region.  Sadly, dreams of continued prosperity crashed when phylloxera found its way to Australia via Geelong in 1875.  Every vine in the region was uprooted.

The wine industry in Geelong was reborn in 1966, when Daryl and Nini Sefton took a chance and started their Idyll Vineyard.  Other growers and winemakers came to Geelong, and tradition was reborn.