Nardone Baker Wines is as proud to be a South Australian producer, and when you read on about our state you will soon understand why.

Apart from being a popular destination for wine tourism, South Australia generates
half (45.5%) of the country's wine grapes - more than double that of any other State.
half of Australia's total wine production (47.8%)
around 60% of the country's wine exports.
We also have the largest area of vineyards (67,039 ha), accounting for 42.3% of the nation's total.

Despite all these astounding statistics, South Australia's wine industry is as diverse as it is large. Small family-run boutique wineries sit alongside major national companies producing the nation's most awarded wines. It's little wonder then that the South Australian Tourism Commission's Domestic Secrets Campaign Tracking survey (April 2001) undertaken in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane identified that South Australia is the State most associated with wine and food.

South Australia's success in the wine tourism industry has been a natural progression ever since the first vintage was recorded in the Adelaide Hills in 1841 and ambitious marketers shipped off the nation's first wine export (a case of hock) to Queen Victoria in London.

One hundred and sixty years later, when Australia's annual wine exports broke the $2 billion barrier mark for the first time in 2001-2002, eight of the top 10 wine exporting companies in Australia named South Australian wines as their flagship brands in boosting profits from overseas sales.

The State's wine exports broke the $1 billion mark in January 2002. That's about three times the next major exporting State and puts South Australia on track to reach $2.2 billion in wine exports by 2010.

Adelaide is also a leader in wine education and training. The first Diploma of Oenology students graduated in 1938 from Roseworthy Agricultural College, which is now part of the world-renowned Waite campus of Adelaide University, offering under graduate and post graduate courses in oenology and viticulture.

With more than 350 wineries and 247 cellar doors in 17 wine regions, most roads in South Australia lead to wine country.

[Material adapted from the Wine Tourism - SA Tourism Commission site  www.tourism.sa.gov.au/winetourism/ and updated from other sources]