Area under vines: 2310 ha (5775 acres)

The Great Southern vine growing region including Albany, Denmark, Frankland, Mount Barker and the Porongurup Foothills is West Australia’s coolest for vine growing. Soils are in general of a higher quality but the region receives far less rainfall than the Margaret River region.

Ripening month and mean temperatures in the established Mount Barker vineyards are marginally lower than in the Medoc and clearly lower than in the lower warmer Bordeaux appellations such as Pomerol and Saint Emilion. Average ripening period sunshine hours at Mount Barker together with the whole season ratio of sunshine hours to site adjusted effective day degrees are almost identical with those of Bordeaux. Mount Barker has been used as a central point for the Great Southern Region to provide comparisons.

The climatic figures for the lower Great Southern region agree well with medium bodied Bordeaux style red varieties and with the slightly earlier maturing Shiraz.

We acknowledge and thank Dr John Gladstones for permission to use extracts from "Viticulture and Environment" - John Gladstones 1992, in regional viticultural comments.