Australia has grown its wine industry to become the eighth-largest in the entire world. Australian wine has done this through a unique combination of taking advantage of the local growing conditions, the implementation of high-tech winemaking techniques, and brilliant marketing. Which is not to imply that all the wines of Australia are in any way sterile or devoid of personality, as some of their more popular, mass-marketed one are. Quite the opposite is true: At their best, the wines of Australia are explosively flavorful and delicious examples of all that New World wines can be. In fact, the Shiraz grape variety is grown and vinified in Australia as well as it is anywhere in the world, including its native Rhone Valley in France. And Australian Chardonnays and Port-style fortified wines are delightful. The potential for the wines of Australia is truly dizzying: When it comes to wine, the Aussies, these days, can seem to do no wrong, at least when it comes to serious wines.