Food: Bottoms Up, Down Under

Not so long ago, the ditsy wits of the Monty Python shows could get a quick laugh by disparaging some plonk from Australia as "a wine for laying down and leaving there." No longer. The wines from Down Under are moving steadily up in quality, and they are enjoying a new popularity in the U.S. Riding a trend for Aussie chic that has made household names of Qantas, Pat Cash and "Crocodile" Dundee, U.S. sales of Australian wines topped 1 million gallons last year, more than triple the volume of 1986. "People who have experimented with Australian wines have been very happy," says Jon Fredrikson, a San Francisco wine consultant. "They're the new kids on the block being watched very closely. Word gets around."

Americans last year quaffed at least 50 million gallons of French and Italian table wine, so the Aussies clearly have a long way to go. But there are good reasons why experts see a promising future. For one thing, the declining value of the U.S. dollar has pushed the prices of quality French wines -- most red Burgundies, for example, and the top-rated crus of Bordeaux -- beyond the reach of all but the wealthy. Meanwhile, thanks to the relative weakness of the Australian dollar (worth 77 cents in U.S. currency), virtually all Down Under wines available in the U.S. are in the moderate-price range (between $4 and $15 per 750-ml bottle).

There is one striking exception: Penfolds Grange Hermitage Bin 95, which many critics consider Australia's best. A brambly, mouth-filling red that compares favorably with a Hermitage from France's Rhone Valley, the Grange Hermitage sells for $40 or more retail (when you can find it). It has already become something of a cult favorite -- witness its presence on the wine lists of such prestigious restaurants as New York City's "21" and Antoine's in New Orleans.

Grapes have been grown in Australia for nearly 200 years. Until the 1950s, most vintners concentrated on either cheap, fortified sherries and ports for export to Britain, or rough-edged red and white table wines, distinctly second in quality to the country's brawny beers. It is no coincidence that the improvement in Australian style and sophistication in the past ten years matches the progress of California wines: many Aussie winemakers have studied their craft at the University of California at Davis, America's ranking school of oenology. In fact Michael Mullins, the chairman of the viticulture department at Davis, is Australian. Says he of the Californians and his countrymen: "I think they see each other as potential competitors. There are a fair amount of trade secrets, but there's an awful lot of sharing in chemical engineering, yeast biochemistry and other fields, so that there is continual improvement."

In part because their best growing areas are in hot climates with fertile soils, California and Australia produce what some experts call "Pacific wines." Translation: a red from the Napa Valley is more likely to resemble one from South Australia's Barossa Valley than from France's Medoc; the New World wines tend to be forward and fruity in taste, more notable for alcoholic strength than elegance.