Vines, wine and identity: The Hunter Valley NSW and Changing Australian Taste

Australia is a leader in global wine trade and tourism, and Australian drinkers are shifting from beer to wine. Yet little is known about the regional communities that make wine, how wine production has shaped their identity, and how producers have changed national culture by creating a taste for their wines. This project explores these themes through an historical study of Australia's oldest wine region, the Hunter Valley NSW. It traces the intra - and transnational networks of people, knowledge and wine. This will in turn reveal elements of the power nexus in wine production, trade and consumption to provide critical new insights into Australia's change to a wine making and wine drinking country.