I fondly remember my first trip to South Australia, we drove in the family station wagon and stayed locally, touring Coonawarra first then the Adelaide hills. This first trip opened my eyes to the joys of the wine tasting at the cellar door, sampling first and then if the wine was to our taste and budget permitted we bought some. Since then I have been back again and again and regard The South Australian wines as amongst my favourites

Background South Australian Red Wine

South Australia is one of the oldest and most well known regions producing wine in Australia. The famous Penfolds winery stands out as one of the states more well known wineries. It was founded in 1844 and today is owned by Southcorp Wines.

South Australian Wine books

I strongly recommend that before you invest in Australian wine, whether for drinking pleasure or financial gain that you do your homework. There are many South Australian wine producers - some good and others mediocre so take the time in between drinks to read up. Here are some of my favourites.

• Wine atlas of Australia and New Zealand - James Halliday
• An introduction to Australian wine - James Halliday
• Mixed dozen, the story of Australian winemaking since 1788 - Charles Gent
• Crush, The new Australian wine book - Max Allen
• The Penguin wine cellar book - Penguin books

The best red wines in the world - that perfectly describes the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignons from the Coonawarra wineries on the Limestone Coast in South Australia.