Riverland
An Australian wine region located in the Lower Murray Zone of south australia. It's situated about 145 miles northeast of Adelaide around the towns of Renmark and Berri. It is just east of the huge murray darling region that lies in the states of new south wales and victoria. Like the Murray Darling region, Riverland is the product of the irrigation systems implemented on the Murray River beginning in the 1890s. The Riverland is hot and dry, and vineyards require irrigation water from the Murray River. This region also resembles Murray Darling with regard to the huge quantities of reliable quality wine it churns out-much of it going into Australia's inexpensive and popular bag-in-box (or cask) wines. The over 45,000 vineyard acres here produced 48 percent of South Australia's total production in 2001. The most widely planted varieties from largest to smallest are Shiraz (syrah), cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, muscat, merlot, ruby cabernet, sultana, colombard, grenache, petit verdot and Mataro(mourvèdre) plus a dozen other varieties. Riverland has several large wineries, however much of the crop is sent south to the barossa valley for fermentation.
