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Swan Valley is a sub-region of the Swan District wine region just north of Perth, the state capital of Western Australia. This area once produced a very high percentage of Western Australia's wine, although it never reached the volumes made in Australia's most prolific regions on the eastern side of the continent. A lasting symbol of this region's heyday is the historic Houghton winery, which remains the largest in the state. Named after Lt Col Richmond Houghton – part of a syndicate of British Army officers who owned the land for a time from 1936 – the estate produced its first harvest in 1859. Then, its annual output was just 25 gallons (100L); today the total is many thousands of times higher. One of Australia's best-selling white wines is made at the Houghton winery, sold domestically under the controversial title 'White Burgundy'.

At one time almost all of Western Australia's wine came from the Swan Valley, but it is now the regions further to the south which dominate its vinous output. That is not to say that the Swan Valley vineyards have disappeared (there has been only a slight decline), but more that the other regions have seen dramatic and rapid expansion.

The Swan Valley forms an enclave within the south-eastern corner of the wider Swan District, and is bisected by the Swan river itself. The vineyards which line the river are capable of producing high yields, with the intense heat and sunshine creating wines characterized by fullness of body rather than complexity and refinement. It is logical, then, that the region specialized in fortified wines for its first 100 years; the appetite which Australia showed for these wines suited Swan Valley's growing conditions perfectly. The climate here is officially categorized as being of hot mediterranean type, with a hot, dry harvest season, low humidity and intense, long-lasting summer sunshine. Only the prevailing south-westerly breezes blowing in from the Indian Ocean offer any relief from the summer heat. These sea breezes have become a famous feature of the local climate and have earned the collective nickname 'The Fremantle Doctor'.

As in the Swan's younger, smaller cousin Peel, just to the south, Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay are used here to make rich white wines, often aged in oak. Verdelho is emerging as a popular variety, too, as it is in many parts of Australia – particularly on the other side of the continent in coastal New South Wales. In terms of red wine styles, the Swan District is a classic Western Australian wine region, using Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon to generate powerful table wines and ever-decreasing quantities of fortified wines.