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Most Australian wines, especially quality wines, are named after the grape variety from which they are made. Australia began to use variety names when these words were still obscure technical terms to Europeans. They also used European names to identify wine styles, so shelves displayed Coonawarra Claret and South Australian Chablis. Another naming convention, the use of "Bin" numbers to indicate a consistent style, survives. New laws and labelling agreements have clarified the situation.

Increasingly the name of the region, and sometimes of the company, is becoming more familiar. There are as many wine styles as producers, but the growing emphasis is on identifying the source of the grapes - down to named vineyards ("paddocks") - which means that the interplay between variety and terroir is coming to the fore.