There was standing room only - and not much of that - at Sydney's InterContinental Hotel when Wyndham Estate held an "invitation only" wine tasting for members of the Foreign Correspondents' Association.

No doubt the historic tasting room, neatly hidden behind the hotel's famous Café Opera restaurant, has seen many such gatherings over the years.

On this occasion, each FCA member was seated before an array of wine glasses arranged on a numbered sheet of paper - to ensure that wines were tasted in the appropriate order.

Before the serious business of sniffing and slurping began, our host Brett McKinnon (Wyndham Estate's chief winemaker) provided an overview of the company. From its small beginnings in the Hunter Valley, the estate has grown into one of Australia's wine titans. Since 1990 the company has been part of the Orlando Wyndham conglomerate (other labels include Jacobs Creek, Poets Corner and Gramps), Australia's third largest wine producer. Today, Wyndham Estate wines are exported to 47 countries. Total exports exceed one million cases each year.

As Brett explained the original Hunter Valley vineyard was started by the English settler George Wyndham in 1828 - in fact, he said, most of Australia's leading wineries were begun by people from the British Isles and not, as is popularly thought, German or Italian settlers.

This came as quite a shock to some of our German and French connoisseurs who were clearly uncomfortable with the idea of an "English winemaker" receiving international praise.

Although Wyndham Estate is now owned by the giant Pernod Ricard drinks empire of France, the concept of a global market is hardly a novel one in the Hunter Valley: George Wyndham began exporting wine to England and India in the 1860s, and winning prizes in Bordeaux.

Over the years Wyndham Estate has considerably expanded its plantings in both the Hunter Valley and Mudgee. It currently has 600 hectares of planted vineyard and a grape crush of 10,000 tonnes. A new high-tech winery was built in 1988.

According to Brett the secret of Wyndham Estate's longevity and continued high reputation was its willingness to seek out the best fruit available, regardless of the region.

"The Wyndham Estate winemaking philosophy is all about producing wines which are true to variety, offer exceptional flavours and outstanding value," he said.

Several of the more experienced European tasters present were clearly upset by the idea of blending different wines from distinct regions, and pressed Brett on this point.

Having worked extensively in California, Germany and Italy Brett explained that far from being revolutionary, such winemaking techniques were now widely used around the world. European wine-makers were following Australia's lead in this, and many other areas, he said.

While some of the traditionalists in the room - those who remain wedded to the so-called appellation controlee system -- remained suspicious, even they were won over by the soft palate flavours of the wines tasted; and by Brett's suggestion that they were designed for immediate consumption (none require cellaring for longer than five years).

Sadly, your correspondent had to leave the event sooner than he would have liked, but the growing ranks of empty bottles suggested that Wyndham Estate's world-beating shiraz, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and other varieties were indeed winning over some more converts. Salut!

Our thanks to Tim Sauer from Orlando Wyndham for organising this event, and the staff at the InterContinental for ensuring it all ran so smoothly.