Red Wine Australian-Style
As a wine producer, Australia favors red wine over white. However, as a consumer of wine, Australia continues to be white wine country.
Red wine grapes are more widely grown in Australia than white wine grapes, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2005.
Of the total 166,665 hectares cultivated for wine in Australia, 58.8% was dedicated to red wine grapes compared to 41.2% for white wine grapes in 2005. While the number of hectares for red wine dropped slightly from 59.9% in 2004, it is still considerably more than its 42.7% share in 1997 when white wine grapes were more popular.
In terms of production, Australia produced significantly more red wine grapes than white in 2005, 1,009,983 tonnes vs. 808,443 tonnes, respectively.
Exports
While bottled white wine shipments exceeded bottled red wine shipments in terms of increments in 2005, 9.9 million litres vs. 8.6 million litres, this has not been the trend over the last decade. In the last 10 years, the increment in red bulk shipments exceeded that of white, 21 ML vs. 15 ML.Red wine continues to be the dominant export product as well. Red bottled wine (334 ML) comprised 50% of all still wine shipments in 2005. Bottled white wine (184 ML) accounted for 27% of total wine exports followed by 14% of bulk red exports (97 ML) and 8% of bulk white exports (56 ML).
Domestic Sales
Domestic sales of red wine in bottles were nearly equal to white wine bottle sales in 2005, 49.6% vs. 50.4%. During that period, total sales of red wine in bottles rose by 10% compared to the 6.3% increase in white wine in bottles.Of the total 430.1 ML domestic sales in 2005, table wines accounted for 84.8% of total sales, and this is where white wine showed its strength. White table wines comprised 57.4% of total domestic table wine sales, which is actually down from their 81.7% share in 1986-87. In terms of growth, red table wine sales increased by 5.7% in 2005 compared to just 0.6% growth in white table wine sales.
Red Wine Varieties
Shiraz is Australia’s most widely planted red wine grape variety with 1,523 hectares in 2005. However, the white wine Chardonnay actually had more plantings (2,162 hectares) than Shiraz that year, but this is a fairly recent trend. In 2001, Shiraz plantings were three times more than plantings of Chardonnay.Among red varieties, Shiraz was by far the most popular variety among wine producers, accounting for 64.1% of total red wine grape varieties planted in 2005. It was followed by Cabernet Sauvignon (255 hectares), Merlot (147 hectares), Pinot Noir (115 hectares), Grenache (48 hectares), Mataro (24 hectares), Durlf (16 hectares), Tarrango (15 hectares) and Petit Verdot (15 hectares).
While Cabernet Sauvignon continued to be the second most popular red wine variety behind Shiraz, the number of yearly Cabernet Sauvignon plantings continued to drop annually. It was down to 255 hectares in 2005 from 2,962 hectares in 2000.
And last, but by no means least, there's the divine Cabernet Merlot, which is renowned as one of the classic varietal combinations in the world of wine. It first gained fame in the Medoc region of Bordeaux in France, and its popularity spread quickly to Australia, California and to the other major wine producing countries.
Outlook
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) believes that total wine grape production will increase to 1.93 million tonnes in 2006–07. ABARE forecasts that the production of premium red grapes will increase by 2.5% between 2004–05 and 2006–07 to 974,000 tonnes.