Australian White Wine
The year 2005 may go down in Australia’s wine history as the year of white wine's resurgence.
While there were more red wine grapes (1,009,983 tonnes) produced in 2005 compared to white wine grapes (808,443 tonnes), white wine grapes far outweighed red wine grapes in terms of new plantings, 61.0% vs. 39.0%.
Industry observers say this indicates an end to the decade-long boom in red wine.
Red wine may still be the dominant wine in terms of sheer numbers (2005 production red wine vs. white wine: 1,009,983 tonnes vs. 808,443 tonnes), white wine exhibited tremendous growth in 2005, reminiscent of its stature as the dominant wine variety during the early and mid-nineties.
In 1997, white wine grapes dominated Australian wine production with 57.3% of total wine vineyards nationwide dedicated to growing white wine grapes. However, beginning in 1998, red wine grapes emerged from the shadows to be the more popular wine variety for most of the last decade.
The year 2005 marked a reversal of sorts. Total land area devoted to growing red wine fell from 59.9% in 2004 to 58.8%, while land area devoted to white wine increased from 40.1% in 2004 to 41.2%.
White Wine Exports
The resurgence of white wine can be noted in exports as well. In the last decade, Australia’s wine producers had concentrated heavily on red wine but this trend was reversed in 2005. Around 9.9 million litres of bottled white wine were shipped to various international destinations in 2005 compared to 8.6 ML of bottled red wine shipments.In terms of bulk shipments, red wine still exceeded white, 21 ML vs. 15 ML. However, white wine is gaining in this area as well as white wine bulk shipments grew by 37% in 2005 vs. the 28% growth rate for bulk red during that time.
Domestic Sales
Domestic sales of white wine in bottles exceeded sales of red wine in bottles in 2005, 50.4% vs. 49.6%. In terms of growth, domestic sales of white wine in bottles increased by 6.3% in 2005 compared to 10% increase in red wine sales.Meanwhile, white table wines accounted for 57.4% of the total 430.1 ML table wine sales in Australia in 2005. Table wines accounted for 84.8% of all domestic sales in 2005.
White Wine Varieties
The white wine Chardonnay was the most widely planted wine grape variety in 2005 with 2,162 hectares. The year marked a resurgence in Chardonnay plantings which finally exceeded those of Shiraz plantings (1,523 hectares) in 2005. As recently as 2001, Shiraz plantings were triple those of Chardonnay plantings.The fastest growing wine variety is the white wine Pinot Gris, which grew by 204.0% in 2005.
Chardonnay accounted for 44.5% of all white wine grapes vineyard areas (bearing and non-bearing) followed by Sauvignon Blanc (472 hectares), Pinot Gris (228 hectares), Smillon (199 hectares), Riesling (125 hectares), Viognier (122 hectares), Muscat Gordo Blanco (84 hectares), Sultana (59 hectares) and Colombard 42 hectares).
Also popular is the range of Rose Wines - which are not "strictly" white wines, but because of the way in which we produce them, we consider them to be whites.
Outlook
The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) estimates that total wine grape production will increase to 1.93 million tonnes in 2006–07. ABARE forecasts that the production of premium white grapes will increase by 9.9% between 2004–05 and 2006–07 to 724,000 compared to the 2.5% increase in premium red grape production.