About the Australian wine industry

July 14, 2011

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Australian wine has won an international reputation for quality and value. Australian wines have taken key international awards, competing favourably against longer-established national wine industries. Innovative Australian winemakers are sought internationally for their expertise.

Australia produces a full range of favoured wine styles, from full-bodied reds and deep, fruity whites through to sparkling, dessert and fortified styles. Prized Australian bottlings grace the menus of many of the world’s leading restaurants, while popular varietal and blended wines compete on the shelves of wine shops and supermarkets in over 80 countries around the world.

In global terms, Australia was ranked sixth in the list of world wine producers in 2005, producing 1.4 billion litres of wine. Australia is consistently one of the top 10 wine-producing countries in the world. Being such a large country with almost every climate and soil type, Australia is one of the few wine producers to make every one of the major wine styles.

The Australian wine scene

Wine grape growing and winemaking are carried out in each of the six states and two mainland territories of Australia. The principal production areas are located in the south-east quarter of the Australian continent, in the states of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.

Wineries in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, in the Hunter River region north of Sydney in New South Wales and in Victoria played a major role in the development of the industry and continue to be important sources of fine wines. However, wine is produced in over 60 regions, reflecting the wide range of climates and soil types that exist across the continent. These areas include Mudgee, the Murrumbidgee River and Murray River valleys (New South Wales); the Southern Vales, Clare Valley and Riverland (South Australia); and Rutherglen and the Yarra Valley (Victoria). The states of Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland have smaller wine industries, which have grown rapidly in volume, quality and reputation. The region near Australia’s national capital, Canberra, has a recognised cool-climate wine industry.

Australian wine is made using a generous range of grape varieties. In 2006–07, shiraz was the most-produced variety, followed by chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. Premium white varieties other than chardonnay include semillon, riesling and sauvignon blanc. The main red wine varieties, other than shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, are merlot, grenache and pinot noir.

Wine is very much a part of Australian life, closely associated with both business and leisure. Wine consumption is often linked to the country’s outdoor-oriented lifestyle as well as to the cosmopolitan, urban way of life of the bulk of the Australian population.

Wine festivals, where local food and wine can be sampled, are a feature of cultural life in the major wine-producing regions of Australia. They draw many Australian holiday-makers and international visitors each year. The largest such festival is the biennial Tasting Australia, which takes place in South Australia.

The Australian wine story

The first vines arrived with the first European settlers in Australia in 1788. Initially wines were produced in the coastal region around the fledgling settlement of Sydney. John Macarthur established the earliest commercial vineyard.

In 1822, Gregory Blaxland shipped 136 litres of wine to London, where it was awarded the silver medal by the forerunner of the Royal Society of Arts. Five years later, a larger shipment of Blaxland’s wine won the gold Ceres medal.

The planting of vines accompanied the spread of European settlement across the Australian continent, and by the beginning of the 20th century Australia was exporting some 4.5 million litres of mainly full-bodied dry red wines to the United Kingdom.

The end of the Second World War saw a rapid influx of migrants from Europe, who brought with them a strong culture related to wine. This provided an important impetus to the Australian wine industry.

However, it was the period from 1996 to 2007 that saw spectacular growth in exports, following rapidly increasing appreciation of Australian wines overseas. Major wine producers from abroad have invested in Australian wineries, and Australian companies have taken controlling interests in wineries in countries such as France and Chile.

Australia has some of the oldest grapevines in the world. Many of Europe’s established vineyards were destroyed by disease in the 1800s, and only the vines brought to Australia survived. In order to preserve these, Australian viticulturalists developed new vine management techniques, some of which are now used throughout the world. Australians have also invented ways to produce wines using fewer chemicals, and Australia is the home of the wine cask.

The wine economy

In 2006–07, sales of Australian wine totalled approximately 1.23 billion litres: 449 million litres were sold domestically and 786 million litres were exported. Australian wine exports were worth $2.87 billion, which represented an increase of 4.4 per cent over the previous year.

Australia’s largest wine export market in 2006–07 was the United Kingdom (269 million litres, worth $977 million), closely followed by the United States (215 million litres, worth $856 million). Other leading destinations for Australian wines included Canada, Germany and New Zealand.

Wine production is a significant industry in Australia. It directly employs 28 000 people in both winemaking and grape growing (2006 Census) and generates related employment in the retail, wholesale and hospitality industries.

Tourism adds another dimension to wine’s importance in Australia. International and domestic tourism related to the wine industry accounts for an important share of Australia’s export earnings, employment and taxation income.

In 2006–07, the industry crushed 1.39 million tonnes of grapes to make 955 million litres of beverage wine. In 2007, the total wine grape vineyard area reached 163 951 hectares of bearing vines, and there were a further 9825 hectares of non-bearing vines. The area of bearing vines has more than doubled since 1996–97.

In 2006–07, the domestic market accounted for 36 per cent of total sales of Australian wine by volume. Table wines made up 84.9 per cent of local wine consumption, sparkling wines accounted for 8.8 per cent and fortified wines for 3.8 per cent

SOURCE: http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/wine.html

Clark Wine Center was built in 2003 by Hong Kong-based Yats International Leisure Philippines to become the largest wine shop in Philippines supplying Asia’s wine lovers with fine vintage wines at attractive prices. Today, this wine shop in Clark Philippines offers over 2000 selections of fine wines from all major wine regions in the world. As a leading wine supplier in Philippines, Pampanga’s Clark Wine Center offers an incomparable breadth of vintages, wines from back vintages spanning over 50 years. Clark Wine Center is located in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to Angeles City, just 25 minutes from Subic and 45 minutes from Manila.

Wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Alsace, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Chile and Argentina etc. are well represented in this Clark Wine Shop.

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