There’s always a corollary to any story. Having recently reported on this site that the newly-emergent Yellow Tail brand is now the 9th largest imported wine brand of any nationality in the US, comes news that growers in California’s Central Valley region are likely to have ripped out 70,000 acres of vines by the end of 2003. The Central Valley may be the bargain basement of American viticulture, but that’s a vast area of vineyard, perhaps larger than any existing Australian wine region. The forces that have led to this very dramatic scenario include a slowing of growth in overall US wine sales, an oversupply of fruit and a growing international presence in the US market. The latter is perhaps likely to cause some thinking in Washington, especially since sales of Australian wine to the US increased by 64% to A$741 million in 2002. Australians might well be advised to remain vigilant in their efforts to prevent the US from imposing the sort of protective restrictions on the free trade of wine into that country that it has already subjected to several major Australian agricultural industries. With 32% of our total export sales of wine, the US already accounts for a significant number of the eggs in our basket.
