The amount of wine bought at retail by Australians has shown the first decline in a Moving Annual Total (MAT) basis for ‘many, years’, according to the Liquorland’s annual Insight report into the Australian wine market. The report suggests that the decline may be due in part to the fall in sales of imported wines, while it also recognises that pre-mixed (with spirit) drinks might have eaten into the sales of cheaper wines. If this is the case, the wine industry has to recover lost ground with the so-called Generation-X consumers. Meantime, there has been a gradual movement over the last five years away from cheaper generic wine casks towards ‘premium’ or ‘varietal’ casks. Wine casks have recovered ground over the last year and now account for 50.2% of Australia’s domestic wine sales. Cheaper sparkling wines under $5 per bottle have grown over the last five years by 15%, while sales of sparkling wines above $35 have declined by 20.3% over the same period. Over the year to September 2001 there has been a strong movement from bottled white wines priced between $5-8 per bottle up to the $8-12 level, ‘driven largely by the success of emerging chardonnay brands like McWilliams Hanwood, De Bortoli Windy Peak, Goundrey Unwooded and Jacob’s Creek Reserve’. People are clearly spending up on white wines, as revealed by respective increases in sales of 12.8%, 27.9% and 16.5% in the $12-18, $18-25 and over $25 categories. Despite people’s apparent tiredness of the wine, Chardonnay managed a small increase over the year to account for 43.5% of white wine sales. Verdelho and sauvignon blanc sales also increased by around 30% and 20% respectively. As far as red wine sales go, the only category to lose ground over the last year was the $8-12 bracket, with strong growth recorded in each of the more expensive categories. Shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and blends of these varieties accounted for 72.8% of all bottled red purchased across Liquorland’s 525 stores and 18 hotels. Merlot’s sales increased by nearly 50% to a level of 6.6% of all red wine sales. Sales of grenache increased by around 25%, while pinot noir stepped backwards for the second year running, this time by 4%. New seasonally adjusted data from the ABS shows that domestic sales of Australian wine rose 0.5% to 32.56 million litres in October 2001 from the previous month. The following table presents seasonally adjusted domestic wine sales and original data for exports in thousand litres. Interesting, isn’t it, to note the extent to which export sales have leapfrogged domestic sales over the last twelve months?
