Major UK supermarket chain Tesco has been pleasantly surprised at the early consumer response to a six-month trial of wines sold in screwcaps it is conducting in conjunction with Southcorp Wines. Apparently both red and white screwcapped wines are being equally accepted by the marketplace. This news follows Southcorp’s recent decision to seal all its 2002 vintage rieslings under screwcaps. While Australia and the UK are the major markets for these wines, they will also be introduced on a smaller scale to the US, Canada, New Zealand and various Asian markets. Jeff Grosset, one of the wine industry’s most vociferous supporters of the screwcap concept, has also released his flagship Gaia 2000 red wine with a Stevin seal. With sales of A$ 188 million, Australian wine exports for the month of April 2002 were the second highest ever for a trading month. It also appears likely that for the first time ever, exports will exceed domestic sales by value on a year-end basis. Year-end exports to the US also reached A$ 500 million for the first time, exactly twelve months after reaching A$ 400 million. And, oddly enough, exactly 24 months after reaching A$ 300 million, as well as 36 months after scaling A$ 200 million. Present sales to the US are 60% by volume bottled red, 29% bottled white and 11% ‘other’. On the domestic front, annual sales to the end of March 2002 show an annual increase of 3% of Australian wine sales, plus a 5.6% increase in sales of imported wine. Wine importers might be interested in a 18.4% increase in value of wine imports over the same period. Suggests to me that to an increasing extent, premium wine buyers are choosing imported over Australian!
