Is Australia losing its taste for the fruit of the vine? Australian wine has been grabbing a larger share of the
worldwide market over the past few years but sales of wine in Australia
are down
4.2 percent from last year. Red and rose wine sales were off 9.3 percent. The news was even worse for brandy, down
44.7 percent, and fortified wines, down 18.4 percent. Also with wine consumption down through much of Europe and wine
surplus issues rising, the tide seems to be turning for the Australian wine industry in general. The Barossa winemaker
Cockatoo Ridge saw profits fall 42 percent in the second half of the year and their chief exec, Ivan Limb was quoted in
the
The Advertiser
as saying these are tight times for winemakers.
