Australian Wine Sales Down

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 6th 2006 at 7:05AM

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.

Tags: australia, australian wine, cockatoo ridge, shiraz, syrah, vines, vineyards, wine, wine consumption, wine facts, wine surplus