The demise of the Australian wine industry? Part 1

I grew up in Australia, and got interested in wine in the late 1970s (see: Some personal anecdotes). The wine industry had boomed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and there was a vibrant industry for me to be interested in, along with a lot of other people. My local bottle shop (or liquor store / off-licence) started doing free tastings on Thursday evenings (late-night shopping night), and this grew into special organized (paid) tastings on weekends. There were also plenty of vineyards to visit (also for free!), as shown on this map.

So, it is very sad for me to hear about the current troubled state of the Australian wine industry — a country that is currently being disturbed by the global wine-industry downturn. It has not got to the end yet, but globally things are clearly going downhill in many ways, for the wine industry, as shown in this first graph.

However, the Australian wine industry has had its ups and downs before, as I have written about in previous posts, and as shown in the next graph (of Australian wine exports). At the end of this post is a categorized list of my previous posts about Australia. After this week’s look at the past, next week, in Part 2, I will summarize the current state of affairs, according to the media.

As you can see, the previous export trend has generally been upwards, exactly as you would expect from any producer gradually establishing itself on the global stage. However, there were occasional multiple-year downturns along the way. In particular, there was a distinct downturn from 2005—2013, occasioned by a saturation of the world market for cheap Australian wine (as discussed in my post: The rise, rise, fall and rise of Australian wine). Since then, the Australian focus has moved more towards the middle of the global market, with much better financial results.

Well, the upturn in export value over the past decade (ie. since 2013) has recently turned into a downturn again, with obvious consequences for the Australian wine industry as a whole. I will discuss this next week. Predictions of the demise are premature, but problems clearly exist.

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Previous posts, in time order (within groups):

Vineyards

• Why lionize winemakers but not viticulturists?
• Welcome to the wine regions of Australia
• Mapping an entire continent's vineyards

Wineries

• Classification of the cellaring wines of Australia
• The Real top wineries of Australia

Companies

• Yellow Tail and Casella Wines
• Keeping the family wine business is often hard
• Australia's biggest wine companies
• Why beer companies should never buy wine companies

Wine price

• Exponential increase in wine prices (1980-2000)
• Wine prices 2000-2020

Wines / marketing

• What are Australia's most collected wines?
• Younger U.S. consumers prefer Australasian wine
• Introducing the "Responsible Alcohol Marketing Scheme"
• Australia versus New Zealand wine exports
• Australia and New Zealand wine comparisons
• How did Australian beer slobs become wine drinkers?
• This is how Australians market wine (you may be surprised)

Exports

• Getting the question right
• The rise, rise, fall and rise of Australian wine
• Australian bulk wine exports are economically inefficient
• Can you tell the difference between Australia and New Zealand (wine)?