Now that the grapes are in and weighed, the total size of the Australian 2008 grape harvest is much bigger than was originally feared – at 1.83 million tonnes almost double some early predictions. As the table below shows, this brings the grape harvest almost back up to the record levels of 2004-2006. As shown below, the really serious shortage has been of 2007 red wines; supplies of white wine grapes were hardly affected by the drought that plagued last year's grape harvest.
Red White Total
(tonnes) (m tonnes)
2001 802 909 621 040 1.42
2002 909 584 696 262 1.60
2003 825 000 573 528 1.40
2004 1,140 727 776 511 1.92
2005 1, 076 474 849 016 1.93
2006 1, 055 646 845 914 1.90
2007 679 838 717 512 1.40
2008 985 765 846 664 1.83
(2008 totals provisional)
“The figure of 1.83 million tonnes represents a resounding success in a challenging year, and is testament to the resilience and adaptive nature of our regional growers and wineries,” commented Stephen Strachan, chief executive of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, adding robustly, “a harvest such as this should dispel any fears that we are unable to supply our domestic and international markets with the volume of quality Australian wine required.
“However, with increasing pressure around water shortages, a strong Australian dollar, and a tough international market, we can no longer compete on price alone. And a high figure such as this raises some concerns regarding the future sustainability of the lower-priced sector of our industry.
“This year most branded wine producers acted sustainably by only purchasing the volume of grapes needed to meet their existing branded requirements, no-one wants to return to an oversupply situation. However this large harvest underlines the fact that structural change is required in some parts of the wine industry if they are to have a sustainable future.”
Red grapes accounted for 53% of the total intake in 2008 with a rise of 45% over 2007, while white grapes, representing 47% of the crush, recorded a much smaller volume increase of 18%. Aromatic varieties continue to increase in popularity, with Pinot Noir intake rising 63% to just over 47,000 tonnes (2.6% of the total crush) and Sauvignon Blanc intake rising 74% to over 66,000 tonnes (3.6% of the total crush).
18 Jun - See this article in The Australian on how Australia's hard-pressed grape growers are coping.