Wine Industry Statistics - Viticulture

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Viticultural Information

Vineyard Area

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that 172,676 hectares are cultivated for wine, drying and tablegrapes in Australia (Table 1) . Of this amount 166,197 hectares are now bearing fruit, an increase of 3.8% on 2006-07. The area of non-bearing grapes fell 34.1% in 2008 to 6,479ha from 9,825ha in 2007. This represents a fall in total area of 0.6% (1,100 hectares) from 2007 and is the first drop recorded by the ABS in total vineyard area since 2003.

South Australia with 73,155ha under vine has the largest area of vineyards accounting for 42.4% of the national total vineyard area. New South Wales follows with 43,574ha (25.2% of the total) then Victoria with 37,472ha (21.7% of the total vineyard area). There were nett decreases in the area under vine in South Australia (-0.3%), Victoria (-3.0%) and New South Wales (-0.4%). Western Australia (2.6%), Queensland (2.6%) and Tasmania (5.1%) all increased their area under vine. There are now 1,507ha of vines planted in Tasmania.

New plantings of vines during 2008 declined by 40.6% with 2,190ha of new vines planted compared with 2007 when 3,684ha were planted (Table 2) . There were big drops in plantings across the major wine-producing states led by New South Wales where new plantings declined by 65% to 432ha, Western Australia where new plantings dropped 56% to 183ha and South Australia where new plantings declined 29.4% to 887ha. Only Tasmania increased new plantings in 2008, from 72ha in 2007 to 91ha in 2008, growth of 26.4%.

According to ABS data, 1,229ha of white winegrapes were planted in 2008, accounting for 56.1% of new plantings, compared with 961ha for red varieties (43.9%) (Table 3) .

Of white varieties, 396ha of Sauvignon Blanc was planted which comprised 32.2% of all new white varieties planted and 18% of total plantings. However, the total of Sauvignon Blanc new plantings decreased by 28% on 2007 when 507ha were planted. Chardonnay represented the second most-planted white variety with 198ha going into the ground in 2008 verses 322ha in 2007. In comparison, it is interesting to look back just three years to 2005 when 2,162ha of Chardonnay were planted in Australian vineyards. While the rate of Pinot Gris new plantings also declined verses 2007, this variety was still the third most-planted white variety of 2008, comprising 15.6% of whites planted and 8.8% of total plantings.

Of 961ha of red vines planted in 2008, Shiraz led the way with 447ha planted, comprising 46.5% of new red varieties and 20.4% of the total plantings. As with white varieties, however, the overall rate of planting of reds has decreased. In 2007, 669ha of Shiraz were planted, a 49.7% drop verses 2008. Three years ago in 2005, 1,523ha of Shiraz were planted in Australian vineyards.

Pinot Noir was one variety to buck the trend with more Pinot Noir being planted in 2008 (143ha) than in 2007 (108ha), an increase of 24.5%, which made Pinot Noir the second most-planted red variety of 2008. Water Use in Vineyards

The ABS estimates 6,990 vineyards were irrigated in 2008. This was 88.3% of the total number of vineyards in Australia (7915). The area of grapevines irrigated was 161,545ha while the quantity of water used for irrigation of grapevines was 520,393ML.

The average usage of water in 2008 was 3.2 megalitres per hectare, down slightly from 3.3ML/ha in 2007. The three largest wine-growing States all reduced or maintained their average water consumption from 2007. Victoria averaged 4.1ML in 2008 (4.8ML/ha in 2007); New South Wales 3.8ML/ha (4ML/ha in 2007) and South Australia 2.7ML/ha which was the same as 2007.

The most common watering method continues to be drip or micro spray with 131,000ha or 81% of the total hectares irrigated in this way. There were 60,113ha of vineyard land watered with drip or micro spray in South Australia. In Victoria, 25.4% of irrigated vineyards are irrigated using spray (excluding micro-spray). In New South Wales, 16.8% of their total area is irrigated by furrow or flood which remains the third most-common method of watering, however this figure is reducing, from 20.7% of NSW total area in 2007.

Most vineyards (3,596) used surface water from either State-owned or private irrigation schemes for their major source of water. Nationally, the next most important water source for vineyards was underground water supply (1,465).

Grape Production

The ABS reported 1,837,034 tonnes of grapes were harvested for winemaking purposes in 2008 (Table 4) which was an increase of 34% on the severely drought-affected 2007 vintage when 1,370,690 tonnes of grapes were harvested. Red grapes comprised 984,121 tonnes and white grapes comprised 852,913 tonnes. The ABS said harvest of grapes for drying decreased by 30.7% to 56,000 tonnes while the harvest of tablegrapes dropped 19.2% to 63,621 tonnes harvested.

All states increased tonnages of grapes harvested in a range of 20.4% in Western Australia through to a whopping 112.5% increase in Tasmania. South Australia harvested 809,113 tonnes, 44% of the national total, an increase of 38.7% from 2007. Tasmania had a 112.5% increase in grapes harvested, from 5,058 tonnes in 2007 to 10,749 tonnes in 2008.

The reasons behind reduced harvests throughout the eastern states in 2007 were well documented, led by drought and scarcity of water for irrigation purposes, plus the affects of frost and bushfires in

some areas. Even though drought still plagued much of the eastern states in 2007-08, the 2008 vintage rebounded and at the eventual 1.83MT was above most preliminary industry forecasts.

Grape Varieties

According to the ABS, white winegrapes comprise 72,193ha (41.5%) of Australian vineyard varieties in 2007-08 (Table 5) . This represented a slight reduction in percentage terms, from 42.1% in 2006-07. Chardonnay declined 1.8% from 32,151 in 2007 to 31,564ha in 2008 although it still remains the most widely planted white winegrape variety accounting for 43.7% of all white winegrapes by vineyard areas (bearing and non-bearing), and for 18.2% of the total plantings in Australia. There was a considerable increase in plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, up 15.5% to 6,404ha, now 8.9% of the total white varieties. Pinot Gris continues to grow though not at the rapid pace of 2006-2007. In 2008, Pinot Gris plantings grew at a more leisurely 14.8%. There are now 2,835ha of Pinot Gris planted in Australia. Of minor varieties, both Rousanne (19%) and Marsanne (6.5%) increased the area planted.

Red winegrape plantings dropped slightly from 100,623ha in 2007 to 100,482ha in 2008. The percentage of red winegrapes in the national total was 57.8% in 2008. Shiraz, with 43,977ha remains the most widely planted red variety comprising 43.8% of all vineyard area of red winegrapes and 25.3% of the national winegrape plantings. Some lesser-known red varieties recorded substantial increases in the period with Nebiollo showing a 16.7% increase to 105ha planted and Cabernet Franc up 14.4% to 693ha planted. There was a small decline of 1.3% in the area of Cabernet Sauvignon and decline of 0.2% in Merlot plantings versus 2007.