Wine Industry Statistics - Wine Producers

Australian Wine Producers

• Number of Australian wine producers by state
• Number of Australian wine producers by tonnes crushed
• Number of Australian wine producers by tonnes crushed, by state
• Establishment dates of wine companies
• Australia's oldest wine companies or continuously operating brands
• Number of cellar doors by state and percent of state total
• The wine producers in numbers
• Australia's largest wine companies by winegrape intake
• Australia's largest wine companies by total wine production
• Australia's largest wine producers by sales of branded wine
• The top wine producers by vineyard hectareage
• The largest wine processing facilities

Wine Producers

This edition of the Wine Industry Directory lists 2,477 companies who commercially sell their wine (see table), a net gain of 57 producers and growth of 2.4% since the previous edition (2,420). The number of companies listed doubles every decade. The number of companies in 1990 (620) doubled by 2000 (1,197) which doubled again in 2010 (2,420). While the rate of growth is slowing, in the past 10 years the Directory has seen an average net gain of 116 wine producers per year.

South Australia recorded the highest net gain by adding 19 to their 2010 tally of 648 to reach 667 in 2011; Victoria grew 1.9% adding 14 producers to their 2010 tally of 724 to reach 738, giving Victoria the greatest number of wine producers listed in the 2011 Directory (see table). Tasmania added 6 producers (6.1%) and now has 104 companies while Western Australia added 10 to reach 382. NSW/ACT gained 8 while Queensland remained at 111 companies.

Nearly three quarters (72.9%) of the companies who provided tonnage figures crush less crush less than 100 tonnes (see table). This percentage has grown since 1998 when 65.9% crushed less than 100 tonnes. The greatest number of producers (527) crush between 20 and 49 tonnes. There was substantial growth (12.3%) in producers crushing less than 10 tonnes as 21 of the 57 new companies listed are in this category. Now 36.4% of all producers reporting tonnage figures crush less than 20 tonnes while 90.3% crush less than 500 tonnes.

Tasmania has the largest percentage of small wine companies crushing less than 500 tonnes with 93.3% of companies while South Australia has the lowest percentage under 500 tonnes with 80.7% (see table).

The majority of wine companies (70.2%) were established after 1990 (see table) yet several wine companies and brands have been in business for 150 years or longer (see table).

The number of wine companies with a cellar door rose from 1,647 in 2010 to 1,694 in 2011 (see table). All States showed a gain in number of cellar doors. Just under 70% of all companies have a cellar door. South Australia has the lowest percentage of wine companies with a cellar door at 54.7%, while Queensland has the highest percentage with 85.6% of its wine companies having cellar door facilities.

Nearly all wine companies produce table wine while less than 30% produce fortified wine (see table). The number of companies producing sparkling wine has been rising rapidly from 26.8% in 2004 to 36.3% now. There are 140 Australian producers (5.7%) going green, producing organic wine to certified standards up from 66 in the 2004 Directory. The 2010 Wine Industry Directory lists 1,241 producers that export wine, representing 50.1% of all producers.

Australian wine producers advised the Directory they used 139 winegrape varieties to produce straight varietal or blended wines (see table). Some of the new varieties entering the list are Aranel, Aucerot, Brachetto, Burger, Caverdella, Flora, Gruner Veltliner, Malian, and Nero d'Avola. Shiraz is the most common variety being made as a straight varietal wine or blended with 81% of producers listing it, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon (70.8%) and Chardonnay (68.6%). There are 33 new Sauvignon Blanc producers this year, up to 1,052.

Tempranillo continues to be one of the fastest growing major varieties. There were 286 producers indicating they made a straight or blended wine with Tempranillo in this edition of the Directory, up from 198 in 2008. Other varietals to show growth included Marsanne (+10%), Nebbiolo (+14%), Durif (+5%) and Zinfandel (+16%). Of the major varieties only Cabernet Franc (-1%) and Petit Verdot (-2%) showed reductions. Of the minor varieties, Vermentino (+58%), Fiano (+63%) and Arneis (+25%) show better than average growth.

The top five wine companies accounted for about 56% of the national crush in 2010 while the top 20 companies accounted for 80% (see table).

Accolade Wines and Treasury Wine Estates accounted for about 42% of the wine produced in 2010. Casella Wines remains as the largest family-owned wine company in Australia (see table).

Treasury Wine Estates and Accolade Wines alone account for about 45% of all branded wine sales while the top 20 account for around 90% of total sales (see table). The remaining 2,457 companies compete for about 10% of sales.

Treasury Wine Estates is the largest wine producer by vineyard area (see table). Casella's winery at Yenda has replaced Accolade Wines' Berri Estates Winery as the country's largest wine processing facility (see table).