The Market: Australia’s first vineyards were planted in 1778 in a small area near what is now the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and over the past 40 years the modern wine industry has grown to encompass 63 designated wine regions totalling 170,000 hectares. Current export figures place Australia as the forth largest exporter of wine in the world, selling to more than 100 countries and contributing $5.5 billion to the nation’s economy. The UK continues to be the largest purchaser of Australian wine and as its most important market imported 269 million litres of wine last year.

2007 however saw mixed results for the Australian wine industry as production dropped by a massive 32% on “normal” years, whist at the same time sales increased. This effectively has wiped out the wine glut of recent years putting pressure on supply, particularly at the entry level. Drought conditions in the country are among the main causes for the fall in supply, although frost and fires also contributed to smaller grape volumes of the 2007 vintage. The 2008 vintage crush looks like being of similar if not slightly smaller size than 2007 as the drought continues.

The Regions: The UK wine drinker continues to demand the fruit forward easy drinking styles which made Oz famous, and so we are constantly sourcing the best quality wines across South Eastern Australia. In recent years however there has been ever increasing exploration of the regionality and diversity available from this cast country’s wine offering, with particular interest in the cooler regions, and our portfolio includes producers located across the continent in all of the key areas of production.

With agencies from the cool, wild Tasmania, to the oldest Australian Shiraz vines in the Barossa, across to Western Australia and many other regions in between, we can supply you with whatever you need for your Australian drinking.