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 producers by sales of branded wine
• The top wine producers by vineyard hectareage
• The largest wine processing facilities

Number of Australian wine producers

This edition of the Wine Industry Directory lists 2,299 companies who commercially sell their wine plus four major wine groups (See Table), a net gain of 153 producers since the previous edition (2,146). The rate of growth increased slightly in 2007, 7.1% compared with 6.1% growth in the previous year. In the past 10 years, the Directory has seen an average net gain of 130 wine producers per year. The number of wine producers listed has more than doubled since 1998 when there were 998 producers recorded.

Victorian wine producers grew by 9.4% in 2007 to 687, giving Victoria the greatest number of wine producers, with net growth of 59 companies listed in the 2008 Directory (See Table). South Australia added 44 producers (7.8%) and totals 607 producers while Tasmania added nine producers (11.1%) to its total and now lists 90 wine producers. Queensland and the Northern Territory recorded negative growth, dropping a net of two producers and one producer over the year, respectively.

The greatest number of producers (528) crush between 20 and 49 tonnes (See Tables), with 55.6% of all producers in the Directory crushing less than 50 tonnes of grapes. Data provided to the 2008 Directory shows growth at the higher-end of the market, with 36 producers listed crushing between 2,500 and 4,999 tonnes (a net gain of 6 or 20%) and 15 producers listed crushing between 10,000 and 19,999 tonnes (a net gain of 4 or 36.4% on data supplied for tonnages to the 2007 Directory).

The majority of wine companies (65.5%) were established after 1990 (See Table) yet several wine companies and brands have been in business for 150 years or longer (See Table).

Just over 70% of all companies have a cellar door; in Queensland 90.7% of its wineries have cellar doors while South Australia has the lowest at 53.7% (See Table).

Nearly all wine companies produce table wine while less than 30% produce fortified wine (See Table). The percentage of companies producing sparkling wine has now risen above 30%. There are 94 Australian producers (4.1%) going green, producing organic wine to certified standards. 80.4% of companies now have a website, compared with 58% five years ago. Half of all wine companies export wine with the USA and the UK the top two destination markets for Australian producers. 30.1% of all producers who export, export to the UK, while 30.6% of exporters send wine to the USA. A total of 398 producers indicate they export to China (17.3%), this is up from 165 producers exporting to China in 2005, or 8.7%.

Australian wine producers advised the Directory they used 134 winegrape varieties to produce straight varietal or blended wines (See Table). Shiraz is the most common variety with more than 81% of producers listing it, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon with 71% and Chardonnay with 70%. Five years ago, 75% of producers listed Shiraz to produce straight varietal or blended wines. Shiraz has shown most growth during the five-year period from 2003 to 2008, and this growth seems to have occurred at the expense of other red varieties, which have all tended to decline: Merlot, 59.2% in 2003, 57.4 in 2008; Cabernet Sauvignon 75.8% in 2003; 71.8% in 2008 and Pinot Noir, 41.8% in 2003 and 38.4% in 2008. Of white varieties: in 2003, 72.4% of producers listed Chardonnay, 70% in 2008; 39% listed Semillon, 34.8% in 2008; and 30.8% listed Riesling, 29.1% in 2008. Growth has occurred in Sauvignon Blanc, 36.2% in 2003 and 41.4% in 2008; and in Pinot Gris which was listed by 128 producers as a variety they produced or blended (7.9%) in 2003 and in this year’s data 328 producers list Pinot Gris (14.3%).

The top five wine companies accounted for about 61% of the national crush in 2007 while the top 20 companies account for almost 85%, up from 78% in 2006 (See Table).

Foster’s Group and Hardy Wine Company alone account for about 45% of all branded wine sales while the top 22 account for 90% of total sales. The remaining 2,279 producers compete for 10% of total sales of branded, bottled wine (See Table).

Foster’s Wines is the largest wine producer by vineyard hectareage (See Table). Foster’s, Hardy, McWilliams, FABAL and Yalumba were amongst the few top 20 producers to increase their vineyard plantings in 2007.

The Hardy Wine Company’s Berri Estates Winery remains the country’s largest wine processing facility (See Table).

Source: The Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory, 2008