Wine Industry Statistics - Viticulture

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Viticultural Information

Vineyard Area

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates that 173,776 hectares are cultivated for wine, drying and table grapes in Australia (See Table). Of this amount 163,951 hectares are now bearing fruit, an increase of 3.7% on 2005-06. The area of non-bearing grapes fell 7.5% in 2007 to 9825ha from 10,642ha in 2006. The net increase in area planted under vines for 2006-07 was 477ha, well down on the 1103ha recorded in 2005-06.

South Australia remains the State with the largest area of vineyards accounting for 42.2% of the national total vineyard area. The total area of vines increased in all States with the exception of Victoria (-0.8%). In 2005-06, New South Wales added 920ha, or 2.3% to its vineyard area and this solid growth continued in 2006-07. New South Wales now comfortably sits in second place behind South Australia in terms of area of vineyards, adding 8.8%, or 3530ha of vines in 06-07. New South Wales has 25.2% of the national vineyard plantings with Victoria slipping to 22.2% of the national total. Western Australian vineyard area is also growing, up 6.6%, while Queensland and Tasmania added 18.4% and 14.4% respectively.

New plantings of vines during 2007 declined by 4.5% with 3684ha of new vines planted (See Table). This represents just 33.2% of the total of new vines planted when compared with 2000 when 11,468ha of vines went in the ground. Queensland showed a dramatic 464.7% increase in new plantings and both South Australia (5.9%) and Western Australia (12.4%) increased new plantings when compared with 2006 levels. New South Wales and Victoria planted fewer vines in comparison with the previous year and plantings in Tasmania were down 31.4%.

According to ABS data, 2254ha of white winegrapes were planted in 2007, accounting for 61.2% of new plantings, compared with 1430ha (38.8%) for reds (See Table). Of white varieties, Sauvignon Blanc was the most planted, comprising 22.5% of all new white varieties planted and 13.8% of total plantings. Growth in Sauvignon Blanc new plantings increased by 50.9% on 2006. While the rate of Pinot Gris new plantings declined verses 2006, this variety was still the second most-planted white variety of 2007, comprising 18.3% of whites planted and 11.2% of total plantings. While just 322ha of Chardonnay were planted in 2007, down from 737 planted in 2006, Chardonnay still represented 14.3% of white plantings and 8.7% of the total hectares planted in 2007.

Of 1430ha of red vines planted in 2007, Shiraz led the way with 669ha planted, comprising 46.8% of new red varieties and 18.2% of the total plantings. Cabernet Sauvignon showed strong growth with new plantings increasing from 70ha in 2006 to 114ha in 2007, representing 8% of new red plantings. Merlot was the second most-planted red winegrape, representing 17.5% of red varieties planted, with 250ha going into the ground.

It is interesting to look at Wine Industry Directory data of 1997 where a total of 7825ha of vines were planted: 2788ha of whites and 5037ha of reds. A decade ago, 1968ha of Shiraz were planted, 1692ha of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1198ha of Chardonnay.

Water Use In Vineyards

The ABS estimates 6,734 vineyards were irrigated in 2007. This was 83.7% of the total number of vineyards in Australia (8041). The area of grapevines irrigated was 157,401ha. The average usage of water was 3.4 megalitres per hectare, down from 3.66ML/ha in 2006. The three largest wine-growing States all reduced their average water consumption from 2006. Victoria averaged 4.8ML in 2007 (5.10ML/ha in 2006); New South Wales 4.0ML/ha (4.38ML/ha in 2006) and South Australia 2.7ML/ha (2.91ML/ha in 2006).

The most common watering method continues to be drip or micro spray with 123,497ha or 78.5% of the total hectares irrigated in this way. There were 58,034ha of vineyard land watered with drip or micro spray in South Australia. In Victoria, 30.3% of irrigated vineyards are irrigated using spray (excluding micro-spray). In New South Wales, 20.7% of their total area is irrigated by furrow or flood which remains the third most-common method of watering.

Most vineyards (93,739ha) 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 (37,496ha) followed by other surface water (25,528ha).

Grape Production

The ABS reported 1,370,690 tonnes of grapes were harvested for winemaking purposes in 2007 (See Table) which was a decrease of 23.1% on 2006. (ABS figures for winegrape production are less than the figures for grapes crushed due to differences in the data collection methodologies). Red winegrape harvest totalled 669,042 tonnes and whites totalled 701,649. The harvest of grapes for drying decreased by 31.2% to 81,022 tonnes while the harvest of table grapes dropped 3.7% to 78,727 tonnes harvested.

All States, with the exception of Western Australia, recorded reduced tonnages of grapes harvested. South Australia harvested 583,340 tonnes, 42.6% of the national total, a reduction of 33.8% from 2006. Western Australia bucked the trend with a 12.2% increase to 68,252 tonnes comprising 5% of the national total. The reasons behind reduced harvests throughout the eastern states in 2007 are well documented, led by the continuing drought and scarcity of water for irrigation purposes, plus the affects of frost and bushfires in some areas.

Grape Varieties

According to the ABS, white winegrapes comprise 73,153ha (42.1%) of Australian vineyard varieties in 2006-07. White varieties have increased their share of the total plantings, up from 41.9% in 05-06. Chardonnay plantings grew 3% over the year and remains the most widely planted white winegrape variety accounting for 44% of all white winegrapes by vineyard areas (bearing and non-bearing) (See Table), and for 18.5% of the total plantings in Australia. There was a considerable increase in plantings of Sauvignon Blanc, up 19% to 5545ha, 7.6% of the total white varieties planted. Pinot Gris continues to grow, up by 82.6% on 2005-06, albeit from a lower base. There are now 2469ha of Pinot Gris planted in Australia. Viognier plantings also increased 33.4% to 1369ha planted.

Red winegrapes plantings broke the 100,000ha barrier for the first time, with 100,623ha now planted. The percentage of red winegrapes in the national total dropped slightly, from 58.1% in 2005-06 to 57.9% in 2006-07. Shiraz, with 43,417ha remains the most widely planted red variety comprising 43.1% of all vineyard area of red winegrapes and 25% of the national winegrape plantings. Some lesser-known red varieties recorded substantial increases in the period with Durif showing a 12.4% increase to 452ha planted and Sangiovese up 12.7% to 479ha planted. There was a small decline of 0.7% in the area of Cabernet Sauvignon and slight growth of 1.9% in Merlot plantings versus 2006.