Australian Chardonnay: past, present and future

Abstract

The increase in plantings and production of Australian Chardonnay over the past 30 years has been phenomenal. From an almost standstill start in 1970, Chardonnay is now the most widely planted white variety in Australia. This paper contains three main points. First, it outlines the factors that contributed to the initial interest in and subsequent growth of Australian Chardonnay. Secondly, it looks at developments in wine making and viticulture (focusing on regional influences) and their impact on wine style over the 30-year period. Thirdly, it evaluates why Australian Chardonnay has been so successful in both domestic and export markets and a view is taken on whether this success is likely to continue. The factors contributing to the growth of Australian Chardonnay are researched, taking into account wine style preferences, market trends and fruit availability. The future of Australian Chardonnay is extrapolated from investigation of current market trends and industry views. Competition from other wine styles is also considered. To achieve these aims, an extensive literature survey was carried out, interviews with key wine industry personnel were conducted and past and present market information was reviewed for both domestic and key export markets.

Notes

1. “[T]he super-premium Vat 47 Chardonnay, which i s one of Australia's best” (Halliday, 1998); “Australia's first commercially-released Chardonnay completely flies in the face of logic, impressing year after year. It is regularly entered into wine shows, usually winning gold, if not a trophy, and has completely transcended cool-climate fashion, showing incontrovertibly that warm climate Chardonnay has its place in the world of fine wine” (Caillard and Langton, 2000).

2. “Petaluma's Chardonnay is recognised as one of the best in Australia, crafted with infinite patience and care” (Halliday, 1998).

3. Predominately in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area and Hunter Valley in NSW, as well as Sunraysia in Victoria (Dry and Smart, 1982; Dry, 1983).

4. Compared with the lower-alcohol, aromatic Riesling and leaner Semillon styles that were being produced at the time. At the time of the Chardonnay boom, the majority of Chardonnay was being grown in warm/hot regions (Atkin, 1992). See Table 6 for descriptions of regional flavours.

5. The differences in Chardonnay style that occur with respect to region are largely due to differences in climate. See Table 6 for regional climatic data. See also Figure 3 for the projected growth of cool climate Chardonnay production.

6. It must be noted that this is not true of all producers, particularly those producers who process grapes from a wide selection of areas. In these cases, production decisions are often made with respect to equipment availability and/or an individual or company wine-making philosophy. Australia has no legislation governing how grapes from certain regions are to be made into wine.

7. Warm vs. cool climate comparisons can be read as warm/hot vs. cool/cold. See Table 6.

8. Notable examples include Mountadam from Eden Valley, Petaluma from the Adelaide Hills and Leeuwin Estate from Margaret River.

9. Quality classification within the context of the Australian domestic market: mass-market < A$10.99; commercial A$11–19.99; premium A$20–39.99; super premium > A$40.

10. For example, from the Riverland, Sunraysia, Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale.

11. Fining agents commonly used for the removal of bitter and coarse phenolics include isinglass, gelatine, casein and polyvinyl-polypyrrolidone (Rankine, 1989).

12. Juices with high pH can have problems with respect to microbial stability and sulphur dioxide effectiveness. These problems are exacerbated if the fermented juice is also put through malolactic fermentation, as the pH will rise even further (Rankine, 1989). Although acid additions can bring down the pH, titratable acidity levels may become undesirably high during the process. In these cases, blending and/or ion exchange are the only options.

13. Optimal conditions for the occurrence of MLF involve a wine temperature above 18 °C, a pH above 3.4 and less than 10 parts per million of free sulphur dioxide (Anonymous, 1994a).

14. Note that Tyrrells Vat 47 from the warm region of the Hunter Valley no longer undergoes malolactic fermentation. This is one of the contributing reasons for its longevity.

15. Mercaptan, onion, mushroom, stalkiness.

16. Wolf Blass, Wyndam Estate, Petaluma, Penfolds and Mountadam were all using flavour development as part of their harvest decision criteria (Anonymous, 1995).

17. New oak barrel costs: American oak A$600–1000 per 225 l barrique (A$2.60–4.40 l^− 1); French oak A$1600–2200 per 225 l barrique (A$7.10–9.80 l^− 1). Alternative oak costs: chips A$0.10 l^− 1; innerstaves ∼A$0.30 l^− 1.

18. Low phenolics and fine, high-quality solids.

19. Pipers Brook, Wellington, Derwent Estate and Providence (see Table 7).

20. Leeuwin Estate, Cullen, Cape Mentelle, Vasse Felix, Voyager and Pierro (see Tables 4 and 7).

21. Tyrrells Vat 47 and Lakes Folly (see Tables 4 and 7).

22. Such as Padthaway, the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula.

23. Such as the Hunter Valley, McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley.

24. Such as the Swan Hill/Murray Darling and the Riverland.

25. This is particularly important to protect the Chardonnay grape from sunburn, which can increase the phenolic content and colour of the juice.

26. Up from eighth in 2001 (Major, 2001).

27. Up from fifth in 2001 (Major, 2001).

28. Lindemans Bin 65 was first exported to Canada in 1985.

29. Reference to Asia includes total figures from North-east Asia and South-east Asia.

30. Strategies included undertaking a detailed study of the market environment and competition, appointing local people with local knowledge and setting out to convince the then ‘younger generation’ of opinion leaders, such as Jancis Robinson and Robert Joseph, about the quality of Australian wine (Anstee, 1995).

31. At the time, Chablis was one of the major suppliers of mainstream white wine to the UK (Anstee, 1995).

32. Namely wine press, members of the wine trade and Masters of Wine (Anonymous, 1994b).

33. September 2002 Moving Annual Total (MAT).

34. Many large-volume wines with multiple source areas, including Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay, are labelled as being sourced from South Eastern Australia.

35. Lindemans Bin 65 is the largest selling Australian white wine in the world. It is the number one selling Australian Chardonnay in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. It is also the number one selling white wine in Sweden. It is the only wine to have won the US Wine Spectator ‘best buy’ 12 times.

36. Australia entered the US market in the ‘commodity’ sector of the market, US$5–8.95 (Anstee, 1995). In the UK market, Australia developed its sales base in the under £3.99 price bracket (Fuller, 1994).

37. The average price for Australian wine in the UK market is now £4.99 (Australian Wine Bureau, 2002).

38. Sales growth of Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay in the USA and UK is currently at 9.5% and 18% respectively (by value). Stephen Couche of Orlando is predicting growth in both the US and UK markets.

39. Strategy 2025, released by the Australian Wine Foundation in 1994–95, is an industry-wide statement of the aspirations and goals for the Australian wine industry (Anonymous, 1996). Many of the targets are well on their way to being met.

40. Southcorp Wines, BRL Hardy, Orlando Wyndam and Beringer Blass.

41. Not only in wine making and capital expenditure, but also in research and development, brand promotion and distribution. Many of the larger companies established their own offices abroad rather than relying on local distributors (Osmond and Anderson, 2000).

42. Largely due to the differentials between the Australian dollar and the stronger UK pound and US dollar, though profit margins vary from producer to producer.

43. Accounting for 61.3% of all domestic table wine sales (Major, 2002).

44. By volume. Growth from 2000–01 to 2001–02 (Major, 2001).

45. AC Nielsen, January 2002—by volume (McConnell, 2002). Note that Queen Adelaide Chardonnay is actually an unwooded style, though it is not heavily marketed in this way.

46. The Australian retail liquor market is dominated by Coles-Myer and Woolworths, which control approximately 32% of the retail liquor market, with acquisitions awaiting regulatory approval set to increase that to 40% (Westfield, 2002).

47. Southcorp offers substantial financial incentives to restaurants that exclusively list Southcorp products (Patton, 2002).

48. Please note that wine-maker preferred tonnes were not recorded for Western Australia in 2002 and no figures are kept for Tasmania.

49. Such as the Victorian/NSW Murray Valley, Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, McLaren Vale, Riverland, Yarra Valley, Great Southern and Pemberton.