Evolving varietal and quality distinctiveness of Australia’s wine regions

ABSTRACT

In an ever-more-competitive global market, vignerons compete for the attention of consumers by differentiating their product while responding to technological advances, climate changes and evolving demand patterns. In doing so, they increasingly highlight their regional and varietal distinctiveness. This paper examines the extent to which the mix of winegrape varieties in Australia differs from the rest of the world and differs across wine regions within the country, and how that picture has altered over the first decade of this century. It reports varietal intensity indexes for different regions, indexes of similarity of varietal mix between regions and over time, and quality indexes across regions and varieties within Australia. The study is based mainly on a new global database of vine bearing areas circa 2000 and 2010, supplemented by a more detailed database for Australia back to the 1950s. It reveals that the varietal distinctiveness of Australia vis-à-vis the rest of the world, and varietal differentiation between regions within the country, is far less than for most other countries – a pattern that has become even more pronounced since 2000. It concludes that there is much scope for Australia’s winegrape plantings to become more diversified as producers respond to market and climate changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Terroir
• varietal Intensity Index
• Varietal Similarity Index
• Regional Quality Index

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for helpful comments from Brian Croser, Peter Dry and Terry Lee, for meticulous research assistance by Nanda Aryal in compiling the database and indicators, for helpful comments from referees and for financial assistance from the Australian Grape and Wine Authority (GWRDC Project Number UA 12/08). Views expressed are the author’s alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The United States had a VSI with the world of 0.41 in 2000 and 0.65 in 2010, and so moved even closer than Australia to the global varietal mix over that decade (Alston, Anderson, & Sambucci, 2015). By contrast, New Zealand had a VSI with the world of 0.34 in 2000, which fell to 0.30 by 2010.

2 Two-thirds of what has disappeared as a winegrape in Australia since 2000 is Sultaniye, whose area globally fell by three-quarters over the 2000–2010 period.

3 Dolcetto (second), nebbiolo and monastrell (third), touriga nacional and tribidrag (fourth), and chenin blanc, cot and tempranillo (fifth).

4 For more on these and other emerging varieties in Australia, and on which firms have planted them, see Higgs (2010) and his updates at www.vinodiversity.com. Winetitles (2013) also maintains a list of the varieties included on the labels of Australian wines: in 2013 it reported 144 varieties.

5 In 2000, Australia had a higher share (74%) of its winegrapes under varieties of French origin than any other country other than New Zealand and South Africa, and in 2010 its share was even higher at 88%, just below China, Chile and New Zealand. Between 2000 and 2010 the global winegrape area devoted to varieties of French origin rose from 26% to 36% (Anderson, 2013, Tables 21 and 22).

6 Hickinbotham (1947) believed more than six decades ago that Australia’s hot regions were too narrowly focused on varieties from France rather than from warmer parts of Europe. More specifically, McKay, Crittenden, Dry, and Hardie (1999) felt that varieties from the warmer parts of Italy were under-represented in Australia. Dry and Smart (1980) suggested that if acid addition had been outlawed in Australia, the hot regions would have been forced to at least add ‘improver’ varieties to their varietal mix.