DAN'S WINE BLOG-SHINING & SINKING STARS!!

2024-03-15

SHINING STAR

Brown Family Wine Group (BFWG) which many of us knew as Brown Bros- have always made excellent wines. They have always been innovative, firstly in their selection of varieties (they have 57 varieties in their trial block) producing Australia’s first Tarrango wine ( a red variety created by the CSIRO) and to my delight producing some cracking wines with Mondeuse a very rare French red variety that, as far as I know only 11 out of the 2,468 wineries grow. Brown Bros Cabernet Mondeuse was a sensational wine that lives for decades. The Brown Bros Prosecco Zero is the first zero alcohol wine that I could happily drink and enjoy. They were also one of the first mainland wineries to invest in Tasmania.

The reason I mention BFWG today is that they recently achieved certification with Sustainable Winegrowing Australia for its vineyards and winery sites. This on top of being one of the founding members of Australia’s First Families of Wine. That’s what I call a shining star!!!

SINKING STARS -

ITALY

Italy’s main export markets, USA, Germany, UK Canada and Japan between them had a 7.3% drop in imports last year. These markets account for around 60% of Italy’s wine exports- thereby making this a significant and concerning decrease in wine exports.

FRANCE

Renowned journal Meningers International Reports that French wine exports dropped by 9% (123 Million litres) from the last year. Even Champagne which normally rides out these drops, was down by 11% https://www.meiningers-international.com/wine/news/france-sees-dip-wine-exports-amid-economic-challenges?utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=MI_Newsletter&utm_campaign=Newsletter

Whilst Business France show that sales to eight out of their ten top export markets have fallen as shown in the figures below.

Interestingly the sales to China have fallen to Euro 427 Million despite the lack of Australian wines in the market. Australia used to export around Euro 600-650 Million worth of wine to China before the punitive tax was introduced, suggesting that they have lost most of the gains they made when Australia was evicted from the Chinese market.

RED & WHITE

OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) recently published their report on wine production and consumption from 2000 to 2021. The most recent production figures showed that the world produced 13,000 million litres of white wine, 11,000 million litres of red wine and 2,100 million litres of rose. That is more white than red and a rising volume of rose. In contrast the volume of red wine produced has dropped by 25% in the last 20 years. This fall has been mainly in Europe with France experiencing a 50% decrease. Over the same period Chile, USA, Argentina, South Africa and Australia have all seen modest rises in the production of red wines. The drop in actual sales of red wines- over the same period, are as follows France 40%, Italy 30% Spain 19% and Germany 17% What will the future bring? It is reasonable to expect that due to global warming, wine consumption will continue to shy away from reds, especially big reds towards Rose and also towards white wines. So not only are less people in the world drinking wine, those who still do, are shifting away from red wines (except for me) – Interesting times ahead.

Have a great week, stay safe and always #chooseaustralianwine and when possible enjoy #emergingvarieties.

Cheers Dan T