Australians Thirsty For New Zealand Wines

Australians Thirsty For New Zealand Wines

Auckland, 11 November 2008 – Australians find New Zealand wines anything but hard to swallow according to a study by the Nielsen Company. New Zealand table wine (bottled red and white wine) contributed to the biggest growth in wine sales in Australia accounting for AUD $198 million in off premise sales and increasing its value share of the Australian market by three percentage points - an increase of $60 million in value over the year to July 2008.

“When put into perspective, total table wine increased by $100 million in retail sales, meaning New Zealand wine contributed to 60 percent of the overall value growth of table wine sales”, noted Michael Walton, Executive Director of Nielsen’s specialist Liquor Services Group.

Nielsen’s Scantrack Liquor Service also surveyed Australian consumers around the importance of a wine’s origin. While most would assume that wine aficionados believe more strongly in the importance of where a wine originates from, the reality is that the demographics that more likely consider the wine’s region to be very important are not only those in older families (22%), but young singles (18%), those aged between 25-39 years of age (17%) and those who earn in excess of $80,000 annually (17%), as reported by Nielsen.

The majority (55%) of online consumers consider a wine’s region to be either important or very important. Interestingly enough, over half of the table wine in Australia is sourced from outside the well known regions, or sourced non specific areas.

Across the states, the South Australians and Western Australians are more likely to consider the wine region important or very important, particularly if one from their state. Nielsen’s Scantrack Liquor service shows that consumers in both South Australia and Western Australia purchase a significantly higher proportion of wine from regions in their respective states compared to the Eastern Seaboard.

“Sales of wine produced from regions within each state has a higher share of table wine sales compared to the national average”, said Walton.

“For example, wine from Victorian regions has their highest share of table wine sales in Victoria. The only exception is Queensland where sales of wine from non identified regions have the highest share”.

There is some good news for smaller regions in Australia however. Tasmania’s wine now commands a price premium above all other regions and from a relatively small base, a clean set of heals in growth as well.

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