Good news for vineyards, bad news for wine lovers: the Australian wine glut is over, and we can expect higher prices and fewer bargains. According to Glut Reaction in The Age,
Following drought, frost, fires and water problems, the national harvest looked like being cut by 50 per cent. Every grape would be needed…
The wine glut was over. The 2007 national wine grape harvest was 1.3 million tonnes, down 29 per cent, or 560,000?tonnes, on 2006. After three record or near-record vintages, it felt as though the industry stopped dead in its tracks. To help make up some of the shortfall, more than 5000?tonnes of table grapes – sultana, gordo blanco – had to be seconded to help the cask market.
Particularly hard hit will be very cheap wines that, with the oversupply of grapes, were able to present wine drinkers with high quality wines at prices cheaper than bottled water.
Wine drinkers shouldn’t lose hope entirely, however. The wine glut in Europe is still going strong, so French vintners may pick up some of the slack if Australian supplies start to tighten.