Insights for Australian sparkling wine
Market Bulletin | Issue 40
As sales of sparkling wine increase in preparation for Christmas, this week we take a look at market trends for Australian sparkling wine.
It’s hard to believe that originally the naturally occurring bubbles first observed in still wine in the Middle Ages were considered a wine fault to be avoided – not least because they caused injuries when the bottles burst in the cellar.
In Australia, a wine can only be labelled ‘sparkling’ if the carbon dioxide contained in the wine is derived from fermented sugar, rather than carbonation. However, different labelling rules apply in other markets (see Wine Australia’s Export Market Guides for detailed labelling information).
France is the leading exporter of sparkling wine with US$3.4 billion of sparkling wine exported in the 12 months to September 2016 (Global Trade Atlas). Italy with US$1.2 billion is exports, is second and Australia is the fifth largest exporter of sparkling wine, accounting for US$40 million for the year ended September 2016.
Australia is also the world’s fifth largest importer of sparkling wine. In the year ended September 2016, Australia imported A$203 million of bottled sparkling wine – 18 per cent more than in the previous 12 months. The average value per litre was $17.55 compared with $15.78 in the previous 12 months.
In the domestic off-trade market in Australia, Champagne sold for an average price of $71.97, while other sparkling wine sold for an average retail price of $14.35 (IRI data November 2016). Australian wine accounts for 87 per cent of the domestic market (IRI) but we do not have the separate figures for sparkling wine.
Although Australia’s exports of sparkling wine are a small proportion of our overall exports – accounting for just $46 million or 2 per cent of total export value in year ended September 2016 –premium sparkling products are showing significant growth in value and volume. Exports of sparkling wine at $10 and above per litre FOB increased by 68 per cent to $11 million during that time period.
The top five destinations for our sparkling wine in the 12 months to the end of September 2016 were:
- Singapore (A$6.1 million)
- China (A$5.7 million)
- New Zealand (A$5.3 million)
- UK (A$5 million)
- Japan (A$4.4 million)
- US (A$4.2 million)
The Japan sparkling exports grew by 15 per cent compared with the previous 12 months while the China and US sparkling exports grew by 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
Australia is one of only a few countries in the world known for sparkling red wines. Our red wine sparkling exports accounted for $8.8 million (nearly 20 per cent of the total in this category) in the 12 months to end September 2016. On the domestic market, while sparkling white accounts for 30 times the volume of sparkling red, the sparkling red category grew by three times the rate of sparkling white in value in the 12 months to end September 2016 (IRI data).