Southern Forests producers not concerned over 20-year low of nationwide wine vintage

With a strong focus on quality over quantity in the Southern Forests region, wine producers are confident they will not face an earnings hit this year despite nationwide concerns surrounding a third consecutive La Nina weather event. A new report released by industry body Wine Australia last Tuesday suggested the nation’s wine vintage dropped this year to a 20-year low, sparking fears of an earnings hit for growers. However, Southern Forests Wine Region chair Andrew Mountford said the region seemed to be stable in terms of crop yield. “We’re not big producers in terms of tonnes per acre in the South West,” he said. “The emphasis here is quality over quantity.” Mr Mountford said he believed Eastern States growers, particularly bigger producers, would feel the impact way beyond what was experienced in WA. “Most people in the region are focusing on quality,” he said. “We usually leave quantity production to better irrigated areas ... we can’t compete in terms of yield.” The 2023 Australian wine grape vintage was estimated to be 1.32 million tonnes, 26 per cent below the 10-year average and the lowest recorded since 2000, according to the report. Wine Australia market insights manager Peter Bailey said the second consecutive smaller vintage would have a direct impact on grape and wine businesses. “This smaller vintage, which will reduce the wine available for sale by around 325 million litres, is likely to have a considerable impact on the bottom line of grape and wine businesses all around Australia, at a time when the costs of inputs, energy, labour and transport have increased significantly,” he said. Wine Australia said the third consecutive La Nina weather event produced wet and cool conditions, which led to lower yields and delayed ripening in some regions across the country. However, the cool season was “conducive to producing high quality fruit with excellent flavour development”. The Wine Australia report also revealed the crush of red grapes in 2023 was estimated to be 711,777 tonnes — down 26 per cent compared with 2022 and 25 per cent below the 10-year average (943,146 tonnes). The white grape crush was about 605,321 tonnes, which was a decrease of 22 per cent compared with 2022 and 28 per cent below its 10-year average of 839,013 tonnes. South Australia retained its position as the biggest contributor to the crush, with a 55 per cent share of the total, despite its second-smallest crush since 2007. NSW was the second biggest with 27 per cent of the crush, followed by Victoria (13 per cent). Wine Australia said Western Australia had an overall “very good season”, increasing its share to 3.5 per cent. Tasmania and Queensland each accounted for slightly less than 1 per cent.