More people drink Australian wine in the USA than in Australia. About 18 million Americans were estimated to drink Australian wine in 2017/18, which represents 19 percent of regular imported wine consumers. About 8.7 million Australians do. Some of this is largely due to population (Australia's is 25 million, the USA is 326 million). The next largest drinker of Australian wines is China with 15.5 million estimated in 2017/18, or 30 per cent of imported wine drinkers.
Wine Australia surveys markets in which Australian wine is consumed on quality perception. In 2018, Chinese wine drinkers rated it 8.32/10. US consumers rated it 8.14. US consumers perceive Australian wine as being great value for money for a given quality. However, US consumers above the $20 per bottle category has low quality perceptions of Australian wine. As consumers have entered higher price points, growth in US wine exports from Australia fell 7 percent in value in twelve months to March 2018. In contrast China imports of Australian wines grew at 25% in 2018. A large driver of this is reducing tariffs on Australian wines in China.
In a survey asking how proud consumers are of serving Australian wine, 75% of Americans agreed or strongly agreed compared to 88% in China. This is largely a function of the success of Yellow Tail entering the USA with mass produced but good value for money wine which took off. However,
Australia has a number of fine, premium wines. The most famous are full bodied Shiraz and red blends such as Penfold's Grange and Henschke's Hill of Grace. These wines are highly sought after by Chinese business people. The auspicious preference for the deep red colour of these wines is a testament to the power of consumer preferences. But more importantly, the original positioning of a wine region and brand in a market is clearly crucial to the long term demand for their products. I reflect on Bordeaux' 5 tier classification system which has persisted for 160 years.
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