Barbera is a red grape variety that originated in Italy. This noir hued grape came to Australia in the 1960s, as vine cuttings from the University of California in Davis. The statistics given below highlight the growth and production of Barbera throughout Australia. This data has been compiled for the year 2016.
Barbera Vineyard Area and Production in Australia
Out of a total of 135,000ha, Barbera covers about 110ha of vineyard land in Australia. 10ha of Barbera grapevines were recently planted. The bearing area of the Barbera variety is close to 100 hectares, which amounts to about 92.2% of the total area covered by this red grape variety.
In the various winegrowing regions of Australia, about 1,608,000 tonnes of grapes were produced and crushed last year. Barbera amounted to approximately 700 tonnes of grapes crushed, for the production of wine varietals and blends. About 350 tonnes out of the total 700 were produced in warm inland regions, while the remaining half was grown and crushed in cool climate wine regions.
Barbera Wine Regions in Australia
The top 5 wine regions of Australia where Barbera is mostly grown are King Valley, Riverina, Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, and Central Ranges. The region that came out on top in 2016 is Riverina, which produced around 48% of the 700 tonnes of Barbera grapes crushed. King Valley amounted to 10%, Central Ranges to 5%, while Adelaide Hills and Clare Valley produced 4% of the total.
Barbera Wine Exports from Australia
0.03 million litres of Barbera wines were exported from Australia the previous year, with the most bottles going out to New Zealand (about 46%). China was the second most popular destination, with 34% of the wines produced being shipped to Chinese wine markets. 3 other top export destinations include Fiji, the UK and Germany, importing 5% to 7% of Barbera wines.
Most of the Barbera wine bottles sold (about 81%) lie in the price range of $10/L to $19.99/L. The next best price range is $2.50/L to $4.99/L, with 15% of the wines being sold from this price bracket. The remaining 4% wines lie in the range of $5/L to $7.49/L. This shows that highly priced Aussie Barbera wines are in great demand throughout the world!
