Chardonnay grapes are used to make the Chardonnay wines which are popular for their ease of viticulture, adaptability to different agro-climatic conditions and neutral characteristics. These wines bear strong influences of terroir and respond well to oaking.
Chardonnay Vineyards Area in Australia
In Australia, about 21440 hectares of land area is devoted to the growth of Chardonnay grapes, which amounts to 15.88% of the land area for viticulture.
The area under this grape variety has been fluctuating since 2001. At first, there was impressive growth from 2001 to 2007 when area grew from about 17000 hectares to 30000 hectares. Thereafter, it witnessed a decline from 2008 to 2015. This shows that Australian winemakers are planting less of Chardonnay now.
Despite the decline, the total tonnage of these grapes crushed in 2015 stood at about 20% of the total grapes tonnage crushed in Australia.
Chardonnay Growing Regions in Australia
Riverland region (32%) accounts for maximum% of land area under this variety of grape, followed by Murray-Darling region of Victoria (18%), Riverina (17%), Murray-Darling river region of New South Wales (11%) and Padthaway (2%).
Chardonnay Wines Exports
As per the exports data available till July 2016, the total volume of Chardonnay wines exported from Australia was 162.6 million litres, and this marked a decline of about 6% from the previous year. Out of these, the bottled wine exports were 49 million litres, which is about 30% of total Chardonnay wine exports.
The top five countries where bottled Chardonnay wine of Australia was exported were USA (40% of total exports), UK (20%), Canada (8%), Japan and China.
About 71% of the wine exported is in price bracket of AUD 2.5/L to AUD 5.00/L. About 13% are less than AUD 2.5/L and about 10% in AUD 5-7.5/L price band.
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