Oz Wine Facts- Merlot Wines

Merlot is a black-coloured red wine grape variety which is used for making both Merlot varietal wines as well as blends. Merlot plantations are done in all the major wine regions of the world, most notably in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, California and Australia.

Merlot Vineyard Area in Australia

In Australia, Merlot is grown in 6.3 percent of the wine grapes growing area, spanning 8480 hectares of land area. A vast majority of this area bears the fruit. The dedicated planted area has declined over a period of time and it was the lowest in 2015 since 2001.

In 2015, the total tonnage of Merlot grapes crushed were approximately 111000 tonnes, which was roughly 8 percent of the total grapes crushed for making wines in that year.

Merlot Growing Regions in Australia

The most important Merlot grapes growing regions in Australia are Riverland, Riverina, Murray-Darling basin in Victoria, Murray-Darling basin in NSW and the Langhorne Creek area. These account for 22, 18, 16, 14 and 3 percent respectively of the total Merlot grape variety produced in the year 2015.

Exports of Merlot Wines

Merlot wines are exported to different parts of the world. Some of the important wine markets for Merlot are USA (which accounts for 44 percent), China (22 percent) and United Kingdom (8 percent) followed by New Zealand and Canada.

The total volume of wine exported was about 53 million litres in year ending July 2016, which was a decline of 2 percent over the last year. Approximately half of this total volume of export was bottled export.

Out of the total volume of bottled wines sold, about 82 percent is in the price range of AUD 2.5/L to 4.99/L. This shows that these wines are preferred to be consumed fresh and in the cheap wines range (under $5 wines).