Oz Wine Facts – Colombard Wines

Colombard is a white wine grape that originated as an offspring of the Gouais Blanc and Chenin Blanc varieties. Mainly a French grape variety popular in Bordeaux & Gascony, this grape also has a strong following in South Africa (where it is called Colombar).

(source: Wine Australia)

This variety is relatively new to Australia, & is still unheard of in most Aussie wine regions. This is mirrored by the following statistics highlighting the plantation, growth, export & pricing of Colombard grapes & wines produced by the talented Aussie wine vintners & winemakers in 2016

Viticulture

Aussie growers planted close to 135,000 ha of land with distinct grapevines, of which 3,000 ha was not part of the bearing area. The growth of Colombard grapes can be approximated to 1,790 ha of vineyard land, with the negligible non-bearing area.

Grape Production

In 2016, Aussie wineries crushed about 1,608,000 tonnes of grapes. For Colombard, the crushing amounted to approximately 5,560 tonnes, 5,520 tonnes of which were grown in cool-climate regions, while a mere 400 tonnes of Colombard grapes were harvested in warm inland wine regions of Australia.

About 48% of the total share was grown in Riverland. The other half of grapes were sourced from famous regions like Murray Darling in Victoria (19%), Riverina (16%), Murray Darling in NSW (13%), and Lower Murray as well as others (2%).

Export Data

(source: Wine Australia)

In 2016, 16.51 million litres of Aussie Colombard wines were exported across the globe. This is an increase of about 22% from the previous year.

China came out on top, importing 24% of the delicious Colombard wines crafted in Australia. It was followed by Russia, where 19% of the exports went. Ireland imported close to 13%, while Hong Kong & Fiji imported 12% and 8% of the total share respectively.

Keeping in consideration the price points, the Colombard wines sold the most lay in the price bracket of AUD 2.5/L to AUD 4.99/L (a whopping 94%). The remaining 6% of the Australian Colombard wines purchased by shoppers were classified in the price range of AUD 5/L to AUD 7.49/L.