Oz Wine Facts- Riesling Wines

Riesling wine grape variety was originated in Germany. This white wine grape variety is known for its aroma and high level of acidity. This is one of top three white wine varieties of the world, the other two being Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The Australian Riesling wines have a distinctive lime note.

The earliest plantings of Riesling grapes in Australia can be attributed to William Macarthur who raised the vines in Penrith in New South Wales in 1838.

Riesling Vineyard Area and Production in Australia

As per statistics available till 2015, Riesling is grown in 3160 hectares of area. This is about 2.3% of area where wine-grade grapes are grown. This land area produced 28.8 thousand tonnes of grapes which were crushed for production of wines. This is about 1.8% of total grapes crushed for production of wines in Australia.

There was an increasing trend of vineyard area of these wines from 2001 to 2009, the peak reached at about 4500 hectares of vineyard area. The area declined thereafter.

Riesling Wine Regions in Australia

Clare Valley is the single most important Riesling wine growing area of Australia, accounting for about 22% of total share. Eden Valley is the next important region followed by Riverland and Riverina regions. These four regions account for almost 60% of total Riesling vineyard area.

Also read:

1. What is Riesling Wines?
2. Riesling Explained: Dry, Sweet & Everything In Between
   

Riesling Wine Exports From Australia

United States of America accounts for about 40% of the total Riesling exports from Australia. Canada is the next important destination with 24% of exports share and United Kingdom, China and Finland following in that order thereafter. Finland is a surprise inclusion in the list of export destinations which accounts for about 3% of total export of this variety.

In terms of Riesling export per bottle price, as much as 70% of the wines sold are in range of AUD 2.5 to AUD 4.99 per litre. So, it is not the under - AUD 2.5 cheap wines which make for most of the Riesling wine exports and these account for only 1% of the exports. The next higher share is of wines in per bottle price range of AUD 5 to AUD 7.5 per litre, which account for 17% of its exports. So, about 87% export is for wine bottles priced in AUD2.5 to AUD7.5 per litre.

(source: Wine Australia)