2009 Southern Hemisphere Wine Harvests -- Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand

The results are out, the reviews have been written, and now its time to sample the 2009 wine harvest. At lease this is the case for producers in the Southern Hemisphere of the world.

As producers in North America and Europe watch their grapes ripen, vintners in Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are preparing to sample their first bottles of 2009.

A healthy growing season is paramount in the process of ultimately producing a quality wine. This is of course why certain regions in the world excel in wine making. These regions are blessed with extremely conducive climates for growing grapes used in wine making. This is why regions like Mendoza, Argentina have historically been known to consistently produce high quality wines. Click here to read more about the region of Mendoza from Mir Global Marketing's home page)

This article from the Winespectator.com provides links to the publications reports on how the 2009 grapes have turned out in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Argentina: Heat spike hurts Argentine white wines, but reds weather the warmth

Chile: A warm and dry year leads to ripe wines and slightly higher yields

South Africa: South Africa's wine regions enjoy a cool, dry season, producing quality across the board

Australia: Yields are down in most regions, but a cool, dry season may have produced elegant reds

New Zealand: A moderate growing season bodes well for the country's reds and whites


To access complete country harvest and grape reports from the Winespectator.com, please click on each respective country link

The Global Wine Market

Wine & Drinks Business Review - The world's wine market- an evolving panorama

A consistent theme of this site will be discussion about the ever evolving state of global wine markets. MIR Global decided to start this site as a resource for people to come not only to keep current on major news/development in the wine scene but also to discuss the ever changing nature of it.

First lets talk about supply. During the past decade wine production has exploded in many new countries. Wines from the United States, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand have become household names around the world. Europe is not the only kid on the block anymore.

Now, consider the demand side of things. China, South-East Asia, India and Russia have suddenly emerged as the future major wine markets. With incredibly large populations, robust economic growth and a ever more interconnected global economy wine producers have switched their focus to Asia.

Described in this article from the Wine & Drinks Business Review

Countries, such as China, India and Indonesia, will compensate for the stagnation of Western economies.

The companies with strong international orientation will benefit from the demand coming from Asia, which will balance the markets that are more inclined to a stability situation, such as the Northern-American and the European ones.

Some facts from the same article

* European wine production falls to 161.6 million hl versus 163.6 million hl in 2007

* French production falls to 41.4 million in 2008 from 46 million in 2007.

* Argentina is decreasing to production to 14.6 million hl

* Chile's production grows to 8.6 million hl in 2008, not sure what it was in 2007, article doesn't say and a google search did not yield immediate results. If anyone knows please share.

* South African wine production increased 5% to 10.2 million hl.

* Australia's production grew a pretty stunning 30% to 12.3 million hl.

* New Zealand finishes off the count, growing a astounding 39% to 2 million hl.

Now in terms of exports from some traditional European markets, decline where seen across the board, with Italy taking the biggest hit proportionately.

* Italian exports fell to 17.8 million hl, which breaks down in layman terms to loosing about 7% of the share of Europe's exports.

* Spanish exports on the other hand gained 8.5% of the European export market of fine wines, exporting 16.9 million hl.

* US exports rose over the threshold of one billion dollar sales (+6%), with a volume of 4.9 million hl (+8%), of which 90% came from California.

* France had a 10.5% fall in the volumes, at 13.7 million hl.

* Australia showed a decrease of 11% at a little less than 7 million hl.

Click here to access the full article: "The world's wine market- an evolving panorama."

Courtesy of [wine.drinks-business-review.com]

Hong Kong quickly growing into global wine hub

Hong Kong is on track to become the premier wine hub of the Asia-Pacific region, thanks in large to the elimination of import duties last February, 2008.

The Special Administrative Regional Government of Hong Kong decided to do abolish the duty in hopes of encouraging wine imports and creating jobs in sales, marketing, storage and logistics.

Singapore which can be argued currently holds the title as Asia's wine hub is going to have to adapt to the arrival of new comer, Hong Kong, which has aspirations develop its own capacity to serve countries throughout the region, including countries in SE Asia which Singapore currently serves.

Since abolishing the duty, U.S Department of Commerce figures show that wine exports from the U.S alone rose by more than 500% year-on-year (Feb 2008-09).

Global wine imports reached $370 million in 2008, also clocking in impressive year-on-year growth of nearly 80%.

"Hong Kong has been a top three export market for U.S. wines ever since," California Wine Institute regional director for emerging markets Eric Pope said while speaking during an event held at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley where John Tsang, Financial Secretary for Hong Kong's Regional Government had gone to promote Hong Kong as a wine market hub.

He added that their vision was to make Hong Kong the platform for getting wine into other regions and for promoting wine market growth throughout Asia (click here to access a great article on this topic from the Indian Wine Academy).


It is clear global trade patterns in the wine industry have changed dramatically over the past few years. The simple scratching of duties in Hong Kong alone has had a dramatic effect on the wine markets in Asia. As India and China work to develop their own wine industries, as more places like Hong Kong open up to making trade easier and as the United States, Australia and New Zealand work to increase their market share--wine markets will again change quite dramatically.

As professionals in the industry it is up to us to keep up to date with the changes that and to constantly adapt our business plans and marketing strategies to cater to the ever changing tastes of consumers around the world.

New Zealand's wine industry to be used as a model in India

Twenty years ago New Zealand barely had a wine industry. Now now only are their wines found on shelves in Europe, North America and Asia.

Zealand's wine exports have grown at an average of 23.8% over the past two years, four times the rate of growth in any other export sector.

Marlborough, one of New Zealand's primier wine growing regions and home to the country's most famous Sauvignon Blanc's, now accounts for 20% of ecomonomy. Not bad for a industry which as I already mentioned did not really exist 20 years ago...

"For the industry the NZIER report represents a very positive analysis of the contribution grape growing and winemaking make to the New Zealand economy. That contribution totals over $3.5 billion of revenue through our own direct sales and the sales we generate in related sectors such as the tourism and hospitality industries," Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith says, according to a news report by the NZ National Business Review.

India, a relative new comer in the global wine scene is now looking to use growth of New Zealand's wine industry as a template for nurturing their own infant industry.

Wairau Valley, Marlborough - New Zealand

Here are a few excerpts from a interesting article covering this topic, courtesy of The Indian Wine Academy.

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In India, Sula took the lead in wine tourism with a tasting room and a reasonably world-class structure has been commissioned but nothing much has been done by Indage or Grover- though Indage opened a wine bar outside the winery with a modern tasting room inside and Grover has also opened a tasting room recently.

The infra-structure to travel to Nashik is practically non-existent. It takes over 5 hours to reach Nashik from the airport with a private taxi and once you reach there, finding the winery locations is a nightmare for most visitors.

The tourism ministry does not seem to pay much attention to this aspect either. Even Destination India 2009 project to promote tourism in India seems to have ignored this lucrative part of the tourism. Hopefully, the Nashik grape growers association or the newly formed National Grape Board would have a look at the potential honey pot when it gets down to business.

Click here for complete article

Wine markets in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is home to many consumers with rising levels of income. When income rises and a given society modernizes or evolves so do its tastes and preferences.

This is currently going on in the greater Asia region as we speak. Add the extra element of a ever more interconnected global economy and the pace of change is truly incredible.

Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have a combined population of roughly 180 million people. These countries represent a diverse mix of different elasticities, levels of development and traditions.


Malaysia -- For instance the majority of Malaysians are Muslims who in accordance with their religious practices do not drink any alcohol. However even in this context a great potential wine market exists.

For starters Malaysia is home to about 28 million people, of which 2/3 are Muslim and therefore do not drink alcohol. The remaining 1/3 still presents a sizable market of about 8-9 million people, greater than the combined markets of Singapore and Hong Kong, two already very developed wine markets.

Second, ethnic Chinese in Malaysia are unarguably one of the wealthier segments of Malay society and are also coincidentally the largest consumers of wine in Malaysia. As members of the upper-echelons of society they unknowingly serve as status symbols for people to emulate as they aspire to move up the social latter.

This great article I have just stumbled upon at the China Wines Information Website, shares some good statistics.

Singapore -- Wine market breaks down as follows: 10% sparking wine, 65% red wine, 25% white.

Thailand -- According to the New Zealand government which published these statistics, consumers in Thailand lack detailed knowledge about wines and have a unfounded, preconceived notion that the only "real" wine is red wine. At the moment wine makes up about 20% of the alcohol consumed in Thailand every year. About 83% of the wine consumed in red. A major challenge for those trying to break into the Thai market will be educating the consumer about white wines, which in many instances would accompany Thai foods better than red wines.

Vietnam -- Most Vietnamese do not drink grape wines because they have yet to acquire a taste for it. Wine is a relatively new product to the average Vietnamese person. Therefore most wine demand within Vietnam comes from expatriates, tourists and a few Vietnamese of the upper classes who have acquired a taste for it.

The importance of using Singapore as a hub for serving all these wine markets is highlighted in this article from New Zealand.

"It is important for New Zealand wine exporters to consider leveraging on Singapore's position as a regional distribution hub for wines by developing partnerships with distributors who have strong regional distribution networks."