Fed: Fortified wine sales continue to fall

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2000
Fed: Fortified wine sales continue to fall

CANBERRA, Dec 20 AAP - The days of a port or tokay after dinner are in decline, with
new figures showing a 34 per cent fall in fortified wine sales in the past decade.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics today reported a four per cent fall in the amount
of fortified wines sold domestically in the past year.

Fortifieds accounted for just 23 million litres of the 369.3 million litres of wine
sold across Australia in 1999-2000.

Eight years ago Australians bought more fortified wine than sparkling wines, but now
sparkling outsells fortifieds by two to one.

While Australian wine exports have grown by 600 per cent in the past decade, fortified
exports have gone up just 62 per cent.

Port continues to be the mainstay of quality fortifieds, accounting for 63 per cent
of fortifieds sold in glass containers of less than two litres.

But Bill Chambers, winemaker behind the world renowned Rosewood Chambers tokay and
muscats, said news of the death of fortified wines in Australia was premature.

Mr Chambers said Australians had been large drinkers of fortified wines in the past
when locally produced table wines were of questionable quality.

Now with Australian table wines winning prizes across the world, fortifieds had retreated
to a "normal" level of consumption.

He said there would always be a market for a tokay or port.

"When you get something of good quality like the fortifieds in Australia, there will
always be a niche market for them," he told AAP from his winery at Rutherglen in the Victorian
north-east.

"It is just a matter of keeping the quality up and people will continue to buy it.

"People have been talking about the death of fortifieds in Australia for a while, but
the quality is there and people are buying it either here or overseas."

AAP sw/daw/hu

KEYWORD: FORTIFIED

2000 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.