What next for Australia's grapegrowers?

摘要

The question on many Australian grapegrowers' lips at the moment is 'what next?' After riding the boom and scraping through the glut, where should Australian grapegrowers focus their energy, passion and resources? The over-supply of the traditional top three varieties - Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay - has caused a bottleneck, lowering the value of these winegrapes to a point where, for many growers, they are unviable to grow. Should growers hold their nerve and persist with these varieties, hoping for a sudden reversal in fortune, or, should they take the punt and try to predict the next big thing? The wine boom of the 1990s rewarded growers who predicted the trends with high prices and huge demand. Can those prices be achieved again and, if so, for how long? The current global wine market has forced many of Australia's wine producers to evaluate what wines consumers want to drink and, more importantly, what is price competitive on a global scale. Growers who try to read these trends and innovate their vineyards early enough could be in a much better situation than waiting for the past success of the 1990s to repeat itself. Pull out, mothball, rework, persist or fine tune are some of the options faced by growers as they evaluate: 'Whatnext?'