Chardonnay overtakes Shiraz as Australia’s largest most popular variety

It has overtaken Shiraz as the country’s largest wine variety, shaking off its daggy reputation to re-emerge as one of Australia’s top tipples.

Chardonnay has overtaken Shiraz as Australia’s largest wine variety while shrugging off its daggy reputation and re-emerging as one of Australia’s favourite tipples.

New figures from Wine Australia reveal a 31 per cent increase in the volume of Chardonnay grapes crushed in this year’s vintage – to 333,000 tonnes – exceeding the 298,000 tonnes of Shiraz production, which was down 14 per cent to its lowest level since the drought-affected 2007 vintage.

The last time Shiraz was outproduced by another variety was in 2013 when Chardonnay last topped the list.

Wine Australia market insights manager Peter Bailey said falling levels of Shiraz and other red varieties were reported across regions, and were in part driven by attempts by producers to ease the glut that accumulated over more than three years of Chinese tariffs.

Chardonnay’s renaissance has been likened to that of gin, which has become trendy again with younger consumers. Picture: MIKHAIL MORDASOV / AFP

“The overall reduction in the red crush is entirely driven by Shiraz, which decreased by nearly 48,000 tonnes,” he said.

“This decrease was not just from the inland regions, with the Barossa and Clare valleys accounting for one-third of the reduction.

“Seasonal factors have contributed to 2024 being another small vintage. However, the significant further reduction in the red crush can be largely attributed to decisions made by grape growers and wine businesses to reduce production.

“These decisions are being driven by low grape prices, significant red wine stock overhangs and reduced global demand for wine.”

It’s a different story for white varieties, with production up 19 per cent this year to 722,000 tonnes, comprising 51 per cent of overall production and surpassing the red wine-grape crush for the first time since 2014.

Ali Lewis, who has run Piccadilly Vineyards in the Adelaide Hills since 2014, said there’d been a marked shift in the types of wines peopled were choosing to consume, with younger drinkers in particular opting for lighter reds and white varieties.

“It feels like there has been a sea change,” she said.

“When we first started producing there were so many people, sommeliers, etc. who still found Chardonnay very out of fashion because of the old story of it being terribly oaked and all the old fashioned approaches to Chardonnay.

Kath and Kim always knew the value of a good Chardonnay ... although Kim would suggest the ‘h’ is silent.

“But I think with the new kind of more mineral driven and high altitude varieties that are produced … they’ve become a lot more appealing, certainly to younger drinkers as well – the sort of 25 to 40 drinkers are definitely much more back in and liking Chardonnays.

“And I just think people used to get terrible headaches from the heavy reds as well, which isn’t so much the case with the lighter brighter Pinot Noirs, and obviously less so with Chardonnay.”

Ms Lewis compares Chardonnay’s renaissance with gin which has become trendy again with younger consumers.

Wine Australia’s National Vintage Report shows that the overall wine-grape crush increased by 9 per cent to an estimated 1.43 million tonnes in 2024 following a 23-year low last year.

The crush of red grapes declined 1 per cent to 705,000 tonnes – 40 per cent below its peak of 1.2 million tonnes in 2021.

South Australia accounted for 49 per cent of the national crush size, followed by NSW (29 per cent) and Victoria (17 per cent).

The crush value of the 2024 vintage is estimated to be $1.01bn – a 2 per cent increase on 2023 as volume increases were offset by a fall in the average value, from $642 per tonne to $613 per tonne.

Mr Bailey said the decline in the average value was mainly driven by a decrease in grape prices in warm inland regions.

Originally published as Chardonnay overtakes Shiraz as Australia’s largest most popular variety