Australian wine facts

For those that are interested, I stumbled across what I assume to be the lastest stats about Aussie wine production, some of which caught me by surprise.

The link is here http://www.wineaustralia.com/australia/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ZYJjumQDRaw%3d&tabid=5419

To summarize a few points of interest;

• Shiraz & Chardonnay are neck and neck for top spot in the most popular wine varieties, is that surprising, well it's the closeness that surprises me, that leads to the next point.

• Of the most planted varieties, Shiraz tops the list with 26% of all new wine being planted, while Chardonnay only features in "other white" making up some of the 14% of that particular mash up of wines.

• So what's the most removed variety, well you might have guessed, Chardonnay at a massive 31%. So I'd assume that Shiraz, if it hasn't already will take over as the most produced wine in the country.

• The other surprise for me is that Semillon is the 5th most popular variety, ahead of but I've know idea how far, of Riesling, Pinot Noir & Sauvignon Blanc. It's also 8% of new wine planted!

• So if they're pulling out Chardonnay, what are they putting in apart from Shiraz.....unfortunatley it's that hideos most boring of all wines, probably your wife's favourite, Sauvignon Blanc. Leave it to the Kiwi's I reckon!

• The last thing that surprised me was the production by state, obviously Sth Australia by a margin then N.S.W produce the lions share of Australia's wine, the one that caught me off guard was, that West Australia only contributes 3.7% of total wine production!

So there's some useless trivia for your next dinner party, as your sniffing and swirling keep the whole party entertained with some facinating wine stats!

Cheers