GROWING Australian wine brands in global markets will be a key theme at the nation’s largest wine industry event, which kicks off in South Australia on Sunday.
More than 1100 delegates from viticulture, winemaking and wine businesses will be attending the 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference & Trade Exhibition in Adelaide from July 24 to 29.
Some of the more riveting sessions at the Adelaide Convention Centre will include: How can we enhance the uniqueness of Australian wine? Perception (and reality) of Australian wine in global markets and a panel presentation on the performance and projections in Australia’s major markets. Where are US wine consumers going?
Other main conference themes will include: What makes Australian wine unique; Effects of a changing climate on viticulture and wine production; Vineyard health; Improving productivity; and, The wine industry of the future.
A fascinating workshop on “Consumer insights in China” will be delivered by a panel of experts at the University of South Australia’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, the Australian Wine Research Institute, Wine Australia, and Negociants International will get the conference started this Sunday morning.
The value of Australian wine exports to China grew to $370 million in 2015. Dr Armando Corsi, senior research associate at the Ehrenberg Bass Institute, said the event would include a presentation on all of the research the group had done in the past three years on China.
“We’re finding that in the last three years in China the perception of Australia as a premium producing country has increased more than any other commercial producer,” he said.
“The Chinese wine market has rebounded from the austerity measures imposed in 2014, and is now the third most profitable export market for Australian wines.
“It is projected to grow even more as the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement comes into force. This represents extraordinary opportunities for Australian wine producers – but to take advantage, they should be prepared.”
The workshop also includes a wine tasting session that will teach attendees how to describe wines to Chinese consumers, making the best use of Wine Australia’s Australian Wine Flavours Card.
“We’d like to show them how close or how far they are from the Chinese consumers who potentially they want to sell their wine to and I think this could be a really interesting exercise because what producers think is the right thing to sell in China might not necessarily coincide with what consumers think,” Dr Corsi said.
The conference is held every three years by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and the Australian Society for Viticulture and Oenology.
The Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference has been held tri-annually since 1970 and is the Australian wine industry’s largest event. The conference runs from July 24-28 and the trade exhibition runs from July 25-27. It includes 12 plenary sessions featuring 16 international and 42 local speakers and 38 workshops.
The conference is also partnering with the industry’s premier awards night, the McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Award Dinner, which will be held on Monday, July 25, at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
According to the International Organization of Vine and Wine, Australia was the world’s seventh largest wine producing nation in 2015. Italy, France and Spain topped the list. South Australia is consistently responsible for almost 50 per cent of Australia’s annual production.
There are 18 wine regions in South Australia, including the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, Limestone Coast and Riverland.
More than 200 cellar doors are within an hour’s drive of the city centre of Adelaide.
