Australia’s wine industry is facing its “smallest” crush in over 25 years, though it failed to lift grape prices.
Government body Wine Australia estimates the 2026 crush at 1.27 million tonnes.
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That would mark a fall of about 300,000 tonnes from last year and below the ten-year average of 1.69 million tonnes.
The decline will result in about 33 million fewer nine-litre cases of wine produced this year, Wine Australia said.
Peter Bailey, the market insights manager at Wine Australia, said the smaller vintage reflected “seasonal pressures and a broader response to changed consumer demand”.
“A number of significant seasonal challenges, including flooding in the inland regions, had an impact on production, but the main driver of this lower crush is a deliberate adjustment in response to changing market conditions,” he added.
The reduction from last year totalled 306,334 tonnes, with red varieties making up 80% of that fall.
Red grape crush volumes dropped 29%, or 243,560 tonnes, to their smallest level since 2000.
Bailey said the shift likely points to rising global preference for white wine over red.
“Globally, red wine has declined at twice the rate of white wine since 2017 and is now nearly 450 million cases lower than it was in that year, according to the IWSR. The flow-on effect is that demand for red grapes in Australia has reduced by more than for whites,” he said.
Falls were spread in a “relatively even” manner across states and major growing regions, added the industry body.
Despite varying climates and market drivers, the combined five-year crush from cool and temperate regions “closely matched” that of the South Australian Riverland – the nation’s largest inland region.
The average value of purchased grapes slipped 6% to A$570 ($398.85) a tonne in 2026. Prices weakened across warm inland and cool or temperate regions, and for both red and white grapes.
“There has been no improvement in grape prices, which suggests that demand is still very soft,” Bailey added.
He also warned the industry of “over-correction” without better data on vineyard plantings and removals.
Softer demand weighed on Australia’s wine exports in 2025, with shipments down 8% in value to A$2.34bn and 6% in volume to 613 million litres.
The overall decline was driven mainly by weaker export value to mainland China and the US, and lower volumes to the UK. Exports to Canada, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia posted growth in value terms.
