Aussies to tempt us to trade up

Australian wine is going upmarket. The country that built its wine reputation on good-value gluggers now wants to encourage us to trade up to regionally distinctive and fine wines.

And the industry has set itself an ambitious target, announcing plans this week to sell an extra £1.7 billion worth of wine globally over the next five years. But it believes it’s time for consumers to move on from seeing Australian wine in terms of just big brands offering affordable, everyday wine and realise the quality and diversity that there is.

The plan is to promote Australian wine according to four ‘personalities’, with the emphasis on Landmark Australia, premium wines that compete with the world’s best, and Regional Heroes, which highlight the differences in the country’s wine-growing areas. But the accessible Brand Champions won’t disappear. They will still be available along with innovative drinking wines under the banner Generation Next.

Since the 1990s Australia has been inordinately successful in getting us to uncork millions of bottles of its cheap wine, but to achieve global sales of £12 billion within five years, the country’s wine industry is sure that the only way is upmarket.