How Yellow Tail Ruined the Australian Wine Industry

Here is a great article in Slate that shows how cheap exported Aussie wine has ruined the wine industry in Australia:

A few years ago, Australian wines were the hottest around: Consumers
couldn’t get enough of those strapping shirazes with the quirky names
(the Mad Hatter, the Dead Arm, the Ball Buster) and the eye-catching
labels. Across all price points, Australia was ascendant. Not anymore:
Buyers who used to make a beeline for the Antipodean section of their
local wine shops are today waltzing right past it. Depending on who’s
doing the counting, exports of Australian wines to the United States
fell by 15 percent to 26 percent in value last year; whatever the
precise figure, the arrows are all pointing sharply downward, and with
retailers paring back their Aussie selections in response to the
flagging demand, this year threatens more of the same. Foster’s may be Australian for beer (mate); it appears that screwed is now Australian for wine.   (………..)

However, what was good for Yellow Tail wasn’t so great for the
Australian wines as a whole. For one thing, Yellow Tail spawned a
legion of imitators, and retail shelves were soon crawling with
“critter” labels featuring penguins, crocodiles, and other regional
fauna. At the same time, Yellow Tail’s success prompted rival
Australian brands to focus even more of their efforts on the budget
category. As a result, consumers came to equate Australia with wines
that were flavorful but also cheap and frivolous, a perception that
became a major liability when those same consumers got interested in
more serious stuff; rather than looking to Oz, they turned to Spain,
Italy, and France.  [Slate]

Make sure to read the whole article, but I fully agree with this analysis and the economic figures in the article prove it.  Since moving back to the US I can tell you that in the supermarkets and liquor stores are all stocked with cheap Aussie wines like Yellow Tail, Cockatoo Ridge, Alice White, etc.

So the analogy that these cheap wines are doing what Foster’s did for beer in Australia is a good one.  Many people in the US think real Australians drink Foster’s which couldn’t be farther from the truth.  In actuality few Australians drink Foster’s just like few Australians drink these cheap wines made for export.  Unfortanately the stigma of these cheap wines is what is going to stick on the Australian wine industry which may unfortunately cause many wine drinkers to overlook the better wine manufacturers in Australia.