Dry wine season to lift prices

Dry wine season to lift prices
Blair Speedy

WINE prices are expected to rise by up to 30 per cent over the next 18 months as the drought wipes out the grape oversupply that fuelled widespread discounting over the past two years.

Dan Murphy's general manager Tony Leon said it could take up to six months before suppliers began lifting prices, but with this year's vintage expected to be about half the normal size, increases were on the way.

"A few of the suppliers we used to buy cheaper cleanskins from are now saying they can't produce for that price any more," Mr Leon said. "The $1.99 cleanskins will go to $3.99, and I can also see a lot of wine around the $11 mark will go up a couple of dollars."

Drought is estimated to have cut the 2007 vintage to about one million tonnes, half the level produced last year. As water allocations in key growing areas are expected to be drastically reduced, next year's vintage could be even smaller.

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