Wine Australia pulls out the big guns for US industry push

Having just completed a major push into China, Wine Australia has pulled out some of the biggest wine-making guns for this week's Australia Decanted mission in the United States.

The inaugural event at Lake Tahoe, California, saw 100 key US wine industry figures given a four-day tutorial on Australia’s diverse wine offering.

Over four days from July 22-26, 13 winemakers including Tim Kirk, Louisa Rose, Sue Hodder, Jeff Grosset, Bruce Tyrrell, Sarah Crowe and Michael Dhillon, shared stories about Australia’s fine wines and regions.

Senator Anne Ruston said Australia Decanted plays an important role in accelerating growth of Australian fine wine in the US.

“The Australian government’s $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support Package provides the opportunity to kick-start a renewed push by our exporters into this critical market, allowing the sector to build on the export growth Australian wines are experiencing in China, the UK and Canada,” she said.

Wine Australia chief executive officer Andreas Clark said Australia Decanted was the perfect platform to launch the wine sector’s return to a US market in which it was once a dominant player but has recently lost its away.

“The US trade has told us that now is the time for Australian exporters to re-engage with the US market," he said.

“This event will flow into Aussie Wine Week later this year and we’ve earmarked September 2019 as Aussie Wine Month to hit the US market en masse and really grab hold of the growth opportunities available.”