The sparkle in a bust

Felicity Edwards, director at global consulting firm AlixPartners in Sydney, examines Australia’s wine industry in crisis, but argues one category is bucking the trend. Now, she says, it needs ‘capital and punch’. This year’s National Vintage Report put the 2026 crush at just 1.27 million tonnes, down 19 per cent year-on-year, the smallest harvest this century. Red production collapsed by 29%, and exports declined to their lowest level since 2004. As set out in From Boom to Surplus, this is a structural shift that will continue amid oversupply, declining per-capita wine consumption in developed markets, and premiumisation pressures that have hollowed out the middle market, Edwards writes.