This report revises, updates and greatly expands a 1998 booklet by Robert Osmond and Kym

Anderson, Trends and Cycles in the Australian Wine Industry, 1850 to 2000, which was

published by the University of Adelaide’s Centre for International Economic Studies. The

earlier booklet was written when the nation’s wine industry was expanding very rapidly. Its

aim was to improve our understanding of prospects for the industry into the 21st century by

bringing a long historical perspective to the current export-oriented boom in the industry.

Those authors were grateful for helpful comments from numerous people in the industry,

especially Brian Croser, Peter Hallier, Peter Hayes, Lawrie Stanford, Stephen Strachan and

Ian Sutton, and for financial assistance from the Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA),

the South Australian Government, and the Grape and Wine Research and Development

Corporation (GWRDC, now part of AGWA, the Australian Grape and Wine Authority).

‘Another magisterial statistical compendium from Kym Anderson, with the assistance of Nanda Aryal: surely no nation’s wine endeavours have ever been more precisely tracked through history than Australia’s are here. The depth and intricacy of the global context, too, makes fascinating and often enlightening reading for any student of wine.’

Andrew Jefford is a wine writer for Decanter and The World of Fine Wine, author of The New France, and former Wine Writer in Residence at the University of Adelaide

‘Kym Anderson is the Australian pioneer in the analysis of the economics of wine, and this book is more proof of that. It provides an interesting quantitative history of Australia’s wine evolution and a model for how to write such a history.’

Professor Orley Ashenfelter of Princeton University, is a former Editor of the American Economic Review, President of both the American Economic Association and the American Association of Wine Economists, and author/publisher of the newsletter Liquid Assets

‘The world of wine is changing in a way and to an extent that is unprecedented. Ancient varieties from all parts of Europe are being enthusiastically planted across the New World, especially in Australia. The mapping of the DNA of the grape vine has opened new windows of understanding. This is why Which Wine Grape Varieties are Grown Where? A Global Empirical Picture (University of Adelaide Press, 2013) is so invaluable. Anderson has now returned to his earlier research on Growth and Cycles in Australia’s Wine Industry.

James Halliday is Australia’s foremost wine writer