De Bortoli off loads wine
BRANDED chardonnay is selling for as little as $1.50 a bottle in the Riverina as the region becomes the latest to remove large areas of vines.
With the wine glut threatening to send scores of growers to the wall, De Bortoli Wines is selling a labelled 2006 chardonnay for just $1.50 at its Bilbul cellar door, near Griffith.
It follows outrage over two-litre bottles of Argentinian white wine selling for just $1 in Griffith in April.
De Bortoli managing director Darren De Bortoli downplayed the significance of his wine's rock-bottom price.
"It's just old bottled stock that needed to be cleared - there's nothing material in that," Mr De Bortoli said.
"But the general pricing of wine at the moment is material. Prices have dropped dramatically in the last three years."
Others in the industry say the price is symptomatic of the crisis in the Riverina, as grape prices sink to their lowest in nearly 20 years.
The Wine Grapes Marketing Board has warned growers are removing vines in response to clear signals prices will not improve next year.
Last month's release of a vintage 2010 wine grape price survey shows Riverina growers received an average of just $305 a tonne, the lowest since 1992.
Wine Grapes Marketing Board chief Brian Simpson said the glut had "finally sunk in hard in the Riverina".
"Growers now understand the harsh reality of the market and are looking at getting out of the industry," he said. "Growers are leaving, ripping vines out and walking off farms now."
Mr Simpson said until now, the Riverina had avoided the large-scale vineyard removal seen in the Murray Valley.
The oversupply has forced Yenda-based Casella Wines, whose brand Yellow Tail is the world's fourth largest, to cut its national intake by 20,000 tonnes
But managing director John Casella said he had not cut suppliers, opting instead to cap how much fruit it took from them.
"I can honestly say not one of our growers would be considering removing vines because we are committed to buying their grapes," he said.