US buying more Aussie wine

GLOBAL wine stocks are at their lowest point of the past decade, Rabobank estimates.

The bank's Wine Quarterly report says Australian wine exports have begun to level out.

The first four months of the year Australia registered a 3.2 per cent increase in export volumes while values dropped 5.1 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The rise is attributed to the US buying 7.6 million cases of Australian bulk wine, a 12 per cent increase on the same period last year.

China's appetite for Australian bottled wine continues to slow.

A review of the Australian harvest shows the crop was estimated at 1.66 million tonnes, up 4 per cent on the previous year.

"Red wine production recovered by 7 per cent from the rain-affected 2011 harvest, while white wine production remained much the same as the prior year," the report said.

"The 2012 harvest is the third consecutive below-scale harvest in Australia, which has brought about the first significant rise in grape prices for many regions since 2008."

Average grape prices increased between 10 to 20 per cent in warm inland regions and key red wine producing temperate climate regions.