Something that’s become quite clear to us over the past few months – sipping with you at events and travelling with you on tour – is that hardly anyone knows how hard things have got recently for the Australian wine industry, and least of all for the women.

Some of you have started to see some of the recent media reports around this, but the issue has been going on for the last few years. So we thought it was time we addressed this openly, because we love these women and their wines far too much to pretend everything is rosy! Here’s what’s happening and here’s what you can do.

First, the good news.

Australian wine has arguably never been better than it is right now! The quality and diversity is second to none. And the women in wine behind it are doing some of the finest work of their lives. (Hold onto that as you read the rest.)

The world is drinking less wine (apparently)

Behind the “business as usual” approach, the last few years have been a brutal stretch for our wine producers. The world is simply drinking less wine than it used to. Global consumption fell yet again in 2025 to its lowest level in more than sixty years. It’s now around 14 per cent below where it was in 2018, with no sign of levelling off yet.

The younger generations coming up behind are drinking less of everything and this has contributed to whole industry now having far more wine than it can sell.

And Australia has it worse than most

Most of the surplus is red wine, and it is at the value end that things are particularly bad. For years, that’s been where Australia was strong globally.

These numbers tell the story better than we can:

• We’re currently sitting on about two billion litres of (predominantly red) wine in storage (roughly two years’ worth) and around 262 million litres of that is simply more than the market can absorb.
• Down in the Riverland, growers were offered something like 80 to 120 dollars a tonne for their 2026 Shiraz, when it costs them well over 350 dollars a tonne to grow it.
• When you lose money on every tonne you pick, the vines start coming out of the ground, and they are coming out by the thousands of hectares in regions all over Australia. Not just the bulk wine regions either. Premium areas like Margaret River have also experienced significant vine pull.
• The industry’s own peak body has gone to Canberra for a rescue package, warning of a level of stress on growers and winemaking families that we haven’t seen in generations. (Canberra, by the way, has barely responded.)
• And no, China reopening for our wine exports hasn’t fixed it, because they’re buying less than half what they used to and have moved on to whites and lighter styles anyway.

Why the current situation often hits women in wine hardest

The women in wine we work with most closely tend to sit right in the firing line of all this. The ones who feel it first are the small independent labels, so many are owned by women directly or their wider family, who need you to walk through the cellar door and take a bottle home or buy from them directly online, because that’s where the profit margin actually comes from.

Meanwhile the big supermarket-owned bottle shops dominate what gets sold (Dan Murphy’s and BWS alone take about 40 per cent of the country’s liquor sales), and their copycat house brands keep pushing the real independent labels aside. So the direct purchase matters more than it ever has.

Many of the women in wine you’ve met through us over the years, the ones you’ve sat across the table from and poured a glass with, are exactly these small independent makers. They’re as resilient as they come and stubborn in all the best ways, but a good number of them are having the hardest year of their working lives.

We thought you should know this.

Where you come in

You have more sway over how this goes than you might think. Every single bottle you choose from a woman whose wine you love is a small, quiet vote for her still being here next vintage.

So keep drinking the wines you adore and ordering from her directly online (or at her cellar door if you live nearby). And ordering an extra bottle or two for a friend who doesn’t know her yet counts as double for sure!

Supporting women in wine directly is the whole reason we started FLWS all those years ago, and we don’t think it has ever mattered more than it does right now.

Who are you going to buy your wine from this week? Make it count.

Sources

1. Wine Australia, Australian Wine Production, Sales and Inventory Report 2025 — national inventory of 2.06 billion litres and an excess of around 262 million litres. https://www.wineaustralia.com/news/media-releases/australian-wine-production-sales-and-inventory-report-2025
2. Riverland Wine, open letter to the South Australian Premier, November 2025 — 2026 Shiraz offered at $80–$120 a tonne against production costs above $350 a tonne. https://riverlandwine.com.au/news/riverland-wine-urges-premier-to-act-on-industry-crisis/
3. International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), State of the World Wine Sector in 2025 — global consumption of 208 million hectolitres, the lowest in more than sixty years and about 14% below 2018 (reported by just-drinks). https://www.just-drinks.com/news/wine-consumption-fell-in-2025/
4. Australian Grape & Wine, 2026–27 Pre-Budget Submission — a $139.25 million call for government intervention and warnings of stress across wine families not seen in generations (reported by WBM Online). https://wbmonline.com.au/structural-crisis-in-wine-industry-deepening/
5. Meininger’s International — China buying less than half its 2017–18 volume, and Dan Murphy’s and BWS accounting for around 40% of national liquor sales while private-label brands squeeze independents. https://www.meininger.de/en/meiningers-international/insights/australian-wine-industry-faces-existential-crisis-oversupply
6. The Drinks Business — the federal government scrapping its wine tourism and cellar door support programme, May 2026. https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2026/05/australia-shocked-as-government-slashes-wine-tourism-budget/
7. ABC News — Riverland grape growers facing prices far below the cost of production and pulling vines amid deepening oversupply, November 2025. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-27/white-wine-oversupply-set-to-deepen-grower-crisis/106049916