Are we at peak Pinot?

Anecdotally, Pinot Noir is flying, with reports from producers (especially Victorians) that they can’t make enough Pinot Noir (but Shiraz has slumped), a situation that has been gradually increasing over the past decade.

There’s a bevy of consumer insights that suggest Pinot Noir is on the up, too. I’ve lifted this graph from a Wine Australia report (it’s an IRI/Market Edge stat), which shows how Pinot Noir was the only mainstream red grape to enjoy an increase in value and volume in off-premise Australian retail trade in 2022…

According to the same report, a revealing statistic is that ‘in the Australian on-trade, Pinot Noir has the most listings of red wine varieties on wine lists in bars and restaurants, with an 18.5% share’ (although this is down from a 19.3% share in 2021).

What’s also interesting is that Pinot Noir is the fourth most planted red grape in Australia, but represents just 3% of the national crush (circa 50,000 tonnes of Pinot Noir crushed in 2024, compared to 300,000 tonnes of Shiraz).

The Google trend report suggests Pinot Noir has been on the rise for a decade, especially compared to Cabernet Sauvignon, which is not going anywhere:

Perhaps the most important consumer at Australian Wine and Drinks Review HQ (Mrs Ozwinereview) is also a very big Pinot Noir fan, with Grenache the only other real contender for grape MVP.

On that note, here’s a tidy collection of the wines that have been hits on the Australian Wine and Drinks Review tasting table this month: