Barossa Valley

The Barossa has grown Shiraz since the 1840s on vines that escaped the phylloxera louse, so it holds some of the oldest producing vineyards anywhere. Its top wines, Penfolds Grange among them, sell at fine-wine prices. Yet after China closed to Australian wine in 2020 and a glut followed, land values fell to about US$55,000 a hectare at the end of 2025, a fraction of what good Shiraz ground fetched two years earlier.

Economics in brief

Australia’s wine industry has been through its worst slump in decades: tariffs of up to 218% shut China from 2020 to 2024, red wine piled up unsold, and growers were paid less than the cost of production for ordinary Shiraz. Barossa land fell 10% in 2025 alone to around US$55,000 a hectare, while high-quality Shiraz vineyards had sold for about US$140,000 two years before. The old-vine estates at the top are largely insulated; the valley floor is not. China reopened in 2024 and the trade is watching whether prices recover.