The Australian wine manufacturing industry is the world's fourth largest exporter of wine with just about 750 million litres a year to the global export market with only about 40% of production consumed locally. The wine industry is a major contributor to the Australian economy through manufacture, employment, export and tourism.
There is a A$2.8 billion home market for Australian wines, with Australians consuming over 530 million litres annually with a per capita consumption of about 30 litres – 50% white table wine, 35% red table wine. Norfolk Islanders are the second biggest per capita wine consumers in the world with 54 litres. Only 16.6% of wine sold domestically is imported. Wine is produced in every state, with more than 60 selected wine regions adding up just about 160,000 hectares; though Australia's wine regions are mainly in the southern, cooler parts of the country, with vineyards located in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. The wine regions in each of these states manufacture diverse wine varieties and styles that take benefit of the particular Terroir such as: climatic differences, topography and soil types. With the chief assortment being principally Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Semillon, Pinot noir, Riesling, and Sauvignon blanc. Wines are often labelled with the name of their grape variety, which ought to comprise at least 85 percent of the wine.