Last week, more than 60 Australian wine producers descended on Vinexpo Asia in Singapore, where they were looking to increase their export mix and establish new trade connections at the region's largest annual wine trade show.

This included a large variety of producers and portfolios, ranging from big to small, well-established in the region to newly-arrived, and value-oriented to premium.

One of the recurring themes across the board was the tendency away from bigger, bolder wines towards more elegant styles, whether that be whites or lighter red varieties.

“I think it’s about discovering things again,” Sons of Eden Winemaker and Proprietor Corey Ryan tells Drinks Trade. “Riesling’s got a lot of interest about it, which is really nice, and as a general thing, white wine: a lot of the Chinese people are really interested in white wine, which is obviously where they see the future heading.”

Travis Fuller, Kilikanoon’s Managing Director, shares a similar viewpoint: “Whites are really starting to show a lot of interest,” he said. "People [were] looking at the rieslings, but then our pinot gris, it's a softer acid, [and] particularly in the Southeast Asian region, they don't really like that sharp acidity: they're working. And then the GSMs and the straight grenaches.”

Given the seeming ubiquity of this trend, Drinks Trade spoke to both Handpicked Wines and Xavier Wines – two Australian producers with a focus on cool climate Australian pinot noir and chardonnay, albeit at different scales.

Peter Dillon, Chief Winemaker at Handpicked, said “[it’s] pleasing to see that growth in the scope and breadth of what people are interested in, so things like that evolution of interest in those lighter, more elegant styles of wines, which for us as a producer with a focus on chardonnay and pinot as a base, has been exciting to see.”

Similarly, Xavier Wines’ export manager Chris Rowland says “the trend line is going more towards Burgundy – the lighter reds and the chardonnays as well.

“There was, probably 10 years ago/15 years ago, a higher trend towards shiraz and cabernets, but it's all tapering off," continues Rowland. "Also, when we are at Vinexpo, we really find that people are looking for something different – there's a lot of interest in smaller vignerons and people doing different things, rather than the legacy, which was those mass producers.”

However, despite the trend, Peter Dillon says the overall picture on the ground is much more diverse, and that Australia's wine industry shouldn't be shunning its full bodied shiraz and cabernet sauvignon just yet.

“It's been actually quite interesting, where on one hand a visitor will come in and they'll be interested in the heavier reds, like the cabernet from Coonawarra, and then the next person will be wanting to talk about the Tasmanian chardonnay. That, for us, is possible just because we've got that presence in those different regions across the country, but I do think where, in years or decades gone by there was such a focus in South East Asia on heavy reds, now it's so much more diverse, so there's that level of complexity in the market.”

For Wakefield, Taylors Wines’ export business, strong demand for its Aromantiques wine collection stands as powerful insight into the evolving Asian market.

General Manager International Margaret Harris said, “We've launched our new Aromantiques, which is more targeted at younger female demographics, you know, recruiting them into the wine category … and that's doing really well. We're just about to launch them in Singapore and Taiwan and a few other markets.”

Interestingly, Harris describes the conversation around making wine appealing to younger Asian demographics as very similar to in Australia: “It's pretty much a universal human truth that younger female shoppers want something a bit more light and refreshing, and that's what we're really seeing globally.”

Reflecting on a separate yet adjacent category, Fourth Wave’s Export Manager Peter Ham says that lower alcohol wines are starting to gain traction in several Asian markets. “Refreshing, moderate alcohols, all this stuff that we've seen in the movement globally, it's heavily happening in Asia, and it makes sense: the climate, the food quality, the food styles, all lend themselves to those sorts of wines.”

However, Ham clarifies that this is an “interest in lower alcohol wines, not zero. Zero's got its place, but it's just more the mid-strength and lower alcohol stuff that people are seeing a little bit more for lifestyle drinking.”

When asked about red wine trends specifically, Kilikanoon’s Travis Fuller notes strong demand for “lighter-bodied red wines with soft tannin,” such as its grenache and GSM blends; and Fourth Wave's Peter Ham says that “contemporary styles” that are “a little bit more refined, a little bit more aromatic, [and with] a little bit less oak, less tannin” are performing well.

Offering a different viewpoint, Angus Barnes, the new General Manager of Mudgee winery Bunnamagoo, says styles such as tempranillo are also showing promise.

“I think people want more elegant wines, they want that light and fresh," Barnes said. "We launched tempranillo a couple of years ago and that's gone really well for us and we sell a lot of those … [but] our biggest selling SKUs are our traditional chardonnay in particular, our cabernet, and shiraz. We're also seeing this emergence of aromatic whites. For us, pinot gris is going really well, sauvignon blanc is going really well, rosé is going really well.”

The final key trend flagged by the seven Australian producers featured in this article, and the many more Drinks Trade either interviewed or spoke to on the ground, is the ongoing rise in demand for sustainable and organic wines.

“Increasingly people are interested and wanting to know more and probably making those choices to go down that path, and that's something that we're embracing,” Peter Dillon said.

“It's a bit like a snowball rolling down a hill where you gain a bit of momentum and those conversations lead to more conversations.”