THE TELEGRAPH: Beer consumption in Australia has dropped to a 60-year-low as the younger generation abandons the "amber nectar" in favour of wine.
Think of Australia and the immediate associations are beaches, kangaroos and, of course, beer.
The legendary love for lager Down Under has been perpetuated by cultural exports including Barry “Bazza” McKenzie and Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan and reinforced by memorable marketing campaigns including the Castlemaine XXXX adverts featuring the tag-line: “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else.”
But according to new statistics, the worship of the “amber nectar” has gone flat, as beer consumption has dipped to its lowest level in 60 years.
The party-loving nation has not gone teetotal, however. Instead, the younger generation has developed a more refined palate, swapping cans of lager for bottles of wine.
Australians drank 11.3 pints of lager per person in 1979, but last year consumption sank to just 7.9 pints, the lowest amount since the 1950s.
In contrast, wine consumption quadrupled between 1960 and 2000, and has maintained a steady increase of about four per cent per year since, according to the Wine and Brandy Corporation. >>> Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Friday, May 28, 2010
