Australians appeared to be taking a fancy on premium European wines amidst its stumbling prices as official statistics showed that imported table wine declined by at least more than a dollar per litre or 13 percent in the year leading to March.

CommSec chief economist Craig James told AAP that a strong Australian dollar has eased down on the price of imported goods, paving the way for more high-end wines entering the local market.

He added that lower cost of wine should lead to encouraging sales figures later this year, which should put more weight on local winemakers keeping high inventories and forced wine retailers to lower price tags which should benefit many consumers.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said that the average value of wine that went to household consumption slid to $6.74 litre in the March quarter this year, as compared to the $7.79 posted in the same period last year.

The same data from ABS also showed that white wine bottles imported in the same period jumped by 12.4 percent while red wine bottle imports spiked by 8.8 percent, also in March 2010.

ABS added that wine imports from Europe has increased over the same period, as Mr James noted that productions levels around the world were very high and "consumers are realising that the benefits of the high Australian dollar are working their way through the wine market."

He said that the current trend points to much lower prices as spurred by global competitions with Australian wine aficionados enjoying at the same time a wide array of choices from a surplus of domestic supplies flooding the market.

The Australian dollar reached a record of 71.74 euro cents last month and outperformed the US dollar and other major currencies at the same time, which pushed major wine retailers to allow consumers to enjoy the benefit of any exchange rate savings.

Giant liquor retailer Dan Murphy's, owned and operated by Woolworths, has affirmed that Australians taste for premium imported wines has been growing but noted that they seem to shy away from cheaper imported bottles owing to the fact that they can opt to buy better local wines, at a lower cost.

The retailer told AAP that customers prefer high value imported wine, regarding it as a treat and new experience but gave assurance that leading imported labels would find it hard to take away market shares from local producers, stressing that "certainly at the value end of the market it's pretty hard to beat Australia."

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