Australia's reputation as a beer-drinking nation has taken a dive with figures showing alcohol tastes are turning to wines and spirits, says The Advertiser newspaper quoting an AAP despatch.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has said that Australians drank their way through 455.9 million litres of wine in 2005, or about 28.1 litres a person.

Spirits consumption also rose during the same period.

Ready-to-drink, pre-mixed spirit consumption also increased to 15 million litres, up from 13.6 million litres the previous year. But it is a different story for beer. Total beer consumption fell to 1.7 billion litres, down from 1.8 billion litres.

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