A forklift was instrumental in promoting Australian wine at "G'day USA: Australian Week" last week.

A wine bottle more than 1.8 metres tall and weighing 585kg, inside a gigantic box, had to be lifted with a forklift when it arrived on Wall Street, New York, Associated Press reported.

Twelve men used a dolly and an iron pry bar to ease the box through the doors of the Cipriani Wall Street ballroom.

The equivalent of 387 bottles of shiraz was in the giant bottle that was part of a week-long effort to promote Australia to US tourists.