Over nearly three decades of enjoying wine I have built up a wine cellar. Like so many other wine lovers, I thoroughly enjoy opening a mature wine that I have cellared since release and savouring the complexities of age. To do this in New Zealand necessitates starting your own cellar or befriending someone with one, as while I have had successes securing older bottles in Europe, it is very rare to find “museum” or back vintage wines here.
The French drinks giant behind Jacob’s Creek is trying to entice young Britons put-off by the “fussy” wine industry with a new range that will sell for just £6 (A$12) a bottle. Pernod Ricard is hoping to attract millennials to its Australian wine brand by launching five new wines targeted specifically at 18 to 34-year-old drinkers in the UK. The “Sun Craft” range of Jacob’s Creek wines will hit shelves in supermarkets and off-licences in March or April and will carry “easy to remember” branding.
Philip White discusses a new cryptographic digital business model which could revolutionise the way wine is sold, mainly by eliminating bullshit. I have seen the future of the fine-wine industry, and its name is blockchain. This is tricky to explain, so forgive me while I try. As the value of expensive exported wine continues to increase, many opportunities arise for those who would tinker with that main key of added value: the wine’s provenance.
On first read of last week’s Senate Inquiry Report into the Australian Wine Industry, it was a challenge to find the good news! For many, the report was a Claytons, the report you have when you’re not having a report! It contained 12 recommendations, including Recommendation four, that Australia Post should review its approach to wine delivery in each Australian State and Territory!
In the BGWA’s previous Barossa vintage progress report on 8 January 2016, my closing comment was “a small rainfall event soon would be a very good thing”. Thirteen days later, the rains began to fall – setting the Barossa up for a perfect finish to the season. In early January, the growing season had been summarised as “low winter and spring rainfall, followed by a very warm and dry December which has reduced bunch weights”.
It seems like such a long time ago now, but it has been barely 12 months since Treasury Wine boss Michael Clarke called in his old UK chum from Premier Foods, Bob Spooner. His job was to rip tens of millions of dollars in costs out of its supply chain – just like he did with Premier’s bread business while Clarke was in charge. Optimising the supply chain at the wine business is just like slicing bread really, as Spooner showed in October when he announced the closure and sale of the 150-year-old Great Western Winery in Victoria.
This weekend I had the privilege of attending the 25th annual Boston Wine Expo, the largest wine and food expo in New England. Featuring celebrity chefs and seminars from top experts, the two-day Grand Tasting celebrated how wine has evolved over the last 25 years, and also what wine and food trends are emerging in the coming years. Considered one of the best food and wine expositions in the US, the Boston Wine Expo featured more than 1,800 wines from more than 200 wineries, and was a great place for marketing professionals to assess the current trends in the booze industry.
After years of trying to find a ‘second’ white variety that can make an impression, momentum in New Zealand seems to be building behind Pinot Gris. Pinot Gris plantings have doubled in the last seven years, to around 2,700 hectares, making it the fourth most widely-planted grape in the country, after Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Plantings of Riesling, by contrast – thought by many to be the Next Big Thing – are falling. Chardonnay, too, is in gentle decline.
Importer Connoisseur Estates has added New Zealand producer Tohu to its portfolio and will pour the wines at the upcoming SITT tastings in Manchester and London. Tohu joins a stable that includes Oldenburg Vineyards from South Africa, Gauchezco Wines from Argentina, Château d’Anglès from La Clape in the Languedoc and Champagne Autreau. Connoisseur Estates director Andrew Steel said: “With all the changes taking place in the retail landscape right now in the UK, independents have a golden opportunity to enhance their position.”
FAMILY-run wineries have cautiously welcomed a federal government review into the grape and wine industry. Among recommendations in the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee report, released on Friday, was to change laws so labels showed if wine brands were owned or controlled by a major retailer – such as Woolworths or Coles. The two supermarket giants operate liquor outlets such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS and First Choice Liquor and promote their labels prominently.