Wine Australia 96 Who’s a Sceptic Now?

If you’re anywhere near Melbourne in October 1998, pencil Wine Australia into your diary now. I arrived at Darling Harbour on June 18 with as much scepticism as any winemaker, but only an hour into the first day it was clear the event was a winner. The broadening smile on the face of Ian Sutton, chief executive of the Winemakers Federation of Australia, told all.

Like many people involved in the wine industry who happened to live outside Sydney, I found it hard to develop any enthusiasm for Wine Australia 96. Publicity was minimal at best and I went north ready for a litany of excuses. None were required. If more people had shown up in Sydney I’m not sure where they would have put them.

Wine Australia should now receive all the support it needs from industry and government to become one of the most eagerly awaited events in Australia. Despite some dubious floor arrangements at regional wine stands, a clear insufficiency of food, excessively long opening hours, questionable organisation that left exhibitors fuming as they waited several hours to enter the show prior to the first day, plus general scepticism from the top to the bottom of the wine industry, it succeeded beyond expectations in several ways.

Australian wine showed itself capable of acting as a strong unit which promotes its wares extremely effectively to a world market. Although their numbers were not large, the quality of the overseas buyers was first-class. English wine writer Robert Joseph said at a major dinner that no wine industry in the world could have presented such an event half as well. Although it was not the primary purpose of Wine Australia to provide wineries with a sales counter, two medium-sized companies took export orders for around 70,000 cases between them. The event generated estimated sales of $3-4 million.

The wine industry put its collective hand up as a worthwhile recipient of government patronage. Of the $2.74 million total sponsorship Wine Australia received, $400,000 came from the Federal Government, $330,000 from New South Wales, $200,000 from South Australia, $120,000 from Victoria and $100,000 in total from other states. The sponsorship generated was ‘new’ money the industry would not otherwise have received. The Prime Minister and Premiers from New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, plus a large number of other politicians and bureaucrats who attended the event unanimously voiced their approval of their investment.

The show can pay for itself. Between sponsorships and $400,000 in receipts from the 12,200 paying customers, the event came close to breaking even, aside from the estimated $2 million plus paid by exhibitors in costs, wages, accommodation and travel. Some wineries were smarter than others. McWilliams created a modular stand it can re-use for other promotions and as a reception area in their wineries.

The event worked for small and large wine companies alike. BRL Hardy used Wine Australia as a major focus for their international distributors, especially those from Europe and Asia. Small companies like Tim Knappstein’s Lenswood Vineyards used it on a local basis to cement a presence in the Sydney market.

Wine Australia attracted a large percentage of young people, especially young women. These are precisely the segments in the domestic market the industry has to work hardest on.

The wine education seminars and wine and food cooking classes could have been filled many times over. People queued for hours to attend these events. ‘Wine is still branded by many along with tobacco and drugs’, says McWilliams’ chief executive, Kevin McLintock. ‘This sort of thing will help us get out of that association. A lot of government people saw those queues and a State cabinet minister brought them to my attention.’

Ian Sutton, with whom the buck would stop if the event had flopped, is delighted that the industry’s doubts were quickly transformed to support. ‘At the end of the first day most of them had taken a strong equity in the idea’, he says. ‘It turned out that the worst problem we had was dealing with the 160,000 bottles of wine they brought along. We were only expecting 40,000!’
Obviously Wine Australia 98 will be bigger and better in Melbourne. Lessons have been learned, the sorts of things only experience can teach. For starters, there will be twice as much space in Melbourne. There will be more food, more entertainment, more educational tastings and more demonstrations.

And as for Wine Australia 2000? Also in Melbourne, it will be part of the Spring Racing Carnival which, as you may have figured, starts just after the Sydney Olympics. You can finally say that Australian wine is now as street-wise as the best of them. Please login to post comment