Interview – Ted Schrauth

Ted Schrauth owns and operates a small specialist company called Old Vines Australia, which has for eight years exported wines by premium small Australian and New Zealand makers into top restaurants and specialist wine stores in the leading US markets, mainly in New York, California, Massachussets, North Carolina, Georgia, Colorado and Las Vegas. In the US he deals with ‘people who know wine and see the best from all over the world and are willing to be creative and different and daring’. Schrauth is based in Perth but spends much time on the ground in the US, where he has helped to champion premium Australian wine by developing strong links with trade and key media, Robert Parker amongst them. ‘My customers see Bordeaux, Burgundy and great Californian wines all the time, but anybody can sell a customer those wines’, he says. ‘So the top places are trying to give customers something exotic and far away. Australia’s location at the edge of the earth makes a really good starting point.’

What are the major changes you’ve noticed in the American approach to top Australian wines?

Eight years ago I was laughed at and thrown out of stores. Nobody thought they could sell Australian wines for over $10 retail and restaurants weren’t interested at all. The big turning points were Penfolds Grange winning the Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year, which gave instant credibility to the Australian high end. People thought that if there was great wine from Australia at $100 a bottle, there must be some really great wines for $20, $40 and $60.
Around the same time Californian and French prices were starting to escalate and this happened with some shorter Californian vintages, so there was an opening in the market where great Australian wine could fit in. The brands which did well in the early days were Mount Langi Ghiran, Henschke, Pierro, Charles Melton, Jasper Hill, Howard Park, Cullen and Moss Wood.

People are now asking for them ahead of release. When you look at good Californian cabernets now being $US 80-200 per bottle, Moss Wood at $US 55 looked amazing. Australian wines stack up very well against Californian in blind tastings. Recently I showed Moss Wood, Katnook, Cullen and Howard Park wines in blind tastings with the best from California and they would either win or come close to the top.

What wines are today leading the Australian charge in the US?

Australia still runs third behind France and California for cabernet, but everyone knows Australian shiraz, rating it equal to great Rhone wines. It’s not uncommon to see a selection of perhaps ten different Australian shirazes on top wine lists. Today the American market wants mainly red, with shiraz first, then the Rhone blends, the great cabernet. What blew away the American public was the ripeness, the richness and relatively early accessibility at reasonable prices of Australian wine, plus the fact you can buy them to drink or to cellar.

What’s the next step in marketing our top wines in the US?

We need to work on developing an understanding of styles and regional differences with shiraz. It’s fascinating to line up shirazes from Coonawarra, Clare and central Victoria, whose styles are so different. So, depending on the time of year or style of food there are different styles a sommelier can get to know and recommend. Education like France has done with different areas within the Rhone will help the growth of Australian reds in the US.
Cabernet is too international for Australia to have the same opportunity, for it’s harder to break through and make a stand with the style. Bordeaux has its style and history and Californian cabernet has long been a big focus.
Now that Californian chardonnay has become so expensive, great chardonnays from Australia sell out instantly. Names like Pierro, Leeuwin, Dalwhinnie just disappear, although when you get into the mid tier of chardonnay it’s very competitive and harder to differentiate how a particular Australian chardonnay might be better than one from California or from Europe.

Riesling is very exciting but it’s regional. It’s still very difficult to sell in California or in most of the US, but in the North-East we’re selling out of Howard Park and Tim Adams where even three years ago it was very difficult.
Are there any warning signals for Australia?

It will get more competitive and the bigger Australian companies will need to be more aggressive in the US with promotions and brand building, which the best are doing already. There’s a great base awareness, but California has a lot of juice coming on, so it will get difficult. At the volume end a lot of work needs to be done on marketing and distribution to bring it to the level the country needs.

The Southern French category is booming. In Languedoc and other areas without strict controls people have more leeway with varietals and winemaking. Their price is good, the packaging good, the wine is good, if not quite as ripe and full as from Australia. Spain is getting a lot of press right now and deservedly so with its tempranillo and grenache, and by offering interesting and robust red wines for reasonable prices. It’s the hot thing right now. People are also excited about Argentinian malbec and Chile’s doing well under $US10.

At the other end, the great small producers of Australia have an incredibly bright future. Most small makers could sell their entire export allocation just in New York. If it’s great wine, people are willing to buy. In some of the great restaurants people are trying to buy ten to twenty cases of wines to cellar themselves.

Australian wine is now entrenched. In the press everybody is writing about it, everybody is aware of Australia and interested in seeing new vintages and producers.

Americans love Australia and Australians; they all want to come to Australia. They have this great image and feeling for the place, almost a love affair. That’s important for all the wines, especially with the Olympics around the corner. In much of the US there’s a Great Gatsby lifestyle right now, which has helped enormously. It’s been a great time to get Australian wine out there, for the timing of the present economic boom has been fantastic for it. Please login to post comment