Retrospective Decade
After nearly twelve years of writing wine columns for the Australian Dr the time has come for me to submit my last copy for this title. What a time it has been! Australian wine has risen from bridesmaid status to become the favoured son-in-law. In the process it has grasped opportunities, been knocked to the canvas, picked itself up again and dusted itself off. Now it has even become almost too self-assured and cocky.
The numeric successes of Australian wine are the envy of every other wine-producing nation. Back in 1990, exports were just 35 million litres. In May 2002 Australia passed 400 million litres of exports per annum. Sustained export growth by volume and value above 20 for over fifteen consecutive years speaks volumes of the wine industry’s ability to understand what it takes to participate and thrive in the global market. Our largest wine companies are now establishing their own brands in South Africa and the US, presumably to compete against their own home-grown products in export marketplaces. Australia’s other successes lie in its proven ability to deliver a reliable product at a price to a consumer faced by a spectrum of choice that would leave the home-grown supermarket buyer green with envy.
Australian winemakers were the first to understand the power of the varietal name, and as a consequence have seemingly acquired moral ownership in markets like the UK of names like chardonnay and shiraz. Australians have also succeeded handsomely in their ability to develop powerful brands such as Jacob’s Creek, which many citizens of the UK still actually believe represents the absolute apoge of Antipodean winemaking excellence. Yet Australia’s genuine icon wines like Penfolds Grange and the recent Hardy’s Eileen Hardy Shiraz have also paved the way for the shiploads of cheaper wine sold in their image and their wake.
On the surface of it then, all could not be better aboard the good ship Australian Wine. Yet that isn’t entirely the case. While there’s a lot of space in the press at present to what is being variously described as Australia’s ‘glut’ or ‘over-supply’, most of the comment is poorly researched and ill-informed. It misses out on the dual points that Australia is about to hit peak vineyard production, and that if our exports can maintain their current momentum, the present ‘crisis’ will be nothing more than a three-year glitch. Growing pains, really. No, most of the problems facing Australian wine are image-related.
Firstly, the wine industry is taken seriously by neither major political party nor the bureaucrats of the Treasury. Instead of being nurtured by government as one of the greatest contributors to rural employment, tourism and infrastructure, plus one of Australia’s most powerful forms of international promotion, wine is simply a milk cow to whatever party finds itself in office. It operates under a punitive taxation regime that is not only the highest of any major wine producing country, but whose ad valorum basis actively discriminates against the overwhelming majority of Australian wine producers. The wine industry badly needs to get its internal house in order, and then to forge strong ties with both sides of politics.
Australians are becoming complacent about what they sell overseas. There’s a developing feeling that all a wine needs is to have ‘Product of Australia’ inscribed somewhere on its label. There is an entrenched indifference towards any criticism of Australian wine, especially the not uncommon remark that Australian wine is too simple, sweet, contrived and too ‘industrial’. With so much to lose, there is an alarming lack of serious collective intent to maintain quality a step ahead of our rivals.
And, while it might ultimately prove impossible to achieve, Australia has historically been unable to synchronise grape supply with grape demand, leading to a constant transition between under-supply and over-supply scenario that causes grapes to be either too cheap or too expensive at any given time. Even now, while the country faces an unprecedented short-term surplus of red grapes, a shortage chardonnay appears imminent.
But, despite these issues, the last twelve years have represented unimaginable success for Australian wine. Aside from the numerical sales story, Australian winemakers have captured the imagination of some of the most important wine opinion leaders on earth and have largely kept them interested. Australia has developed iconic international brands like Jacob’s Creek, whose growth-limiting step is actually the availability of fruit of requisite quality. Australian wine has become the automatic first choice in wine for tens of thousands of inhabitants of the UK, US, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada. And we have also shown we can make serious pinot noir in the face of a doubting world.
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