DAN'S WINE BLOG- GRUMBLE GRUMBLE

DAN’S WINE BLOG

2024-02-09

GRUMBLE GRUMBLE!!

This week I am having a winge about some members of the Australian wine industry. This is my 37th year in the industry, so I have seen plenty of ups & downs over that time. When I joined in the 1980’s some red wines were still being bottled in flat bottomed brown bottles, the reds were labelled either Burgundy, Claret or Hermitage with almost no varietally labelled wines around. Hey they even grew Pinot Noir in the Barossa in those days.

We have come a bloody long way since then, peaking a few years ago when we were selling “metric shit tonnes” of wine to China (40% of all their wine imports).

Today wine is on the decline globally, with people drinking less – the Chinese drink 50% less than they did 5 years ago, even the French are now drinking (for the first time ever) more Rose than reds!! Therefore a greater effort is required to promote ones wines in order to stay financially viable and not end up flogging off one’s stock cheaply at auction.

My beef is that in these tough times, the number of Aussie wineries seeking and obtaining free publicity has plummeted. Let me explain, for 13 years I have been a freelance wine writer with 102 out of the 106 articles I have written published by some of the country’s leading wine magazines. Most of these articles have been about Emerging Varieties as Australia is doing a sensational job in heading towards growing the most suitable varieties given global warming.

When writing an article, I e mail around 30 wineries who produce that variety and ask for a sample for a tasting. For some of the rarer/ more obscure varieties, I am one of, if not the first to write about it. #picpoul, #arinto, #pecorino, #mencia and #saperavi come to mind.

Until recently I used to receive a great response- to the extent that when I was writing about Marsanne a few years ago Tahbilk Wines sent me 12 consecutive vintages of their sensational Marsanne. Normally 2-4 wineries out of the 30 I contact, will advise that they do not grow the variety or only use it as minor blending material, 3-5 wineries will have an incorrect e mail address on their web site, 3-4 will say they are sending samples and forget to do so (despite follow up) and the rest send samples. My tasting panel (3 non-winemakers) and I taste the wines and (usually) all but 1-2 get mentioned in the article.

However twice late last year, I had to cancel articles because out of the 25-30 wineries I contacted, only 3-4 actually sent samples ( I reviewed them on social media). Here was an opportunity to get their wine mentioned in a high circulation national magazine, for the cost of one bottle plus postage and they didn’t. Why?

Further to this, since 2015 I have been reviewing wines, free of charge, on various social media platforms, with the exposure level rising lately with the advent of Tribel & Threads. There are several wineries, including some of the largest in the country who send me their new releases for review, including Pernod Ricard, Yalumba & ALDI Australia – with the occasional sample from Accolade Wines . Up until Covid, there were a considerable number of small boutique wineries also sending samples, resulting in my reviewing 2000+ wine a year on social media. However that has dropped off as well, even though the number of contacts I have on social media is still rising.

In 2023 I received and reviewed many more wines from Mudgee, the NSW Hilltops region and King Valley Victoria that I did from the Riverland (I have been a strong proponent of Riverland Wine since working there in 2001-2004) or from the Adelaide Hills, again despite my ongoing avid promotion of the Hill’s sensational Gruner Veltliners.

I raise this issue mainly out of sheer curiosity as I fail to understand how when times are so tough wineries can’t be arsed to send out some samples so as to get (almost) free publicity. I have become convinced that many Aussie winemakers are just like newsagents. How often do you see a newsagent come out from behind the counter and actually assist a potential customer. They mainly just stand behind the till to ring up the sales. I think too many winemakers expect sales to come to them just because they make good wine!!

If you have a good theory for this counterproductive attitude, please let me know.

For those who are producing great emerging variety wines or pushing DtC sales and have creative marketing- keep up the good work, you will succeed whilst others will fail.

OK so I’ll get of my soap box, wish you a great week and always #chooseaustralianwines and when possible enjoy #emergingvarieties

Cheers

Dan