The rise of the Lap Top Winery

I had a really interesting discussion with a wine making mate based in the Barossa, we were discussing the shape of the industry and what was driving the condition it was in.

Its fascinating listening a wine maker and producer discuss this issue, he was very critical on what we called the rise of the Lap Top Winery where people just sit behind their laptops blasting out emails to consumers, producers , retailers etc about their wines many of which have not physical connection or with.

These people most likely have never stepped into a vineyard, little alone a winery and lack the understanding and appreciation of the hard work and effort that gos into creating a great wine.

So what the operating structure of the Lap Tap Winemaker look like?

1. They buy finished wine from a grower or producer

2. They send the wine to a winery to finished and stored

3. When the time is right they send the wine to a bottling facility and bottle.

4. The wine is sent to distribution facility for holding & future distribution

5. The emails are sent out extolling the greatness of this/these wines , normally priced at ridiculously low prices as low as $50.00 per dozen. (marked down from $320.00 a dozen it has to be a bargain)

6. The wines are sent to the consumer and retailer and the cycle starts again.

The funny thing is that at no stage have the wines he/she has created have been touched, seen and tasted this is a complexly automated hands free wine making process which me defies the whole practice and emotion that goes into the creation of wine.

Sorry this is not my idea of what a wine maker looks like, it looks and feels more like a pyramid scheme not unlike AVON or AMAZON as these so called wine makers contribute no form of value add or add to the consumers wine drinker experience.

Normally these wines come out looking like some lovely bespoke small family producer they could not be further removed from the proof if you tried, we have seen many examples of this of late Coles and Woolworths being the biggest offenders

This is a no win situation as we know growers are no achieving a price for their fruit which no even cover their production costs, as an example growers in the Barossa were receiving about $2100.00 per tonne for their Shiraz today they are lucky to get between $60-$65.00 per tonne for the same fruit.

On top of this it has been quoted that there is over 8 Million Hectolitres of wine in tank storage in Australia and most of this is starting to age with a lot of reserve stock dating back as far as 2017, this does not help.

Big wine companies are starting to squeeze smaller producers harder and harder, they to are looking at ways to trim their costs and operating structures, if you are in the trade you will note the reduction of wine sales reps, if they are in market they are carrying huge books of wine to flog.

They do not come cheap as it estimated that the average wine sales rep will cost around 1.2 Million AUD to keep in the field per year, that's a lot of booze that needs to be sold just to recover their cost.

We are seeing massive consolidation of roles as well where 2-3 reps would call on a single venue these are being rolled into one role to take all the venues requirements with beer, wine and spirits all being sold by one person, the other two roles are now simply redundant and the art of specialisation and the rise the beverage generalist is occurring.

The wine industry is a state of complete disruption, old structures are loosing their relevance, we are moving towards greater automation, the human element of the industry is being devalued, technology is driving innovation and change and not all of it is positive.

I don't care what others may think but wine is an emotional thing, built of on experiences, relationships, authenticity , wine sold without these characteristics being considered is not wine in my eyes.

The continued marginalisation of wine has to be at the core of why consumption is dropping as well as engagement as there is no glue to bind us to what we are drinking.