Monthly Report - April 2018

A walk with Tussock through the vineyard – Rule #1 never throw the first stick…

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The leaves have held on well this year indicating that the vines have not turned back to their roots as they approach winter.  The small amount of fruit on the vines when tasted in mid-April were still quite rich in flavor, but the tannins were missing, and the acid flavor went from present to absent in a matter of hours it seems.  I have to give a feed to the shiraz vines and I may consider some more biochar as well as some natural fertilizers – this has come about by Clive indicating low nitrogen levels in the grapes, and this is easily fixed by a bit of fertilizing love in Spring.

Another interesting little bit of press came from Max Allen who wrote up a Teroldego tasting that he attended in Margaret River late last year – yes folks do not ever think the wheel of publicity spins too quickly.  Max Allen's Teroldego Article also gave a quick history of how we managed to get the vines, and even better, recognized that our version is pretty damn delicious.  Good winter wine and we still have a few cases out the back if you want a red for an evening of distinguished insobriety.

Where to next for wine retail?…

Australia has yet to touch upon the impact of internet purchasing and all that it entails as we still predominantly use physical stores and sites to buy our shopping and goods.  We only need to start looking at America and Europe to note just how far behind we are in this area, and by default how much we will be catching up in the coming months / years.  Now, you may think this will not change the dynamics of the wine industry much – but I actually think there has never been a more exciting and or scary time for small Australian wineries as they may either thrive or starve in this setting.

Let me explain.

Most small independent wineries are not present in the major Australian liquor chains and by default work on the fringes of the industry.  Go into any Liquorland and count the “actual” small independent producers – nil.  Go into any Dan Murphy’s and try and locate the small wine labels as well – they come and go but generally they are missing and are only present when a commercial wine critic has popped up a lot of praise and/or they have cut a deal with the winery.  But, most importantly there is NO systematic support for small independent wineries from ANY major retail chain.  And this is where the wine etailers have a niche.

By not having a huge outlay in bricks and mortar, wine etailers have popped up everywhere.  The start of their rise came with the major wine glut of 2000-2010 where they literally could ask any winery for any wine at a significantly reduced price, and as long as the volume was large they were in.  This was also a period of “cleanskins” which became a staple in many liquor stores and we were buying bottled wine at prices cheaper than water.  But the glut has now minimized, many etailers went out of business or moved to the next product line, and many of the small wineries which were not quality driven are no more.

The inescapable reality is that we will be doing a much larger percentage of our shopping online in the coming years – especially in the major cities.  Arrival of Amazon and the more portable and usable shopping purchase apps, tied in to reduced delivery costs and times means that a store for many products could be an oddity.  Now, I know you will argue all sorts of statistics and anecdotes that shops are still required, and you are right – BUT – we are not currently using much purchase power over the internet in comparison to other equivalent nations, and even if we reach 70% of their levels in the coming years it is a HUGE change in how we receive our goods as a country.

Thus, we move into the crux of the discussion, how will this change the dynamics of the wine industry?  Well, vitally it will take away the limited range which is offered by the major liquor retailers and offer the consumer with her computer / iPad / smart phone a hell of a lot more choice, and a much more convenient choice.

It also for the first time in years provides the small wineries who are making good wines better ways to access the market.  If you are buying wine over the net, you can now access anyone’s wine thus the power of name recognition comes closer to being a click away from a purchase – for example if I type in “Holyman Wines” to a search engine, I immediately get the website of the winery and purchase options as well as a list of other suppliers and stores.  Now this is not new – but the concept of this being the purchase methodology when you want a bottle of wine for the next day, rather than walking into a retail store is and that is mighty mighty powerful.

Speaking to Tom, Wade and team from Different Drop after we had completed our Allouran tasting in Sydney, it has also become apparent to these guys that forming more than just a simple buying only relationship with small quality driven wineries is critical to their future success.  To have within your portfolio of wines for any wine retailer a list of interesting and quality wines will be the linchpin to the future for many of these operations – simply offering bargains is not enough, you can get them anywhere if the wines are generic and it does not induce loyalty.  But having wines from small production runs, unique varieties and hard to get vineyards with provenance will ensure your buying base will grow within the wine buying world – as very rarely, if bitten by the wine bug, would anyone return to the generic dross pumped out by the major brands.

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