Monthly Report - July 2022

We have all seen it – “The Book”

 

It is nigh on impossible to find a wine list that is a smallish well curated list of wines that represent major grape varieties and blends, are serving a large percentage by the glass, are not requiring you to “trust” the sommelier, and most importantly are good value.  Also, for one minute do not think that the top end restaurants are not providing many lists of generic pap – they are, but it is just that you are paying huge prices for names that have been the old guard of the “top end” for so many years that their clientele are trained to believe that they are now “fine dining” as they order their lovely bottle of ….

 

You see we may have all been duped.

 

We have been neatly categorised into specific customers, and much to the wine industry’s shame I believe the hospitality industry most probably is 99% correct.  But have we really been duped?  Let us break it down and match in with our list above what we are now categorised as:

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1.      I just need a glass of booze – red or white – it is what you do…

2.      Please educate me – this is a “learning” experience…

3.      Let the “expert” find the bottle he would like…

 

To be honest they are pretty much spot on.  And this makes it a part of the industry that we have slowly but surely been worked out of.  The fact that many of our wines sell out on release and the small volumes we make does not allow us to fit into Category 1. – you have to be wines from the major retailers (Dan’s, Liquorland etc), or old names that spark recognition to be there.  Category 2 is predominantly not for us as the wines do not have enough wine making artifice or wild grape varieties to be able to fit into the “have you ever tried…” crowd, and lastly Category 3 just means you are often buried deep in the recesses of the 150 Australian red wines, to be found by only the hardiest of souls.

 

The trip to the eastern states coming up most probably will not involve many face to face tastings with sommeliers or restaurant staff.  It is not because I do not want to do it, but it is just all of the effort made to meet their schedules to possibly sell a case which is buried in “The Book”.  With that, the chances of becoming a wine on pour are slim, and if that was to occur there is an expectation of reduced rates and a finite window for this to occur.  Cold calling restaurants where you do see a “fit” for our wines is “humility training” to the max, so we tend to follow up with retailers more (who can at times be just as awkward), but as we have more of a history with a number now it becomes more like visiting old friends than any real form of pushy sales.

 

The best wine lists I ever received were not even wine lists, they were a blackboard outside of a café in Bordeaux with 8 wines chalked up, and a tapas bar in Valladolid which had 40-50 amazing bottles high on the wall.  Each by the glass, carafe or bottle, each great value, and each wine I had was delicious in both venues - amazing.  Great wine lists are the cracks of light between hard boundaries, the therking at dawn; but they are becoming unicorns in Australia as we too easily fall into the customer bins allocated to each and every one of us.

 

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Steady flow...

 

As with June we have had a steady flow of rain during the month with only two days recording no rainfall – but there have been no major downpours which has suppressed the totals in comparison to last year (which admittedly was a very wet year).  Four very cold mornings at the start of the month hurt my poor tamarillo trees who are now “re-leafing” after being singed by the cold.  But overall, the weather is in winter mode and that is good news.

 

The numbers for this month and last year’s figures are provided below:

 

July 2022:        

Avg Maximum Temp          16.7°C

Daily Max recorded            19.7°C

 

Avg Minimum Temp           7.2°C

Daily Min recorded             0.5°C

 

Rainfall:                               177.0mm

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The average maximum temperature is slightly higher than in 2021, but the average minimum temperature is a fair bit cooler accounted for by four very cold mornings at the start of the month.  Rainfall total for 2022 is lower than 2021, however rainfall both months are still a little above average for July.

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July 2021:        

Avg Maximum Temp           16.3°C

Daily Max recorded             19.3°C

 

Avg Minimum Temp              9.7°C

Daily Min recorded                4.3°C

 

Rainfall:                                238.9mm

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Jet setting…

 

I will be rushing about trying to achieve as much as possible in the vineyard before heading up to Perth on 12 August and then returning on 21 to get back to the grind.  I do have some visitors later in the month dropping through for 3-4 days which should break up the waking / pruning / eating / working / sleeping routine, as it may add in more / drinking / into the equation.

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As always if you have any queries about what has been written or about wine in general, do not hesitate to contact us either by email, Instagram or Twitter and we will do our very best to answer any question.

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Cheers

 

 

Mark Gifford

Blue Poles Vineyard