Noticed how much harder it is to find some Australian wines these days? It’s almost as if the best of the stuff is no longer there, mysteriously secreted away to parts foreign, syphoned off from under our very noses before we have the chance to place a bid. Otherwise it’s becoming too pricey or sells out before it sees sunlight, let alone gathers dust. That, as any Frenchman will tell you, is the price of success. Welcome to the new world or what certain English, oblivious of the Empire’s passing, refer to as wine’s New World. Switzerland and the United States aside, there’s not a wine producing country able to keep the best for itself. Now that Australia is almost exporting its every third bottle of wine and is planting new vineyards with equal parts of science and stock exchange to meet its spiralling export opportunities, it’s time to face the reality that the Poms, the Japs, the Yanks, the Kiwis, the Canadians, the Scandinavians and even the French demand something other than a staple Australian diet of Jacobs Creek and Lindemans Bin 65. This is the very reason that where shops were once crowded with such indigenous classics as Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon – and I can remember lugging it onto the floor of Dan Murphy’s by the pallet load – their new-found domestic scarcity is being explained by such terms as ‘allocation’ and ‘overseas demand’. Even some of Australia’s most minuscule wineries are indulging themselves in export when the tiny quantities they sell overseas would be eagerly swallowed by a domestic market becoming increasingly starved for quality local wine. In doing so, these winemakers create an artificial scarcity which makes it harder for those who helped establish them to continue their support. Many Australian vineyards are exporting more to satisfy the egos of their proprietors than for anything else. Why else you would rob yourself of certain local sales in order to enter the complexities and inconsistencies of an export market in which you will find it difficult to maintain a regular presence? Australian wine should comfortably achieve its goal of exporting $A 1 billion worth of wine each year by 2000 if export growth continues at half its rate over the last decade – over 30% per annum. Export sales in 1993 reached 124.3 million litres, worth $343.7 million to the Australian economy. Exports for the year to February 1994 grew by 35.5% over the previous year. The United Kingdom remains Australia’s largest export customer, growing by 45.4% in 1993. Of all UK wine imports, Australian wine accounts for around 6%, against a French figure of 39%, Germany (26%) and Italy (10%). The French, whose share of this market is falling at approximately the same rate as Australia’s is growing, are less than amused. One hundred years ago the quality end of the Australian wine industry was almost exclusively driven by export. When Victoria was the major wine-producing colony the fine, elegant wines of the Yarra Valley and Geelong were largely made to satisfy English and American demand. At the same time we were called ‘John Bull’s Vineyard’ our local population felt more at home at the steering end of a bottle of local rum or beer. If wine was preferred, it was more likely a stronger, fortified wine from areas such as Victoria’s north-east. When the world market crashed, so did the heart of the quality Australian wine industry. Could history repeat itself? I doubt it, but you can’t ignore the possibility altogether. Today there are more reasons – and compelling reasons as that – why Australian wine so extraordinarily popular overseas. Most Australian wine exports come straight from our warmer areas, which hardly know the meaning of a poor season. The smaller, trendier and more variable cool-climate operations might get most of the press, but they’re clearly in the top corner of the pricing pyramid of the wine we send overseas. More than any other, the standard Australian wine is consistent, flavoursome, clean, well-made and great value for money. It is generally well-packaged and labelled, made from a sought-after grape variety such as chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon and is ready to enjoy the day it is bought. Australian wine is relatively chemical-free, non-nuclear (Scandinavians know it won’t make them glow in the dark) and is popular with the European and American wine judges and media alike. Australia makes the world’s benchmark mid-to-cheap chardonnay and our biggest single wine, Orlando Jacob’s Creek, which in itself uses up more than one-sixth of Australia’s total wine grape tonnage, is the largest-selling bottled and branded wine in the UK. But Australian wine has a problem on its hands. Already there’s not enough of it to satisfy export requirements and if exports continue to grow until the year 2000 at even half the rate of the last decade, the industry will have to expand by just over 50% by then just to meet additional overseas demand. An enviable problem to be sure, but as the board members of the major Australian wine exporters are all too aware, there are queues of wineries in Chile, Argentina, Eastern Europe and South Africa just waiting for the Australian supply-line to falter. Current estimates suggests that 200 million extra litres are needed for export by 2000, while another 50 million litres are required to meet increases in domestic consumption. This equates to about another 390,000 tonnes of wine grapes, a massive increase given the total crush in 1994 of around 640,000 tonnes. It costs around $25,000 to establish a hectare of vines (including the price of land), so the industry will need to spend around $1 billion in grape production alone, aside from the additional winemaking facilities necessary to process the material, all within the next seven years. Each of Australia’s four largest wine companies is actively investing in new vineyard developments. Southcorp Wines is spending around $A 70 million over the next two years to increased vineyard capacity. Orlando Wyndham has achieved a $50 million public float of its vineyards as Simeon Wines Limited, the float closing a week early and oversubscribed. BRL Hardy is spending $10 million a year over the next 5 years to double its company-owned vineyards and Mildara Blass will increase its own area under vine from 650 hectares to at least 1,000 hectares. Given that there are already a decent hatful of medicos in wine, there appears to be plenty of incentive, then, for a few more of you to follow suit. Bon chance.
