The New South Wales government is to become the first in Australia to move against the practice of selling wine as ‘cleanskins’, the term by which wine is sold without any label or standard drink content attached to the bottle. This practice has been conveniently justified by the presence on the carton of the mandatory labelling details. Cleanskins have clearly tapped into a significant market. They represent a short-term means by which wineries can generate a quick buck on young wines and bypass the expensive processes of labelling and usual packaging. To consumers cleanskins represent a chance to buy cheap wine from other than the mass-produced budget offerings of the larger companies and often with small maker appeal. Frequently sourced from cool climates and highly sought-after regions, these wines can at first glance represent ‘savings’ of around 100% against comparable fully-dressed wines, although I very much doubt that these same cleanskin wines would be worth twice the price if packaged with all the trimmings. But cleanskin wines are an anomaly in these times of high expectations concerning food presentation and labelling. Imagine if a cleanskin were to initiate some form of public health scare requiring a product recall. It would be next to impossible to manage. To its great credit, the New South Wales government has found that the word ‘package’ in the Food Act covers all packages, including the cover and the carton, making all cleanskin wines in that state illegal since they do not visibly present the information rigorously demanded on labelled wines. Other states are expected to follow. This issue introduces my new yearly guide to Australian wine, which like this newsheet, is a self-published project. The 1998 Australian Wine Annual incorporates several modifications from other guides I have authored, including the use of actual scores out of 20 for each of the vintages included, rather than ratings. Since ratings are actually derived from these scores, it made sense to me to remove this possibly ambiguous step from the process. Each wine’s ‘drinking window’ is colour-coded for simplicity and an approximate price range for its current vintage accompanies each listing. The 1998 Australian Wine Annual is as up-to-date as a book can be and is intended as a companion to OnWine. Finally, my sincere thanks to the judges of the WA Wine Press Club’s Media Award for 1997, who recently presented OnWine with its first-ever award: for the best article written last financial year on Western Australian wine. The article was entitled ‘Western Magic’ and appeared in the February/March issue of OnWine (Vol 1, Issue 4). It’s greatly valued and enormously encouraging. Happy drinking this Springtime.
