Twenty years ago you would have been institutionalised if you suggested that the Australian wine industry could collect such an award, but at the 2000 Business Asia Awards, run in conjunction with Business Asia magazine, it actually happened. Southcorp Wines was named as the Best Large Business Activity in Asia. Southcorp’s annual sales of $14.5 million, up by 9% from the previous year, is a reflection of the Australian wine industry’s gradual appreciation of what it takes to build long-term relationships in Asia. It wasn’t all that long ago that Australian wineries attempted to tailor-make products for Asian markets, many of which were little more than nightmares spawned in the creative departments of some of the country’s more expensive advertising agencies. Instead, brands like Lindemans have used with great success Asian identities like Jackie Chan, whose Reserve Release Lindemans label alone has sold more than 200,000 cases to Asian markets in the last year. Australian wine exports to Asian markets have clearly been buoyed by increasing wine consumption in Japan, which has increased from 1.8 litres to 3 litres per head between 1997 and 1999.
