Sarah Dent, chief executive of the Western Australian Wine Industry Association WAWIA), has created something of a stir in her part of the world by announcing to the media that there were millions of litres of wine hanging around in WA wineries unable to be sold. Dent’s message was unless buyers were found for this wine in the very near future, a number of wineries could be facing serious financial difficulties. Not unexpectedly, these comments have raised the ire of Franklin Tate, major shareholder and chief executive of the largest wine company based in WA, Evans & Tate. The just-drinks website reports that according to Tate, Dent’s comments were ‘misguided and unhelpful, having no regard for the industry’s goals and the currently highly competitive international market’. Tate, who says he is not aware of any glut of red wine, went on to say that ‘The WA wine industry comprises nine different growing regions, spanning in excess of 400km, each having very different terroirs and climatic circumstances. To generalise and imply uniformity is very misguided in the context of this assessment.’ Interestingly, it was then left to the president of the WAWIA, John Griffiths, to announce its plans to assist its wineries compete in export markets by funding stands at some of the world’s major wine expos. It’s a reflection of the overwhelming number of small producers in WA that it only exports about a quarter of the national average of its wines. Although it only comprises a relatively small proportion of the Australian wine industry, WA does highlight the very significant difficulties small wineries have in getting their product to market. An almost endless stream of wine from WA wineries I have never heard of before continues to arrive at my door.
