Down Under – Wine Australia to Shift Focus Away from “Brand Champions”
What with their over-reliance on mass-marketing lower end products (damned critter wines!); and, of course, their relying heavily on those high ratings that Robert Parker so lovingly gave to those big bad-boy Shiraz’s; yep, they kinda leaned on that too. Now sales to Britain and the U.S. are down, and the dollar? That’s levelled out as well.
Which all adds up to: The Australian wine industry is in some trouble.
As The New Times Reports, Australians are going to have to pull back before recovery can begin. (Thank god for the Asian market, where Australian wines are still a new phenomena). Still, this is bad news for growers, winemakers, and winery owners alike. Most likely scenario is that wineries will have to merge, vines will be uprooted, and many jobs will be lost. Read more here.
And perhaps enjoy a nice Torbreck GSM while you’re at it.
Alana Zerbe
JD/LLM (Int'l Human Rights Law), Certified Sommelier, Wine Educator, Hedonist, Survivor. A director at the Wine School of Philadelphia and editor at Epikur Magazine. For information on wine classes and programs go to www.vinology.com
