Collective aims to reverse Aussie wine image

Australia needs to rip up around 30% of its vineyards to keep its wine industry on track, according to the head of the country’s newest winemakers collective.

Alister Purbrick, inaugural Chairman of Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW) and CEO of Victorian winery Tahbilk, said the 13-year drought and oversupply of grapes has left the Australian industry at a tipping point.

Speaking exclusively to the drinks business, Purbrick said that wine makers were already walking away from unprofitable vineyards and he expects the 30% reduction target to be reached in three to four years.

“Australia is similar to every other wine industry in that we have an oversupply of grapes, leading to a lot of pressure on retail pricing.

“Like every other wine industry, we need to get our grape supply equation back into balance.

“Ideally we should be looking at having about 1.6 million tones in crush each year but I think we are about three or four years away from that figure. We need something like 30% of our vineyards to be ripped up and destroyed.

“We’ve had a drought here for 13 years now and water is costing a premium. As such we are now at a tipping point in terms of grape prices versus the cost of production, and we’re now at a point where people are walking away from their vineyards because they are just not sustainable.

“In its own way, the drought situation has actually acted as a trigger to help us rectify the oversupply problem, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”

The AFFW has been set up in order to try to reverse perceptions that Australia only produces cheap, commercial, sunshine-in-a-bottle wines by promoting the country’s premium and super-premium wines.

The group of 12 family wineries from across the country are collectively worth AUD$1.2billion. They are planning to spend between $500,000 and $600,000 each year ensuring that the higher end of the Aussie wine market gets a fair crack of the publicity whip.

The campaign is set to begin in the UK early next year in the run-up to next May’s London International Wine Fair, before moving on to China and North America.

Purbrick said: “It’s hard to tell where the common perception of Australian wines as being cheap and cheerful came from, but I feel it all goes back to 2000 when there was a lot of talk in the press, particularly among the French, that New World wines were simply industrial wines.

“You can’t blame the French for trying to jockey for market position, but it was a little unfair. The perception is so far from the reality.

“We need to get some positive press about what Australian wine is doing out there and hopefully the message will trickle down to others in the industry.

“What we want to do in the UK and other markets is to showcase the best of variety and the best of single vineyard wines from over here.

“The families in the AFFW have been trying to do this individually for years, but by operating as a collective we feel we have more chance of getting the message across.”

James Halliday, one of Australia’s leading wine authorities, said: “The challenges for Australia are clear enough. What Australia’s First Families of Wine can and will do is turn words into actions and ambitions into concrete results.”

The new AFFW logo will adorn selected bottles of each winery’s best known wines.

The inaugural members of the AFFW are:

·       Brown Brothers (Victoria)
·       Campbells (Victoria)
·       d’Arenberg (South Australia)
·       De Bortoli (NSW)
·       Henschke (South Australia)
·       Howard Park (Western Australia)
·       Jim Barry (South Australia)
·       McWilliam’s (NSW)
·       Tahbilk (Victoria)
·       Taylors (South Australia)
·       Tyrrell’s (NSW)
·       Yalumba (South Australia)

Alan Lodge, 19.08.2009