Schulz: ‘Wine is a fashion industry’

Wine is “a fashion industry” according to Christie Schulz of Barossa Valley-based estate Turkey Flat, and “you lose your market if you don’t move with the times.”

Christie Schulz

Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to London, Schulz’ revealed a desire to refine the style of the estate’s best-selling wine, it’s Grenache-based rosé.

“We’re moving towards a lighter, crisper, fresher style of rosé with a paler colour. We’re a fashion industry: you lose your market if you don’t move with the times,” she said.

“A lot of the Australian rosé’s on the market have become old fashioned, We’ve pulled back the residual sugar to 4g/l, but I still want the wine to have palate weight. I’m targeting 24-40 year olds as they are our next market,” she added.

Schulz said the company had invested heavily in social media in a bid to attract younger consumers and “re-enliven” the brand.

Turkey Flat currently produces around 15,000 cases of the rosé each year, which it quickly sells out of, though Schulz has no plans to dramatically up production.

“We have to cap production at 15,000 cases otherwise we’d have to make the wine off site and it would lose its identity. I like it being a boutique wine,” she said.

Schulz is pleased to see that men are becoming increasingly open to the idea of drinking rosé, which has led Turkey Flat to be a hit in Adelaide bars and pubs.

Though while 95% of the wine is sold within Australia, Schulz would like to redress the balance by increasing exports of the wine to the UK, US and Asia.

The estate has just experienced its earliest harvest in its 26-year history, with picking beginning as early as 2 February despite it being one of the coolest January’s on record in the Barossa.

“Vines shut down and stop working when the temperature hits over 30 degrees. That hasn’t happened this year, so the grapes ripened more quickly,” Schulz said.