UK Export Market

While all the excitement is focused on China, there is life in the old bulldog yet.  Australia’s exports to the UK have broken through the $1 billion barrier, increasing Australia’s lead over Italy (the second largest player in the market) and, to my surprise, sales of wines priced above £7 have risen 16% in volume terms over the past 12 months.

Australia’s Estate and Single Vineyard wines – what are the comparisons with Burgundy?

I receive a regular communication from the official Burgundy wine bureau in France. A recent newsletter provided a totally unexpected picture of the knowledge of and reputation of Burgundy in France. With the sole exception of using the word ‘burgundy’ rather than the French ‘bourgogne’, I quote the release verbatim:

‘The last survey conducted in France for the Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) by CSA, shows that Burgundy wines have a very favourable reputation and image. Burgundy wines are graded 7.9/10, representing growth of one tenth of a point compared to the same survey conducted in 2011 with a panel of consumers (men, women, 35 to 65 years old, higher professional categories, buyers and wine consumers).

Burgundy wines have an image of prestige, authenticity, gastronomy, quality, pleasure and terroir. 98% of consumers agree on the fact that the wines are made using ancestral and traditional expertise. They are also seen as a “real pleasure for the senses” and are a synonym for the “French art of living” (96%).

By comparison, the individual reputation of each Burgundy appellation is weak.

The complexity of the Burgundy mosaic is not just a myth. On average, 33% of consumers surveyed know one Burgundy appellation. Amongst the most well known (3 consumers out of 5), are Chablis, Pommard, Mâcon, Nuits-St Georges, Bourgogne Aligoté and Côte de Beaune. However, their spontaneous reputation is far below that of Burgundy as a whole.

The “Burgundy” brand well and truly exists.

It seems fundamental to make the appellations benefit from its positive image, given that the region is the main criterion used when buying wine.’

The take home lesson from this is that those in Australia who think subregions are a good marketing idea should think again, and concentrate on putting the emphasis on regions.

A Quick Word...

It’s really a strange world, isn’t it?  Wine critics and writers around the world have praised the 2008 Penfolds Grange, yet I read that ‘retailers in Australia [are] battling it out in a race to have the cheapest price for the [wine]’.

A little wine for thy health’s sake

In May 2011 the Cancer Council of Australia issued what it called ‘Position Statement. Alcohol and cancer risk.’ Its first key message is (and I quote):

‘Alcohol use is a cause of cancer. Any level of alcohol consumption increases the risk of developing an alcohol-related cancer; the level of risk increases in line with the level of consumption.’

Its second is:

‘It is estimated that 5,070 cases of cancer (or 5% of all cancers) are attributable to long-germ, chronic use of alcohol each year in Australia.’

The sleight of hand is masterful. In the first statement there is no attempt to quantify either the level of consumption (a teaspoon a week?) or the increase of risk (by 0.001%?). In the second statement there is a shift to ‘long-term chronic use of alcohol’ (a clever avoidance of use of the word ‘abuse’).

It brought forth a blistering response from the Boston School of Medicine Institute on Lifestyle and Health. ‘It is shocking that an alliance of organisations, some of which are government agencies, would agree to stand behind such a deliberately misleading misrepresentation of the science addressing the effect of alcohol on human health.’

More specifically, the Boston Institute said:

·         ‘The paper disregards the vast majority of well controlled studies which show significant and concrete public health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.’

·         ‘This Position Statement conflates the effects of excessive and moderate alcohol consumption, and in so doing creates confusion and concern, with the apparent purpose of advancing a prohibitionist agenda.’

It is this (surely deliberate) merging of moderate and excessive consumption of alcohol that is so breathtakingly dishonest in the context of an apparent research debate.

But it gets worse. The greatest (by a considerable margin) cause of death in the Western World is coronary heart disease, and the Boston Institute does no more than state the facts when it says:

·         ‘Scientific data over more than three decades have clearly shown that moderate drinkers are at considerably lower risk of cardiovascular disease; and newer studies also indicate that they are at lower risk of dementia and many other diseases of ageing.’

The Position Statement excels itself when it says:

‘Earlier research which reported that low to moderate levels of alcohol consumption might reduce the incidence of coronary heart disease may be flawed.’

Note the all-important use of the words ‘might’ and ‘may’.

The Cancer Council has well and truly slain the smoking dragon (which I applaud, particularly having regard to the fact that I have never smoked) but its attempt to portray alcohol (regardless of its form) as damaging as smoking is appalling, as is the assumed link between the two.

Compared, it says, with non-smoking, non-drinkers, those who are regular heavy users of both substances, drinking more four or more standard drinks and smoking 40 or more cigarettes a day, have a risk of cancer 35 times greater than that of the abstainers. It is silent about the relative risk of simply smoking at that level, but I’ll wager there’s little difference.

Coming back to reality, there are a number of truths, some inconvenient, some altogether different.

First, most wine is consumed by most people in the context of a meal and over a time span of one to three hours. That is absolutely not the case with beer, spirits and/or RTDs.

Second, there is peer-reviewed evidence to show that the regular consumption of moderate amounts of alcohol does not cause the harm associated with weekend binge drinking.

Binge drinking is a very significant issue in the UK, but is also a social problem in Australia. Here the inconvenient truths come thick and fast. Research from the Australian Institute of Criminology shows that wine is by far the least represented alcoholic drink consumed by those arrested for disorderly conduct on Friday and Saturday nights.

Research from the National Drug Strategy taskforce likewise shows wine to be the least favoured alcohol type for young people, including those who binge. Cask wine is considered the preferred alcohol type by only 1.6% of 14 to 19 year olds who drink, compared to 23% for beer and 44% for RTDs, the remainder for spirits.

An inconvenient truth for all sectors of the alcohol spectrum, including wine (especially fortified) is the deep, grievous and lasting harm it causes to indigenous people. It is beholden to winemakers, large and small, to do what they can to ameliorate this harm. The wine industry has always acknowledged that obligation, and will continue to do so. But to formulate a broad based policy driven solely by this issue – that is, extending to the entire population – would be akin to a hair on the tail wagging the dog.

There are no easy answers in this debate. Plain packaging and restricted access have an Orwellian feel. Impossible? Now, perhaps, but in the future it may be a different story unless the wine industry is able to tell the truth about wine to the silent majority, the bureaucrats, and our political masters.

2014 Wine Companion Book

1910 pages of proof-read, typed text left my desk on Friday (the due date on the timetable) after four months of blood, sweat and tears - and occasional outbursts of bad language. 

A Letter from Pliny the Younger to Calvisus

As the AFL season gets underway, I thought I should pass on a letter from Pliny the Younger to Calvisius, an electronic copy of which was forwarded to me a few weeks ago by Brian Miller.  Pliny the Elder was the great commentator on wine and viticultural practice in Roman times, with only Columella of more importance.

Pliny the Younger

To Calvisius

I have spent these several days past, in reading and writing, with the most pleasing tranquillity imaginable. You will ask, "How that can possibly be in the midst of Rome?" It was the time of celebrating the Circensian games: an entertainment for which I have not the least taste. They have no novelty, no variety to recommend them, nothing, in short, one would wish to see twice. It does the more surprise me therefore that so many thousand people should be possessed with the childish passion of desiring so often to see a parcel of horses gallop, and men standing upright in their chariots. If, indeed, it were the swiftness of the horses, or the skill of the men that attracted them, there might be some pretence of reason for it. But it is the dress they like; it is the dress that takes their fancy. And if, in the midst of the course and contest, the different parties were to change colours, their different partisans would change sides, and instantly desert the very same men and horses whom just before they were eagerly following with their eyes, as far as they could see, and shouting out their names with all their might. Such mighty charms, such wondrous power reside in the colour of a paltry tunic! And this not only with the common crowd (more contemptible than the dress they espouse), but even with serious-thinking people. When I observe such men thus insatiably fond of so silly, so low, so uninteresting, so common an entertainment, I congratulate myself on my indifference to these pleasures: and am glad to employ the leisure of this season upon my books, which others throw away upon the most idle occupations. Farewell.


Pliny the Younger
61AD - 112 AD


Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome.

Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, who helped raise and educate him, was killed while observing the eruption of Mt Vesuvius at Pompeii.

Vintage 2013

Things are happening – fast.  In Victoria yields are down, dramatically in many cases.  Berries and bunches are small, and the combination of over two months without range, and the generally ideal ripening conditions, means that the ripening process has broken into a full gallop.  In 2008 all varieties seemed to ripen at the same time, but with an above-average crop.  This year points to the same compression of vintage across all varieties, but at least the lower than forecast yields will give wineries some chance of taking in the grapes when they are ripe (not over-ripe).

Across in South Australia, all of the regions of the Limestone Coast have had a great growing season, and with the adequate water supply that all those regions enjoy, yields will be close to normal.  North of Adelaide, the Barossa Valley is confronting a very small vintage, again early, but with some of the berries and bunches so small that they are unlikely to be picked.  Much the same is true of the Clare Valley, Eden Valley and Adelaide Hills.  Tasmania marches on in its own way, and, to a degree, so does Western Australia.

On the face of it, the total vintage this year will be significantly down.  How much depends entirely on the amount of fruit from the Riverina and Riverland areas.