{"id":900,"date":"2015-09-22T22:01:41","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T22:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steveraye.wordpress.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2015-09-22T22:01:41","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T22:01:41","slug":"you-cant-steer-a-ship-by-looking-at-the-wake-australia-trade-tasting-breaks-new-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/22\/you-cant-steer-a-ship-by-looking-at-the-wake-australia-trade-tasting-breaks-new-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"You Can’t Steer a Ship by Looking at the Wake: Australia Trade Tasting Breaks New Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m just back from Australia where I spoke at the inaugural Australia Trade Tasting.\u00a0 It was held in Melbourne and Sydney and put on by our friends at Beverage Trade Network.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>

Steve Raye from the Sydney Harbor Bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

The event consisted of a walk around tasting in Melbourne followed by individual days dedicated to the Australian market,\u00a0 followed by a full day U.S. market focus and a final day for the tasting in Sydney.<\/p>\n

We sponsored the event along with Wine Australia<\/a>, MHW<\/a>, the Melbourne International Wine Comp.,<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/a>

Me, Sid Patel of BTN , John Beaudette of MHW and Adam Levy of the Melbourne Wine Comp.<\/p><\/div>\n

and trade organizations representing Castilla-LaMancha, Alsace, BusinessFrance, and media partner “The Shout<\/a>” which is the major industry trade pub Down Under.<\/p>\n

Several things jumped out at me at the conference, and a few have emerged as I’ve had the chance to reflect on the people I met, things I heard and wines I tasted.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0The Australian wine business is healthy and poised for growth in the U.S. and around the world<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 They’re making great strides in the UK and Germany, but the U.S. has been a tougher nut to crack.\u00a0 If you dig down into the stats we see significant growth in the $12-$20 “fine wine” price category for Australian wines here in the states.\u00a0 That’s a new story that needs to be told.\u00a0 And hey folks, let’s stop talking about Yellow Tail, it’s not relevant to today’s new generation of wine drinkers.<\/li>\n
  2. Collaboration is key to success for Australia in the U.S.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong> The country has a “no problems, mate” attitude and that’s reflected in the collaboration and camaraderie of the suppliers I talked to.\u00a0 They recognize that Wine Australia’s efforts are making an impact, but that they have to work together to make the story a reality.\u00a0 At the end of the day, they recognize even the smaller players are a significant piece of the puzzle to reinforce the quality story.\u00a0 And keep your eyes peeled for new U.S. market entries from the bigger players. With the AUD\/USD ratio now favorable for exporters I expect we’ll see some major entries and re-entries.<\/li>\n
  3. Australia is making great wines that fit the “new palate” and are delivering great QPR<\/strong><\/span>.\u00a0 Finesse, sense of place, freshness and balance are words that describe the country’s portfolio that I had a chance to taste on the opening day of the event.\u00a0 Contrast that with the words commonly used just a few years ago, i.e. big, jammy and high alcohol Shiraz.<\/li>\n
  4. Barossa is the lead horse<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0 There’s incredible diversity in terms of varieties and growing areas in a country that’s roughly the same size as the U.S.\u00a0 No surprise there, but Barossa has taken on a mantle akin to Napa’s in the U.S.\u00a0 It’s a world-class region for Cabernet Sauvignon production.\u00a0 The winemakers have embraced the unique assets of the region and are delivering wines with typicity, structure, balance and strength.<\/li>\n
  5. Tasmania is coming of age.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 While I didn’t get a chance to go there, I did have the chance to taste some of the cool climate wines they’re producing.\u00a0 These varieties have found a home\u00a0\u00a0 And while I think the wine quality is more impacted by the soil, exposures and local weather, it can’t hurt that Tasmania boasts the cleanest air in the world.\u00a0 Check out a globe looking at the bottom…it’s the first land in the Southern Ocean’s Roaring Forties that the wind hits after Capes Horn and Good Hope.\u00a0 And not for nothing, we heard from a couple of producers who are making world-class whiskeys that are competing head to head with Scotland’s finest:\u00a0 Sullivan’s Cove, Lark Distillery.<\/li>\n
  6. Kudos to Cooper’s Brewery<\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 In a world which looks destined to have one massive global beer company dominating everything, it was great to hear Glenn Cooper’s rousing story about how they fought off acquisition efforts.\u00a0 It’s the last remaining Australia-owned beer company, and based on what Glenn told us, will forever be so.\u00a0 For those of you interested in the Aussie beer biz, check out Keith Deutsher’s “The Breweries of Australia.\u00a0 A History” which moderator David Lipman gave me a copy of.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Bottom line:\u00a0 if you think you know Australian wines, it’s time for a fresh look at what’s in the barrels and bottles now.\u00a0 It will blow your mind.\u00a0 If you’re interested in making connections with the top producers I tasted there, let me know. Hungerford Hill’s Pinot Gris was just one example of a wine that ought to be available in the U.S.<\/p>\n

    \"Australia<\/a>

    Australia is roughly the same size as America.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’m just back from Australia where I spoke at the inaugural Australia Trade Tasting.\u00a0 It was held in Melbourne and Sydney and put on by our friends at Beverage Trade Network. The event consisted of a walk around tasting in Melbourne followed by individual days dedicated to the Australian market,\u00a0 followed by a full day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,19,20,27,144,183],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-australia-trade-tasting","tag-beverage-trade-network","tag-bevology","tag-btn","tag-steve-raye","tag-wine-australia","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7k1BV-ew","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bevologyinc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}