Article about Australia and addressing decreased consumption

http://www.wineindustryinsight.com/ex_n ... op/3991556

An enterprising marketer might entice truly premium Aussie producers into production of some connoisseur-quality kosher product. Unfortunately, I'm not a marketer, just a winemaker. But I'd be happy to relocate to Melbourne if someone would bankroll a sizable project. With quality, cheap fruit in enormous quantities, this might be the best time to do it. In contrast to the statement that the Aussie industry is unfazed, in truth they are worried sick. Their biggest market has pushed their prices down, then adopted Argentina as the low-priced darling instead.

I have no idea about this, but as I reported already, Royal is making Teal Lake Moscato (in Australia), with Australian grapes and labor, and selling it for as low as 6 bucks a bottle! They may be losing or breaking even, but they see the threat that is Sara Bee and low cost Golan wines, and they need to respond.

Either way, interesting stuff for the average every day wine and we all wine out of it, if you can drink B to B+ wines.

David

Kind of silly for them to be making muscat out there, because like everywhere else, muscat is in short supply and must be newly planted or budded over. In contrast, there are plenty of Aussie Cab and Shiraz grapes, as well as other premium grapes, going wanting. Not everything is super-premium quality, of course, but plenty of real quality producers overplanted, and the glut is sucking them dry. Yes, Australia is losing market share, but we haven't really seen that in kosher product. The cheap grapes are the ones already available in surplus, not the ones that may be made available in the future through new or converted plantings.

W just finished the 2012 harvest. If they budded over now, they would have some new variety available for 2014 in light commercial quantity. If we make use of what they have a glut of, it will be available for 2013.

Adding to my previous post, while there is not enough muscat currently in Australia to make a difference in production at this time, there is a contraction of vineyard acreage occurring, and either replanting or budding over is something that more and more viticulturists are likely to desire to do, if the choice is doing that or getting out of the business. Also, now would be the time to purchase vineyards or vineyard land at favorable prices. Both of these are positioning for the future, rather than taking advantage of muscat available now.