Last
week we were asked to attend a seminar about Exporting Wine to the UK at
Joostenberg and to hear from two prominent Australian wine makers who really
surprised us as we learnt how difficult winemaking can be in that country. We
were so impressed at how open they were with all the facts and figures and a they
gave us a warning about water wars
One of the sponsors of the day was the Shippers Hillebrand. The Pebbles Project is another superb charity raising money for education. They " enrich the lives of disadvantaged children and families in the Winelands farming communities in the Western Cape and impact the lives of children and their families by providing support and intervention in five key areas: Education, Health, Nutrition, Community and Protection"
Lynne chatting to Christian Eedes of Winemag.co.za
as people take their seats
Lots of young winemakers
Charles Withington of The Darling Wine Shop, who
organised this event with Pippa Woods of Seckford Agencies, respected wine
importers in the UK
November saw
Pippa planning a trip with a difference - bringing world experts in their
fields, for their first visit to South Africa to pass on some of their
expertise
Judy Kendrick
and Ana Sofia de Oliveira from JKMarketing, a leading wine
marketing company in the UK
presented a seminar based on their ‘Road Map’ of exporting to the UK
Judy and Ana Sofia gave us information about how costs are distributed in a bottle of wine sold in the UK with the variations across the price range. There is very little profit at the lowest end of the market
and where South Africa stands in relation to other competitors
His family went to Mildura from Ireland in the
1860's. He told us the almost 90% of wine is controlled by the large companies
and it did remind us of when KWV and Nederburg held sway before the days of
independent wine estates making their own wines rather than selling all their
grapes to them. He also told us how they have dealt with years of extreme
drought - the 10 year drought began in 2000 and in 2010 they only had 30% of
water - sounds familiar. They got through this and now have the best water plan
in the world but it took 5 years to operate. 85% of producers are not making
money in the drought area. Now water has become an important tradable commodity
in Australia. His tanks are outside, barrels inside. They are on the Murray
Darling basin, so they have water. The farm was once a sheep station, they have
sandy limestone soils. It is run by his brother and one worker, they have cut
labour and it is all automated. They farm Chardonnay, Shiraz and Cabernet. They
get 130 to 150 mm of rain per annum. To be small is the future as the
Corporates control everything - he says with them "It's a race to the
bottom. The big firms are putting juice through huge membrane filtration."
Australian has gone from 4000 to 2000 growers in 10 years. And he says he
avoids Bio label wine, there is no money in it. There is a lot of water trading
going on. The farms with are dictating the price and selling to farms without.
Table grapes, citrus and almonds are selling better than wine. He says the real
cost of producing 12 bottles of wine is A$28.50
Pippa had persuaded her long standing friends, Stephen and Prue Henschke from the Barossa valley in South
Australia to join the party. They gave a very interesting presentation. Stephen spoke
about the wine making. They trained first in Australia then at Geisenheim in
Germany, where many of our top winemakers have also studied. Their Hill of
Grace was Australia's wine of the Year in 1987. Henschke is a small farm
founded in 1860, making superb top end wines at premium prices from Shiraz vines
(on their own roots). The vines originate from pre-phylloxera material which was brought from
Europe by the early European settlers. The farm has had 250 years of growing
Riesling and Shiraz. There are also small plantings of Riesling, Semillon and Mataro.
The oldest vines still producing were planted in the 1860s by Nicolaus
Stanitzki. These are called the Grandfathers and are up to and including 100
years old (average age is 80 years) and the cost of production is frightening.
As both water and power are limited, they strive to be better rather than
bigger
Stephen said
they are disappointed with cork; they got the worst quality, screw caps came in
and they now use a Vinolok closure and since 1996 the have not used any cork. He
says if you are charging $A800 a bottle the wine must not be faulty and must be
reliable. They put in a A$1 million bottling line, the first in the southern
hemisphere. The average age of their vines is 80 years. Recently they have planted
Grüner Veltliner for the future
and Prue talked
about the viticulture, which she handles. They try for a sense of place, a
flavour of the vineyards. She learnt in Germany how to look after the soil,
they have lots of wind and water erosion. She uses pasture grass which is a
native wallaby grass, it is hard to grow others. She uses straw coverage under
the vines as mulch. They bring in 1000 tons of green waste compost annually and
this goes beneath the straw. They also use genetic cuttings from the old vines,
layering or replanting
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2017
