Why Aussie wine is on the nose overseas

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This was published 14 years ago

Why Aussie wine is on the nose overseas

Aussies like to pride themselves on their wine but industry experts say Australian wine is suffering from a serious image problem overseas.

So local winemakers are fighting back with a collective tasked with countering stereotypes of Aussie wine as cheap and cheerful industrial plonk with critters on the label.

Fighting back ... Alister Purbrick.

Fighting back ... Alister Purbrick.

Twelve of the country's most iconic winemakers banded together to launch Australia's First Families of Wine (AFFW) in August.

Chairman Alister Purbrick, chief executive of The Tahbilk Group of winemakers in Victoria, says the move to form a united front took hold in 2006 when European critics panned Australia for producing "industrial wine".

"Essentially what (they were) saying is 'we make wine from the earth and (Australians) just make factory wine'," he said.

Purbrick says the international slanging match reached a crescendo in the last six months.

"There's been comments made like, 'the word Australia and fine wine just don't go together', that 'Australia has no bricks and mortar, no heart and soul' - absolute rubbish,"' he says.

"Another one was 'Australia is sunshine in a bottle', or 'Australian wine should only be drunk down at Bondi Beach'.

"It just went on and on and on, all of this bagging ... (like) the only labelling or branding that's successful is the critter brands."

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Purbrick says this negative perception of local wine has been driven by tasty but cheap Australian exports - mostly less than STG5 ($9.75) a bottle - dominating the shelves in the UK.

"Our reputation overseas has been developed on the basis of our lower price point wines," he says.

"Australia has been producing higher priced regional wines, high priced icon wines, single vineyard wines, for a very long time.

"Overseas though, a lot of those wines haven't been exported."

Managing Director of Tyrell's wines, Bruce Tyrrell, has been exporting to the UK, Switzerland, Canada and China for about 40 years and says Australia needs to up the ante if it wants to stay in the wine game.

"If we're going to continue to grow as an industry we need to expand our exports," says Tyrrell.

"(Since the 1970s and 80s) we actually gave people wines at a price that they could drink and enjoy.

"We were doing that better than any body else (and) we've got a whole generation of English and Americans and Canadians that have grown up on Australian wine."

But Tyrrell says it's time to send our more exclusive vintages overseas and branch out into the STG8 ($15.59) to STG12 ($23.39) price point to boost our street cred.

Purbrick says Australia is at the forefront of viticulture and winemaking technology, giving us an edge on the international market.

"We're really delivering the quality grapes that are going to be turned into really good quality wine," he says.

"Australian wine over the last ten or 15 years has improved dramatically ... because we've had to keep improving ... (so) the other countries (are) playing catch up with us all the time.

"We've got to try and maintain that competitive edge as best we can."

He says the "engine room wine" tag is a perception rather than a reality and while overseas wine connoisseurs might have got the wrong end of the stick, Aussies appreciate the local drop.

"In our own country our consumers know us well," he says.

Purbrick says Australia's 60 viticultural regions provide a rich and diverse drinking landscape with locals favouring fruity, elegant reds and unoaked whites.

"There's been a tendency in Australia to be perhaps drinking a little bit less but a bit better (selections), so trading up the price point scale," he says.

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"I think wine consumers in Australia are as sophisticated as any in the world."

AAP

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