Learning from the Australians (and savouring some fine wine)

The recycling team finally turned up this week for the post-holiday glass pickup.  While the drinking may have been intoxicating, the empties were sobering, both in quantity and quality.  Health would benefit from drinking less, finances from less splurging on top quality stuff.

Amongst those excellent bottles was at least one Australian.  Just twenty years ago, the idea of wines from down under keeping level company with Mersault and Bordeaux was unimaginable.  What happened?  In part, some great marketing.

Examples worth remembering.

ONE.  Use clear language.  Before the Australians, traditional wines had demanded knowledge.  Labels told of the maker and the region, but not the grape variety.  It was up to you to educate yourself to what was grown where, and what it might taste like.  The Australians were the first to start using grape varieties, cutting across all those confusing nuances of terroir.  A a chardonnay or a merlot tasted a certain way, and led to shopper certainty.  Not for the connoisseur, of course, but it sure opened up the lower (and much bigger) end of the market.

TWO.  Remember the whole chain of influence.  There's a famous story about a trip for London-based wine writers, hosted by the Australian wine marketing board.  This was a make-or-break moment; these writers were immensely powerful.  On the day the writers (all men, it was the '80s) landed in Sydney, the board had bottles delivered to their wives.  "This is what your husband will be drinking this week.  We hope you'll enjoy it, too."  Evidently, the writers came under unusual pressure when they came home to give favourable reviews.  Brilliant.  All too often we forget that people are influenced outside the office as much, if not more than, inside.  The Australians used that beautifully.

THREE.  Have a good product.  Throughout the '90s, the French reaction to surging Australian sales was "it's just marketing".  And yes, that helped.  But it would have been a short boom without a great product.  Marketing got people to try.  Taste got them to stay.  Marketing and product need each other, just like those grapes need yeast to become wine.

And that wine?  It was Gemtree Uncut Shiraz 2007.  Good luck finding any.  I bought it direct from the charming winemaker, who swore with passion that it was his best vintage ever and would be exquisite if laid down for five years.  I gave in to the marketing.  And the product paid off.