Australian wine, where the bloody hell are you?

Tony Park, a wine consultant and educator living in the UK, responds to Andrew Margan’s letter in The Week That Was about the demise of Australian fine wine in the market it once dominated – the UK.

I grew up in Australia and come back every year to stay with family and visit as many regions as possible, tasting my way through as many wines as I can.

Boy how things have improved from those hot days of the 1970s and 1980s when my parents dragged me around the Hunter Valley.

In the 1980s, 1990s and into the 2000s, the Australian wines available in the UK were outstanding with a range of high street stockists such as Wine Rack, Oddbins, Victoria Wine, Bottom’s Up and Majestic Wine giving wine lovers a huge choice to select from.

The Aussie brand was top of the list.

I would educate myself with the help of the local Oddbins manager and walk away with a Dead Arm Shiraz from d’Arenberg (£6.99/$14) or a cracking Semillon from Brokenwood (around the same price).

Sadly, all those retailers have now gone with the exception of Majestic, and apart from going to specialist wine merchants the majority of consumers can only get Australian wine from supermarkets.

And the selection is atrocious.

Andrew Margan mentioned (in The Week That Was) visiting the UK and rarely seeing Australian wines on wine lists.

I can confirm that this has been a trend for many years.

You can get 25 different Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand at different price points, but virtually all the Australian wines are from the big corporates with the odd exception.

I have no idea why.

I am constantly disappointed, not with the quality of Australian wine overall, but what is readily available to the average consumer who, on the whole, loved Australian wine in the past.

Now we are ‘force-fed’ Jam Shed, Yellowtail, 19 Crimes and others.

As the quality, availability and access of wines from lesser known regions of France, Italy and Spain and now from Greece, Hungary, Croatia and Georgia have improved exponentially, Australian wines just don’t get talked about.

Pooley Wines from Tasmania? Never heard of them.

Wines from Beechworth? Where’s that?

Semillon from the Hunter Valley? I’ve heard of that, but no idea where I can get it.

I am lucky enough to be able to visit Australia frequently and taste some of the best wines in the world.

And, in my opinion, from winemakers who are the most technically gifted in the world.

But the contrast between the offering locally and what I see here in England is huge.

I think the story, the integrity, the authenticity and relevance is still there, but maybe the powers that be have been so focused on China or other markets in a bid to ‘cash in’ and monetise ‘the brand’ people in control can’t see the problem they have created.

At the end of the day it’s all about leadership.

It always is.

So what sort of leadership does the wine industry have in Australia?

I’d start there.

Or maybe they just don’t care.

Fingers crossed for positive change.

Meanwhile I am back in January for seven weeks and will visiting four or five different regions, tasting and no doubt buying plenty of great wine and telling everyone in England.

Even though I may be a lone voice.