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| Give Australian Wine a fair go! |
| By Radhika Puar and Rajiv Singhal |
| Brian Walsh, the Chair and Non-Executive Member of the Board of Wine Australia Corporation, was on his first ever trip to India. Brian had a 24 year career at Yalumba, spanning many roles including Chief Winemaker. We met with him on the terrace of The Imperial Delhi, the day after he presented the landmark FINE Iconic Tasting Series - “A Century of Australian Wine Heritage”. |
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Brian Walsh |
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| vino india: What are the strengths of the Australian Wine offer? |
| Brian Walsh: Surely, the diversity of our offer. In Australia, we grow grapes and make wine in 65 sub-regions. This means we can make a delicate, fine and elegant white wine; or the most robust, rich and powerful red wine; or a style to suit any palate anywhere in the world. |
| vi: Does this diversity present any challenges? |
| BW: Often communication is a challenge, because people try to simplify things down to the lowest common denominator and tell us “you should just concentrate on being good at one thing”. So, I guess it’s important to keep a clear focus on Shiraz and Chardonnay when we are messaging around our strengths. That way, when the wine lovers get to Australia, we stand a chance of captivating them by the other grapes that we do so well. |
| I do think there is a big dilemma in the wine world, which is quite conservative. With all the talk about innovation in emerging regions and so on, people tend to fall back upon Cabernet, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. There is not as much diversity in real life, as the wine industry would like to believe. |
| In some markets, depending on how developed they are, the popularity of our wine in the entry segment has pigeon holed us into that space. While the segment in question could be the bed rock of our presence in that market, we are keen to also offer fine wines that should be on the dining tables of white table cloth restaurants. Our challenge is to awaken the market to all segments in our diverse offer. |
| vi: The success of Australian wine in the UK was deemed a ‘failure’? Have you recovered lost ground? |
| BW: I think it’s work in progress. We had actually created a category well before its time. The entry-level everyday wines in Europe were, frankly, not of great quality. Australia burst on the scene with well-made wines displaying freshness and fruit flavours and suddenly the wine consumers thought “Where have these wines been? They are wonderful!” |
| Australia helped inexpensive wine become more accessible to a broader community. But, eventually, the wines in that price band started to look much the same. It’s very hard to differentiate between a £5 Chardonnay from Australia and another £5 Chardonnay from Australia, or a £5 Chardonnay from Chile or South Africa or California or…. |
| I think we took the blame as a nation – that Australian wine is boring! |
| vi: Were other markets approached differently? |
| BW: In my view, as much as we believe we learn from our experiences, we really don’t – we keep repeating it in another form, in another place, in another time! When things are on a roll, it’s human nature to think “well, let’s join the party and make the most of it”. |
| As producers of fine wine, we need to constantly remind our potential customer base. We have a saying in Australia – “give us a fair go” – have a look with an open mind have a look, compare against others, and just see how we stack up. |
| In the US, Australian wines were successful at a significantly higher average price point. As the global financial crisis struck, our wines were “left holding the can”. Our producers tried to ride the trough but eventually thought “this is too hard, let’s retreat”. |
| That said, more recently, the entry of Australian wine into the Chinese market has been focussed at the higher end. In China, we are both seen and heard. We may not have sold as much as our European competitors in numbers, but our average sale price per bottle was the highest on the market. We would like to believe it was good management – not just good luck! |
| vi: What is the role of Wine Australia in international markets? |
| BW: Wine Australia does not sell wine – we just sell the story. Our wineries and our brand owners travel the world to sell the wine and identify new opportunities. It’s “country first, region second and brand third” when they are out there. Wine Australia plays the supporting role. We’re part of the back room team to facilitate the entry to market. We collect data from multiple sources, and we offer ‘tool kits’ prepared by our market experts to our levy payers to bring them to speed on the issues like duties, taxes, regulation, trade practices, barriers to trade, and the sort of things that they might face. |
| As the market develops, and demand reaches a ‘critical mass’, we anoint a representative on the ground – like we have in UK, US, China, Canada. |
| vi: What is your impression of the market for wine in India? |
| BW: In India, the larger brands have established the beach heads and have helped Australian wines build an awareness and understanding of the region. Our wines are held in high esteem – it’s just that we need to have more diversity. |
| The price point of wine in the market place makes it an elite offering. For wine to be successful, it needs to become more accessible to a broader range of people. You should not need to take out a second mortgage to pay for a good bottle of wine! |
| I have been advised not to spend too much time worrying about things we can’t control (taxes, duties, regulations and so on), so I guess we will have to focus on things we can control – like our image. |
| vi: Does India feature in Wine Australia’s plans? |
| BW: We export to 122 countries. Every market features in our thinking, but commercially important markets dominate our mind space. We have a philosophy for emerging markets and develop strategies to treat them as niche markets. |
| I’d love to think that if we had a little bit more funding, we could be more aggressive in some of these markets. But you have to keep an eye on the return. |
| vi: Does India stand a chance of “getting a fair go”? |
| BW: Yes, I believe so. We have to take a view on where the market will be in 30, 20, or 10 years. I think it is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’, because there is a deep-rooted culture around food and enough wine of the right calibre, style and quality in India. |
| vi: Do you expect to be back? |
| BW: Sooner rather than later. Maybe for an Australia Day Tasting in New Delhi – I can get to see a bit more of your historic city! |
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