Wine glut concerns for the industry

Those brand names are generally associated with the founder of the vineyard, especially if it is a very old family, or has a unique geographic position.

Bob Berton, Berton's Vineyards, Yenda, has been in the wine industry for more than 40 years and recognises the difference between his winery and the boutique wine makers who sell into a niche market.

"These artisan winemakers create a personal connection with their customers and create a fan base that often lasts a lifetime. They are important because If you look at the wine industry today, even the big companies are still reliant on the original personalities of the people who developed the brands," Bob said.

"But as we get bigger we become remote from the personal connection, so become quasi industrial and that's a very different environment from the artisan winemaker which is why it is so difficult to develop strategies that will take us forward, when there are so many conflicting needs between grape grower and wine maker.

"As wine makers we strive for the highest quality, and in agriculture we are dealing with a product which has a chance to degrade in any season.

"So the industry tends towards surpluses to ensure we continually improve the quality to drive the export market, because realistically without the export market the only people to survive would be the cellar doors."

However, the industry doesn't have a system to deal with the over supply, so it goes into the market usually at low prices and that sets the benchmark for the industry.

Bob said there was a need to find an alternative use for our surpluses and players in the industry have not even started to discuss the mechanism to deal with it.

"If I look back over the 40 years, I can remember three times when winemakers and growers made money, and these were the times when wine was in a short supply," he said.

"So why aren't we smart enough to do that every year?

One of the great benefits in Australia's favour is that the difference between the best and the worst quality wine is really quite narrow, and Bob said consumers will struggle to find a bad wine in this country.

"In France, for example, the difference between the best and the worst is actually quite wide," he said.

"But they have quality standards so consumers know when they are buying wine from the better vineyards or the secondary ones.

"Whereas here in Australia we don't have those standards, and that is part of the dilemma I think we have as an industry."

Bob is at a loss to understand how that overriding issue will ever be solved, but feels that as an industry people need to start working on it for the generations to come.

A professional accountant, he came to Griffith in the 1970s and worked for the De Bortoli Winery for ten years as general manager.

"I established a little vineyard in Eden Valley in South Australia and that gave rise to a brand and led to establishing the winery in Yenda," he said.

Established in 2005, Berton Vineyards is now one of the 20 largest vineyards in Australia, with a large export market complimenting domestic sales.

"We make a million cases annually, and with the internet it means a lot more people both in Australia and overseas have access to our brands," he said.

"Certainly we are all going through a difficult time at the moment, so it's really important that we learn from this and how fragile we are as an industry.

"We have always talked about having a single desk, having an industry body which represents us even with the great diversity that we have.

"We do have a draft one-sector plan and some of the elements are fine but in our industry we have two thousand wine makers, of which 1800 to 1900 grow and make a small amount and sell hand-to-hand direct to their customers. The rest buy fruit from growers, and this is the area that most needs to be sorted so that both growers and winemakers can make plans about the future."

The one-sector plan calls for more information which is desperately needed.

"We have good export data but we don't actually know the domestic consumption or production so this will help all parts of the industry which will be fantastic," Bob said.

For this coming vintage, Bob said consumers can buy wine for less than the cost of the grapes to make it due to the over supply since China imposed the trade embargo.

"Most of the wineries here will have enough red wine to last another year and we are seeing prices at the moment which are terrible, but how we deal with it?" he said.

Bob is concerned for the long term viability of the industry, in it's current form, and he notes that "sadly much of what has happened recently is directly attributable to government action, but now that its hit the fan, we cant see them for dust and small pebbles".

"The only thing we are doing now is waiting for growers to drop off which is happening and that means our industry will shrink and we are also waiting for China to come back into the market," he said.

"The small winemakers sell direct to the public and they will be okay in the short term," he said.

"And the big producers tend to be driven by share prices, so they are not looking past that, year by year is what they are worried about.

"We are not thinking for our grandchildren's children, we are only thinking for our tomorrow.

"But none of us are taking the view of what will happen in 40 years, and I think that is a massive issue."