New England's bumper wine crop

The New England wine region - essentially the New England Tablelands and its western slopes  - is one of Australia's oldest wine growing areas but also its newest in terms of formal recognition.

In my post on New England Wine Regions - Hunter Valley I spoke of the role played by George Wyndham in establishing the Hunter Valley wine industry. I also mentioned that in 1831 he brought the 100,000 acre property "Bukkulla" near Inverell on the edge of the Northern Tablelands and there established another vineyard. Other settlers also planted vineyards and made their own wine.

By 1870 George had 10ha of vines bearing fruit which contributed to the total 11,000 gallons of Wyndham Estate wines being produced. By 1905, wine production from the Inverell area of New England was 227,000 litres from seven or eight larger vineyards and a number of smaller vineyards.

Between 1870 & 1920 wines from the area won many awards at wine shows in Sydney, Amsterdam, London, San Francisco, Chicago & France. A prominent English wine judge of the time wrote of the Bukkulla wines, “(They) have a character and quality above the average of most wine-producing countries. The lowest quality is better than a large proportion of the ordinary wines of Europe, while the best would not suffer in comparison to the finest known growths”.

Thereafter wine production went into decline, really re-emerging over the last ten years.

Now I see from the Armidale Express that it has had a bumper grape crop. I can't give you a link because this story is not on line.

The excellent grape quality is expected to translate into very good wines. Sadly, you won't be able to buy them in your local bottle shop because sales via cellar door or to local outlets take up most of production. If you want to try the wine, you will need to visit or contact wineries direct.   

Wine Industry Outlook - January 2008

Photo: Grape Vines, Margaret River, WA

Regional Australia has benefited enormously from the growth of the Australian wine industry. Driven over time by people such as Len Evans, the expanding wine industry has created direct and indirect jobs while enriching local life.

As an industry, wine making has proved especially attractive to city professionals attracted by the combination of tax benefits with the romance attached to the sector. This, together with commercial plantings, has driven enormous expansion.

The Australian wine industry has always been marked by a history of glut and then boom. Back in the late 1960s, for example, the Australian Government was paying grape growers to pull vines out.

Most recently, we have had boom followed by a huge wine glut in 2006 into 2007 as major plantings came to full fruit. Great for people like me who love wine, but hard on producers. How quickly things change.

In 2007, the drought in Southern Australia reduced yield because of its effects on bud formation. Then came the irrigation cut-backs in the Murray-Darling Basin. By September last year, the Federal Government's Wine and Brandy Corporation was forecasting a grape harvest as low as 800,000 tonnes as compared to the average of 1.9 million tonnes. This was disaster territory.

Things have improved with subsequent rains, with the harvest now projected at 1.2 million tonnes. Better, but the Australian industry will still need to import bulk wine from overseas to fill orders.

This is not the only problem faced by the industry.

The rising value of the Australian dollar is squeezing export margins, making imports cheaper. The previous spread of New Zealand wines through Australian bottle shops is now being followed by wines from a variety of countries.

Wine grape growers who might have expected to benefit from significant increases in grape prices are not getting the benefits they expected from reduced supply because of growing concentration in the wine industry.

The Australian wine industry is really a story of two industries.

At the big end of town, there has been increasing concentration. The number of listed wine makers has shrunk from 13 at the end of 1998 to 6 today. These bigger entities have the capacity to squeeze grape producers on one side, to contend to some degree with the buying power of supermarkets on the other.

Then there are the thousands of smaller boutique wine producers. Generally unable to access supermarket shelves, these have to rely on other sales and distribution methods including cellar door, other local sales and mail order. A number of moved into related tourism activities.

Wine remains an emotionally attractive option for many city professionals. However, they need a very clear business idea together with the capacity to ride through fluctuations if they are to succeed.

Victorian Wine Regions - Rutherglen

Photo: All Saints Winery, Rutherglen

I really do like the old gold mining and wine center of Rutherglen in North Eastern Victoria.

I first went there many years ago. I had a small station wagon at the time, and came back loaded with crates of wine.

Rutherglen is located 283k (3 hours) from Melbourne by road. There are nineteen or twenty vineyards in close location to the town, vineyards that are especially famous for their fortified wines. I have two of these in my cupboard for immediate drinking as I write.

The last time I was there I did not have time to do more than go from vineyard to vineyard trying the wine. Now some might say that that was no hardship, and that would be right. But still, I did not get to properly experience the district's history. Or food!

So of you are going, allow plenty of time to explore. If you are interested you can find out more here,

Regional Australia wine - James Halliday's Wine Companion now on-line

James Halliday's Wine Companion is one of Australia's best know wine guides. I was pleased to discover that it now has an on-line edition adding to the ever growing volume of information on the wines of Regional Australia.

Orange Food and Wine - a postscript

Photo: Orange Farmers Market

Over dinner last night (two different reds plus a desert wine all from Orange) I had a chance to follow up on some more details on the Orange food and wine experience I described in my last post. This described the reaction of my brother-in-law and his wife to their weekend in Orange.

Talking further last night, both said that they would go back to Orange rather than the better known Hunter Valley wine areas. I found this an interesting comment because it shows that Orange is now getting real traction.

In previous posts I have spoken (here, here and here for example) about the impact of travel time. While Australians will travel long distances, two to four hours driving time is about the maximum range that people will drive from their home base for, say, a weekend away.

The Australian wine industry is very competitive, especially for the thousands of small wineries that rely on cellar door or local outlet sales. For that reason, it's not surprising that so many wine regions and wineries are located in a four hour drive circle around major metropolitan centres as both Orange and the Hunter are to Sydney.

As a smaller wine and food area, Orange only needs to attract a small proportion of the Sydney market to continue as a considerable success.

While in Orange Tim and Kim went to the local farmers market. This is held on the second Saturday of the month at the Orange Showground. They were impressed with the quality of the produce, although because the markets really target the upper quality end, produce is not necessarily cheap. If you are interested, you can find out more from the very useful market web site.

One thing that did puzzle me is that while Orange sells its food and wine reputation to attract visitors, there does not appear to be any emphasis on local food in restaurants once the visitor is there.

Now it may be that this is taken for granted, but I still think that it is a mistake since it seems to me that changes in menus centred on the seasonality of local food would add to the experience.

Regional Australia Food & Wine - Orange NSW

Photos: Vineyard scenes, Orange NSW

For my brother-in-law's birthday, the family combined to give him a voucher allowing he and his wife to choose a range of holidays. They chose a wine and food weekend in Orange, NSW.

They had a magnificent time, unveiling some of the results at yesterday's family Christmas lunch in the form of a range of Orange wines. These were very good indeed. Over lunch they told us about Orange's wine, food, shops and sophisticated life style. They were also impressed that Orange prices were generally lower than Sydney prices for equivalent product.

All this pleased me indeed given my continuing desire to promote the opportunities offered by Regional Australia for life work and play.

For those who do not know Orange, the City is located in the NSW central tablelands around 3.5 hours driving time west of Sydney, 3 hours north west from Canberra. Located in scenic countryside, it is a beautiful and historic city with a population of 38,000 servicing a district population of 100,000 in all.

The Orange Wine Region is a young district with the earliest plantings in the early 1980s. It now includes vineyards planted above six hundred metres in altitude within Blayney, Cabonne and Orange local government areas. In all, there are now approximately fifty vineyards (some twenty-five cellar doors) all producing award winning cool climate wine of unique and distinct character are now some 1350 hectares under vine. The Region has a reliable rainfall, a dry autumn and a cold winter - all of which gives Orange an enviable natural advantage.

The higher vineyards of the region near Mount Canobolas range up to 1050 metres above sea level and are particularly suited to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot. At this altitude vineyards can often be dedicated to sparkling wine production with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir dominating.

Over Christmas lunch we drank a lovely Pinot Noir with a glorious golden colour.

The Orange region has also built a substantial reputation for its cool climate chardonnay with wines from many regional labels [Rosemount Estate, Highland Heritage Estate, Brangayne of Orange and Canobolas-Smith Wines] winning trophies for their Chardonnays in recent years.

Red wines are less well known, although there are still some very nice wines.

Like so many of our new wine areas, development of local food and cooking followed vineyard development. Here Orange has had a real advantage because of its fine local produce including good meat and cold weather fruits. Development has been supported through the development of a local farmers' market, wine and food festivals and a range of restaurants and food outlets.

You can find out more information from:

• Orange Council site and especially the food and wine section
• Orange Regional Vingerons Association site
• Food Week web site
• Farmers Market web site.