Global Wine Trends - Our shores and beyond

We came across a stat recently that paints an interesting picture for Australian wine:

'According to the ABS, the volume of Australian wine imports increased by 40.7% in the past year to 34.2ML in 2006-07 and the value increased by 45.3% to A$307 million. Imports accounted for 7.1% of all domestic sales in 2006-07' Winebiz.com.au

Spearheaded by New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and French Champagne, it looks like imported wine is 'so hot right now'. So, to follow the trend, lets look at some global wine varieties, styles and buzz words that are currently fashionable.

Firstly Natural Wine - a buzz word with murky, though this term is generally accepted to be European in nature (with most of the 'natural wines' largely French). At the heart of 'natural wine' is a set of winemaking principles, including:

• Hand-picked, organically or biodynamically grown grapes.
• Low-yielding vineyards.
• No added sugars, no foreign yeasts.
• No fining or filtration.
• No adjustments for acidity.
• No other additives for mouth-feel, colour, etc.
• No micro-oxygenation or reverse osmosis.
• Little or no added sulphite.

Natural wine in particular has garnered serious attention on Britain, where there are whole sections in wine outlets dedicated to 'natural wines'. The concept itself is admirable, green and morally high brow, however, the controversies on what counts as 'natural' and whats not is a grey area. Like adding sugar, (chaptalizing) which is banned in Australia but de rigeuer in France (even in the best vintages). We might call it an additive, to others its just sugar.

Further, this style of winemaking is labour intensive and prone to the vagaries of nature. The use of minimal filtration and little or no sulphite preservatives can have a detrimental effect on the finished wine, resulting in wines prone to bottle variation, yeast spoilage and off flavours.

'Natural wine' continues to be the wine producers holy grail, but its interpretation is topical to say the least...

Next up we have the return of Riesling. After decades spent languishing behind an image of sickly sweet rubbish (Liebfraumilch anyone?) Riesling is back. According to panel data figures released by AC Nielsen, between January 2006 and January 2008, Riesling sales in the US have grown 98 percent (winebusiness.com). What's more, the majority of interest has been in the drier styles, which happily suits the bone dry style produced in the Clare & Eden Valleys. In the US, the attention has firmly been on the very good off dry (Kabinett to Auslese levels on the European scale) wines of Washington state. In Germany, the strength of the 2007 vintage has seen a renewed interest in the classic wines of Moselle & Pfalz, with the Wachau just over the border in Austria gaining attention with its pristine Rieslings. Even in Italy, not known for its Rieslings, there has been a renewed interest in the grape.

Whilst this is probably a news story that we have heard plenty of times before (how many Riesling renaissances can we have?) its nice to see this great global grape receiving more attention. It might surprise people to know, but at the turn of the century, top Riesling was worth as much as top vintage Bordeaux (for evidence, check out this turn of the century Berry Brothers & Rudd [the UK supermarket chain] pricelist on Jamie Goode's excellent blog).

The next global fad we believe is somewhat the way of the future and that is Grower Champagnes. Traditionally Champagne is produced under a rather strict hierarchy system. The growers grow the grapes & sell through a co-op system, with the grapes themselves often crushed in co-op run pressing houses. The co-ops then on-sell the juice (or grapes) to the large Champagne producers (referred to as 'houses') via a middle man known as a Courtier (who takes a 1% cut by value). The Champagne houses then turn the juice/grapes into bubbly and everyone is happy.

The Challenge is that there are there are 20,024 growers (approximately) in Champagne and only 200 buyers, with the demand comfortably outstripping supply. As a result, yields are left unchecked and the vineyards themselves miss out on the attention they deserve, driving quality down with it.

The revolution then has come at the hands of the best growers, whom have worked out that that the margins are made largely in the hands of the big producers, with growers just another step in the process. Thus, the growers have vertically integrated and taken over all of the production steps - growing, producing and selling all their own products.

The result is the rise of the grower Champagne - now showcasing the vineyard terroir, rather than the Champagne house's winemaking skill. With biodynamics and organic production firmly embraced, the resultant grower Champagnes are almost revolutionary in their quality levels, achieving results found only in the finest ultra premium cuvees, at standard NV bubbly prices.
The trade off? Grower Champagnes are produced in tiny numbers, making them a challenge to acquire at the best of times. Some of the top names include Egly Ouriet, Agrapart, Larmandier & De Sousa, but expect to see many more as this movement gains momentum.

Finally, within a nod to our interconnected, finance savvy age, we have the advent of a very fashionable trend in the wine industry - that of the Virtual Winery. Essentially, a virtual winery is a winery without a winery, often without any vineyards either - the way that they work is to buy grapes off a grower and then have a winemaker to make the wine under contract (or at the minimum, make the wines in someone else's winery). The virtual winery owner can do as little as sit back and sign the bills, or to get fully involved and source their own grapes and have a hands on role in the winemaking process.

Larry Cherubino's glorious Westeran Australian wines (under the Cherubino, The Yard & Ad Hoc labels) are all the output of a virtual winery where Larry sources the grapes and makes the wine in others wineries. Rory Lane's acclaimed 'The Story' Victorian wines are under a similar arrangement, as are Michael & Susan Papps 'Yealand & Papps' Barossan wines.

In all these operations, by taking out the fixed costs associated with traditional bricks and mortar wineries, the resultant wines are often of the highest quality and sold at the most realistic prices. Even larger producer Cheviot Bridge run their business model along these principals too.

Watch to see many more virtual wineries in years to come - judging by the initial operations, its a trend we are bound to see more of.