What a great weekend!

Unfortunately in life your circle of friends will ebb and flow. My good friend is leaving WA for SA and is also in the wine industry. So we had a great night at the famous local Mayleeyas Thai with Galafrey Muller and came home for a lovely bottle of red and cheese. A great send off!!
My friend is about to work in Wakerie in SA on the Murray River. So the usual questions pop up.
‘Where are you going? Who you working for? Whats your plan? Etc’
Followed by the great question that has sparked this story. ‘How much wine do you process?”
“40,000 tonne!”
“What!!! 40,000 tonne!! How much does a big winery over there produce?”
“250,000 tonne”
??????? silence……….

 


So let me put that into prospective. Here at Galafrey we do 100 tonne. Goundreys our biggest neighbour did 4,000 tonne. Houghtons, the biggest producer in WA does about 8,000 tonne…..
So let me take you back to 40,000 tonne…..
“ OH MY GOODNESS!!” (or something to that effect!)
My mum tells a great story of how she and Dad went to a wine conference in SA with a small group of WA people. They were sitting down together in the cafeteria together and these two winemakers came over and briefly talked to the group. ‘So where are you from?’
“WA” they replied.
“ *phfff* hobby farmers!” and they walked off.
The WA group was a little stunned. But when you think the big boys are doing 250,000 tonne you can’t help but feel a little small and insignificant.  Of course  Dad went and rounded the two men up and made them buy the West Aussies a round of beers in typical Ian Tyrer style!
Here in WA we make 2% of the total wine produced in Australia and Houghtons makes about 1.3% of that. But the good news is WA owns 29% of the premium market.
Recently I went to a local café and ordered one of their famous vegetable juices. When it came out it was a picture of glory however the price was $8.00. So here I am thinking people are selling a bottle of wine for $8.00 (including us sometimes!). The beauty of the juice is it doesn’t take someone trained to make it. A 14 year old on minimum wage could do it. There’s no Tax on it not even GST ,as opposed to wine which has 39% WET tax plus 10% GST ( yep 49% of that $8.00 is tax). And it is made and sold that day unlike wine which is made and sold 3 to 18 months later (minimum). No wonder the wine industry is in a bit of trouble!
As I read todays paper of politics on a plate where now people are more conscious of what they are buying, eating and where it comes from. You know it exists when someone in McDonalds ask the check-out chick or guy where the fish comes from in their fish burger!! I am hoping (and think it will) extend to the wine industry.
As I look at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Guide it is filled with Spanish wine and I wonder why? Decanter Magazine rated Australian wine as the most under rated by Australians themselves?? And I remember when I went across to Sydney to hang out with my wholesaler at the time I told him I was excited about the trip and he replied ‘ I’m not sure how much time I will be able to spend with you as the people from New Zealand have travelled across for the show as well.’ I thought to myself….WHAT!NEW ZEALAND! They’re closer and the air fare is cheaper!!
But let’s face it…..if I won lotto tomorrow I’d still go to work the next day. I love it!!