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Sustainable Winery or Profitable Business
Yesterday at the Shiraz wine appreciation session at the Cellar Door in the Crown Palladium we had an interesting discussion with Matthew Barry of Mount Avoca about how climate change is affecting business. A prominent theme throughout the session was how climate change has moved picking forward 6-8 weeks over a period of 5-10 years. I asked Matthew after the session how he saw that affecting his business going forward, his answers were very interesting.
He, and the other winemakers were not particularly worried about climate change itself as a threat to their winemaking. They suggested that Australia’s climate has been through a number of changes this century alone and it is up to them to adapt to it. This isn’t to say they aren’t doing their part to reduce pollution and improve the environment though. Avoca Winery has “gone organic”, started mulching it’s vineyards to reduce it’s reliance on water and planted a crop of trees to provide cardboard and mulch to reduce their reliance on external parties. The net result of all of this work, (that has been going on for a number of years) is what would be referred to as a sustainable business. The hippies would applaud these moves as moves toward solving climate change, but Matthew’s focus is far more self-involved. As far as he is concerned, it is good for business.
It just so turns out, that reducing his winery’s externalities makes for better wine which is in turn good for business. Reducing chemicals means there are more earthworms and lady beetles in the vineyard. The soil is more fertile and the yield, although possibly smaller is of higher quality. It doesn’t take a scientist to realise that all of these are signs of improved wine making. It isn’t just the grapes though, every part of the business is being affected. Producing their own cardboard (from recycled cardboard and self-produced woodchips) reduces their reliance on outside packaging companies. Everything has a positive impact on their bottom line.
Matthews other comment was that many wineries are not going towards sustainable because they can’t afford to. However,the ongoing negative affects of pesticides and herbicides on soil quality and crop quality makes him believe they can’t afford not to. Going forward I believe that it is stories like these that will help have a positive effect on global warming and climate change, not advocating change without highlighting economic benefits.
It is clear that we need to solve this problem, but businesses still need to make a dime, and I still want to drink great wine.
You should follow me on Twitter.Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
I’m a huge fan of cheap good wine, happy to drink good quality boxed wine and certainly not turned off by a $4 bottle – so long as it tastes good. But currently I have a glass of Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 in front of me, and let me tell you I’m not that impressed. It’s one of the “premium cask wines” just like the Banrock Station wine I’ve written about before and it might be harsh on the Yalumba, but it just doesn’t match up against the Banrock.
Before I start talking about the wine itself I think it’s important to mention that by all reports the 2007 vintage in the Barossa valley was extremely hard for the growers, with a late frost and some heavy rainfall damaging a great amount of the harvest. This may well explain the low quality – especially because this box is of the 2007 vintage, as compared to most cask wine which is blended.
On the nose there is a definite smell of blackcurrant, and a slightly unwelcome hint of menthol. The taste is not what I have become used to from cheap Australian wines, which normally provide a somewhat balanced taste. It lacks body, tastes young (yes, I realise it is young) and has a touch of alcohol aftertaste. It’s not all bad though, it is quite easy drinking which isn’t always the case for cheap cabernet sauvignon’s and definitely is very good value drinking.
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As far as dinner goes, there isn’t a better drink to accompany it than a glass of red. That is of course if the source is tomato based or the meat is red, otherwise white wine is preferential. Now let me start by saying I’m definitely no expert on wine, but I know what I like and first of all I like cheap. When you talk about cheap wine there is 2 types of cheap, cheap and goon. This classification is pretty down the line, goon comes in a bag (sometimes disguised as a box) and cheap wine comes in a bottle. Until recently this differentiation was pretty clear cut with nothing in a bag being worth more than $3 a litre and bottles starting at about $10 a litre.
Which brings me to the crux of the matter, for about $20 you can pick up a box of Banrock Station red (or white). They come in a range of blends, cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, merlot, and my personal favourite cabernet merlot. This isn’t any normal goon bag, I consider it to be in the class of “cheap wine,” or at least that’s what I tell myself. I suppose a sign that the box isn’t going to be horrible is the specification of the actual blend of grapes, rather than “dry red” or “crisp white,” another sign is that the grapes are all sourced from the same place, rather than from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
The beauty of buying 2 litres of cheap wine to have over dinner is it’s flexibility you have enough for tonight and tomorrow night, can drop a splash of it in your cooking and you aren’t too worried if you leave a glass that needs to be thrown out at the end of the night. While you might not believe me, by forking out the extra $10 your head might not ache so much tomorrow morning.
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