How to choose cost-effective Australian wine?

Tips for choosing Australian wine?

Why do everyone like to drink Australian wine? Australia’s wine production is obviously not large, accounting for only 4% of the world’s total (northern Australia is too hot to grow grapes). However, Australian wine is very powerful in China, and its market share actually ranks second, second only to France. Why does Australian wine have such a high share of the Chinese market? An Australian wine merchant friend who has been in the wine sales industry for many years said this. First of all, Australian wine has good sales around the world. It has always had a good reputation and consumers trust the quality of Australian wine. Secondly, after China and Australia sign a free trade agreement, China will reduce or reduce tariffs on Australian wine, so everyone feels that Australian wine prices have an advantage. This wine merchant friend also said that Australian wine has a rich and full taste, which is more suitable for Chinese tastes. ?

What are the tastes of Chinese people? This is actually difficult to explain. Just like eating food, northerners have northerners’ tastes, and southerners have southerners’ preferences. The taste of Chinese food has never been unified. Wine has only gradually entered daily life in recent years. In life, although everyone's understanding and acceptance of taste is not as detailed as that of traditional cuisine, there are still differences. For example, among my friends who have just started drinking red wine, some like sweet wine, some like dry wine, and some like rich flavor. There are also those who prefer something as refined as Burgundy, so the taste of Australian wine may only suit some people. Besides, Australian wine also has different styles.

Because of tariff reductions, is Australian wine really more cost-effective than wine from other countries? ?

First of all, you need to know how much the tariff is. The total tax on a bottle of imported wine is about 48%, but the tariff is only 14%. This is the real reduction, and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement stipulates "five-year phased reduction", that is It will take until 2019 for all reductions to be completed. Moreover, tariff reductions save importers money. Whether the 14% will be passed on to consumers depends on the mood of the importers. ?

Let’s look at another data - ex-factory price. Among the top ten countries that export wine to China, the average ex-factory price of Australian wine is the highest - US$7.71, which is almost twice that of France (ex-factory price does not include tax). In other words, Australian wine is not cheap in this country. Because labor costs are expensive in Australia, the cost is higher. So I really don’t think Australian wine is cheap at all. What are the advantages of Australian wine? Well, I feel like my wine dealer friend told us three nonsense, but in fact, he still conveyed a very important message to us - stable quality at low prices. In other words, among affordable wines, Australian wines are very competitive. Powerful.

Australian wine is very good at building brands, such as Yellow Tail Kangaroo. Basically everyone has drunk it. It is a wine that is difficult to avoid. From friends’ gatherings to company annual meetings, various wine parties, you can accidentally drink it. You can drink it.

Yellow-tailed kangaroo itself does not rely solely on its taste to achieve its current huge sales, but also relies on a series of advanced marketing methods. Yellow Tail Kangaroo initially targeted the product gap in the American wine market—affordable wines that do not have noble oak aroma, but everyone wants to drink this high-end aroma. Therefore, in order to cater to the taste of Americans, Yellow Tail Kangaroo brewed wine with an oak barrel flavor, and at the same time it was very cheap (achieved through a special brewing process), so it was particularly popular in the American market. Coupled with the highly recognizable wine label and bright colors, it is unforgettable. Before entering the U.S. market, the winery also reached close cooperation with U.S. importers by selling equity, so that the products could be quickly promoted once they arrived in the United States. Of course, cheap wine under a hundred dollars is not the only thing worth buying in Australia.

The transformation from cheap industrial wine to regional wine

In the past, Australian wine took the route of cheap wine in order to compete with the established wine-making countries for the market. Later, I found out that I couldn’t compete with Chile and Argentina because their labor costs were cheap and their production costs were much lower, so there was no benefit at all from a price war. Only powerful large wineries can afford the price, while other wineries begin to cultivate the terroir. So now Australia is no longer a world of cheap wine, but the most diverse wine producing country in the southern hemisphere. Because of the complexity of the soil, almost any grape variety can find a suitable Feng Shui land. Australia also has its own division of production areas, which are divided into three categories: zone, region, and sub-region. Among them, the sub-production areas are still under research and development.

In theory, the finer the production area and the smaller the area, the better the quality of the wine. But in Australia it's different. ?

Because the tradition of Australian wine is to blend wines from across production regions. In the beginning, in order to have a stable output, grapes from different producing areas were collected and brewed together. This brewing method is not just for high-volume, cheap wines. From Yellow Tail Kangaroo, which costs tens of dollars per bottle, to Grange, the king of wine, which costs thousands per bottle, they are all blended wines from different regions.

Australia does not have cumbersome restrictions on legal production areas, so winemakers are happy to explore the characteristics of different production areas, are full of creativity and are proficient in various blending ratios. Australian winemakers are obviously more flexible in their understanding of production areas than Europeans. They can plant grape varieties they deem suitable in any production area. In some mature production areas, they will gradually develop distinctive production area styles and varietal flavors. ?

Nowadays, there are more and more new Australian winemakers who prefer winemaking from a single region. Therefore, a group of wines called "Regional Heroes" that can show the characteristics of regional terroirs are gradually emerging in Australia. ?

For example, Semillon from Hunter valley

Riesling from Clare valley and Eden valley

Ade Chardonnay from the Adelaide hills and Magret River

Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula

Barossa Shiraz from Barossa and Heathcote

Cabernet Sauvignon blends from Coonawarra and Magret River and more. ?

Must-try Australian grape varieties?

Although there are many types of grape varieties grown in Australia, there are only two that are particularly famous. The red grape variety is Shiraz, which is actually French Syrah. The white grape variety is Sémillon. Both varieties can exhibit distinctive and unique flavors after being adapted from Australian terroir. There is basically nothing special about Sémillon in France except for producing noble rot. But in Australia, it has become a representative variety. It is grown on the red volcanic rock soil of the Hunter Valley. It has high acidity when young, but it has the aging potential of more than ten years. It gets better and better as it ages, which is very rare among white wines.

Shiraz is the grape variety that made Australian wine famous in one fell swoop. The planting area is also very extensive, and the styles of wine are many. Let’s talk about Shiraz dry red brewed from a single variety first. The most traditional Barossa production area has a beast-like bloodiness. The alcohol content is generally not less than 14.5 degrees. It has thick tannins and rich fruit flavor. It can generally smell This kind of wine will make you want to eat meat. However, the trend in recent years is that Shiraz (Shiraz) with floral, peppery, elegant and restrained aroma is more popular, mainly coming from producing areas with lower temperatures, so some producing areas in Australia (such as Heathcote and Hunter Valley), Shiraz, which takes the elegant route, has also begun to emerge. ?

There is also a Shiraz-based blend in Australia. In addition to the common GSM in the old world, Australian winemakers also invented Australia's unique Shiraz blended with Cabernet Sauvignon.

How to choose a winery? Unlike the old world, Australia does not have an official grading system, so just looking at wine labels is of no use as you cannot find information about quality.

However, there are many authoritative rating systems and buying guides in Australia that can be used as reference.