Croser blames economics for dearth of great Australian wine

It’s more than likely that a large number of Australian winemakers will draw out their knives for Brian Croser, who has again spoken out in a way guaranteed to attract their ire. Croser, who as a winemaking consultant, educator, founder of Petaluma and wine industry politician has maintained a leadership position within Australian wine over three decades, has never been afraid to state his opinion, irregardless of how unpopular his words might make him.

However, I cannot but entirely agree with Croser on this occasion, when at a wine award presentation recently he stated that while Australia has established a strong international reputation for its commodity wines, it has not fulfilled anywhere near its potential to produce wines of genuine excellence and international standing. Croser’s train of thought runs along these lines:

* Given that Australia has the resources, locations, climates, old vines and technology to produce wines equivalent to the world’s best, there is every reason why it should.

* There’s no doubt that Australia’s best wines represent very good value at their various price-points, but that’s not the issue here. Largely speaking, they are neither exquisite and nor are they at the top of the pricing or quality scales.

* There are a lot of relatively new producers, especially of old vine shiraz from McLaren Vale, the Barossa and central Victoria, who believe they are producing the world’s greatest wines. And while there is both an arrogance and a complacency amongst the makers of many such styles, at this time their wines still lack the pedigree to back up their claims.

* These wines often look the same, since they are made to the same style, which absolutely masks terroir and produces wine in my Croser’s point of view that is ‘second choice’, irrespective of how well they stand out in shows and exhibitions. They tend to lack finesse and the real qualities of the greatest wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

* The market for ultra-premium Australian wine is purely domestic. While dribs and drabs find their way overseas, they hardly feature on the wine lists of Christie’s and Sotheby’s or the great restaurants of the world. The world has a very low understanding of our ability to grow and make great wine.

* The problem is largely an economic one. Without an export market to appreciate them and a domestic market large enough to afford to pay for them, these wines simply won’t be made. Somehow we need to raise the economic ante to fund the necessary very close planted and fastidiously managed vineyards, and the same attention to detail received by the premium wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux.

* It will happen one day, but only after we have got out of the mindset that the only wine worth producing in this country is shiraz, and after we have convinced the world that we have other regions than McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley.

While Croser is first to acknowledge that these thoughts of his will provoke ‘screams of protests from some small producers’ and that the makers still able to sell a hundred or so cases through people like Dan Phillips into the US market are indeed an economic exception fro the time being, he argues that most of Australia’s small winemakers ‘don’t have the resources to realise their quality potential and are struggling for survival’.

He’s dead right. Sadly, I have just reduced the number of top-level ‘1’ ranking wines in the Australian Wine Annual’s 2004 edition from 18 to 16. Please login to post comment