There has been some time since my last post due mainly to the fact that a lot of free time has been absorbed by my move into working the wine industry living in the Hunter Valley. Despite my new affiliation to companies in the industry, this blog will remain objective however with some more inside knowledge.
One thing is for sure: if you want to learn more about wine, having something to do with the industry daily will exponentially increase your knowledge…IF you want to. I have some points for anyone considering a move to a wine region:
1) Not everyone loves wine who works in wine: for many it is just a job and they could just as well be selling oranges as wines. I was a little shocked at the lack of interest in wine itself by many in the industry. There is a lot of disinterest in wine itself and a lot of half knowledge which could have been fixed by reading even the most basic of books about wine and winemaking. There are, however, also many many absolutely interesting passionate people with whom you notice as with anything: The more you know, the more you know that you know nothing at all.
My first days meeting some massive names in the industry, names you seen on bottles and ads all over the world, was a little humbling.
2) You don’t learn things by osmosis: just as with a language, you dont learn more about wines by just being in a company or near a vineyard. You have to get out and ask questions, meet people, try things, go to events, call the various people, ask questions, ask questions and show you are interested. Due to point 1, people dont just assume you are passionate about wine just by living in a wine region.
3) The weather plays a HUGE role: I have got to experience one of the worst vintage seasons in the past 20 years. I have seen the vines get smashed around and lose 40% of the whole production in a 10 minute hail storm. I have seen the vineyard manager frantically trying to save as many blocks as possible from disease everyday all day after that with thousands of dollars of organic sprays. I have seen the dissapointment when it rained non stop for a week without any hope of sun at the beginning of vintage. I have seen the helplessness as winemakers all over the valley sat ready to crush grapes with nothing coming in because of that rain. That is all in one year.
This gave me the greatest understanding you could ever get of why the vintage date on the bottle is so important. 2012 has been the great challenge and heartbreak, 2011 was relatively easy sailing. There are light years between the quality of wines you could possibly produce in last years conditions to this years.
4) Cessnock is weird: Anybody who has been to wine areas of Europe will talk about little hamlets full of food, wine bars, charm being swept up with vintage fever. Cessnock, the main town of the Hunter Valley, has none of that. Zero, zilch. The town council obviously has never seen any reason to make the place charming at all, and has made an effort to show no affiliation whatsoever with the wine country that surrounds it. This place is for coal miners, and as such, is about as charming as telemarketing call at 8pm.
You could live here for years and have no idea that the wine industry even exists.
5) There is a community of great people: To balance my last point, the ones who are in the Hunter for wine do bond together. There is a great insider scene, a secret stonecutters style handshake so to say, among local workers which will get you good seats or the special deals and prices. There are bartering systems where you can trade your products for theirs. There is a lot of spirit of the winers bonding together as to not be overtaken totally by the miners which leads to wineries which look like big competitors actually having being best friends and helping each other out for greater good of all.
It can be like a club: seeing someone with a winery shirt on at the supermarket will generally be enough to greet them even though you have never met. That commaraderie is great. The ones in the core know everyone and as in any community, these networks can lead to a very active rumour mill.
Have a look at all the stuff in the Hunter Valley, and look at how many of those things are in Cessnock:
http://www.winecountry.com.au/
6) Some of the best wine will never be found in the shops: needless to say, the convoluted deals and salesmanship with quantities and margins and tasting samples and distribution agreements mean that rarely do the best wines from most places end up in bottle shops or restaurants either due to quantities or price squeeze. You have to be at the cellar doors and ask, and ask if they have any to try if it is not on the tasting list, and get it there.
7) Cellar Door Sales is for sales: leading on from point 6, there are still a lot of people who think they are doing a winery a favour by visiting them, hanging out talking for an hour, trying all the wines and buying nothing. The put it off as ‘it is only for their promotion’, and believe me, I thought the same when I was younger.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. There is a certain element of promotion, but make no mistake, cellar doors only exist for people to try before they buy. If people don’t buy anything, they will close just like any shop. Rosemount recently closed their cellar door due in the Hunter Valley mainly due to it not being financially viable.
Many places are now placing a $5 tasting fee redeemable on purchase and I think you will see a LOT more of that.
7) to be continued….
- WINEDUCATION - 
I was quote shocked when I went wine touring through the Napper Valley in CA only to be charged €5 entry to taste Australian & NZ owned vineyard wines that you could try in Oz for nothing. Wine culture has changed over time. I guess it’s become more commercial, touristy and much more competitive.
But Mitch, seriously, what are the industry tricks to produce wine and how can poor consumers like us make better choices. You touched on a really good point about the vintage. Is there a website that tells you what regions had good weather and in what year. Might make a nice iphone app?
Valid points Jeremy. The industry has always been about selling the stuff and all about benevolence ever since Bordeaux was under the British crown (a longgg time ago). Just like any industry in a global market, it is definitely a lot more competitive.
For better choices: follow blogs like this, get a good wine dealer (In Europe they generally have wines at a little more than the supermarkets, but with better advice) and as much as rating systems are flawed, follow a noted critics recommendations (Jancis Robinson, Parker, Decanter etc). Wine is very much producer dependent, not just region. Normally the quality comes out in price:
Rule of thumb is that up to about 50 Euros you can justify the production quality costs and expect leaps in wine quality with each extra Euro spent, over that you are paying for art.
General flaw: DO NOT take a pretty medal on bottle as a sign of good, they are very misleading and generally the best producers avoid the sticker for looking tacky.
For the vintages there are a ton of apps, most free like the wine spectator vintage chart. They are a little too generous in ratings mainly due to the fact that the variation from region to region or even within a region can be great.