Why Legend?
The Australian Wine Industry has been chacterised by extra ordinary success of the last decade or more:
But could it continue, and if so for how long? Would the success of “Brand Australia” lead the scribes, judges and other commentators to look more closely and treat us more critically.
At APW International we had another concern. Even if the reputation for good everyday drinking wines continued, what of our premium products? The success of the entry point and slightly better Aussie wine was suffocating the classy regional and varietal styles and could reduce “Brand Australia” to lowest common denominator status.
At APW International we decided to support our 40 regionally authentic, hand made wine producers in the international market with a quality “value for money” everyday drinking product -an under 10 Euro, 7 quid wine which was not one dimensional; which reflected the Aussie trade marks of freshness, cleanness, and flavours but was a little more, while still affordable.
However, packaging costs in Australia, and freight from the Antipodes were the big killers to supplying cost effectively to Europe. We had access to fabulous “over delivery” fruit and a small “hands on” producer to guarantee wine quality. We had willing distributors and agents in Ireland and the U.K. We just needed a magic wand to reduce the packaging and freight costs.
Enter Twin Meadows, a boutique Irish Brewery with state of the art bottling capacity, bonded warehouse facility and the same attention to detail our grape growers, wine makers, and distributors share. We were poised to produce a hand made, boutique, everyday drinking wine which was affordable.
Meanwhile the critics were indeed moving away from their love affair with Australian mass market wines while still paying only scant regard to our quality products. The Aussie band wagon appeared to be slowing.
Time Atkins wrote in “The Observer”
“Where is the excitement that Australia used to provide? At the lower end of the market, Aussie wines are in danger of becoming the new Liebfraumilch: bland, confected and boring. Our retail shelves are dominated by virtually interchangeable brands, most of which are overpriced.”
And Dorothy. J Gaiter and John Brecher wrote in “The Wall Street Journal”
“It’s time for the Australian wine industry to wake up and smell the bad wine. We bring a huge amount of goodwill toward these wines, which in many cases are old friends. But they have gone downhill, and fast.”
APW International asked as did our own Felicity Carter in “The Melbourne Age” very recently
“Does it matter what wine critics think? A stroll through the average American wine store reveals aisles crammed with Yellow Tail, while six of the top 10 wines in the U.K. are Australian.”
The fact is however that Aussie wine makers ignore the signs at their peril. We believe the lessons learned by the French in the 1990’s must be learned by Australian exporters now. While we don’t blindly accept the criticism we must acknowledge it.
Tim Atkins again, this time quoted in “The Age” 31.05.05
“The big companies are producing some pretty awful wines. Australia doesn’t produce faulty wines, but it’s the blandness which is almost depressing. In the under £7 (A$17) market, individuality has almost disappeared.”
Enter the APWI dream. We do a “boutique” everyday wine to support our 4 and 5 star products, and at AUD $15 – Because we bottle in Europe.
Oh, and one last thing: Why Ireland? Because as part of the delivery aspect of our project we wanted to do quarter bottles to fill another niche: quality wine by the glass in Ireland. Who knows one day soon an airline may even serve “hand made” wines in Economy class!
Such was the success of the label we ended shipping out of Ireland to Canada and so it was time to revisit the model of shipping bulk to Europe: it was a little silly to move bulk to Ireland, package it and send it of Canada.
So, for the 2006 vintage, it is all "home-grown", made and bottled in Australia.