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<pre>--- Mike Wilson <mike.wilson@...>
wrote: >
>
> > Andrew
> > The best analogy I can use is our local Hunter
> Valley wine industry.
> > Individual 'hands on' growers do well, I can think
> of one in particular
> > who is picking up many awards and has presold most
> of his product after
> > years of struggle. These growers hand pick the
> fruit and process
> > carefully, another grower inspects each bunch
> prior to pressing. They
> > are not threatened by cask wine or supermaket
> lines and there is a
> > growing demand for their product. It is this
> obvious personal attention
> > to detail that gives them the edge, something that
> is appreciated by the
> > consumer and cannot be duplicated by the large
> concerns. I dont think
> > that small growers producing their own product
> have anything to fear
> > from the large producers unless they are
> contracted as suppliers to
> > those businesses. This could mean that there will
> be a proliferation of
> > small mills with plenty of variety of product to
> interest the consumer.
>
> Roger,
>
> To take your analogy one step further, ask yourself
> who produces the top
> wines in Australia. I doubt that many would argue
> that wines such as
> Penforld's Grange, Rosemount Roxburgh Chardonnay,
> etc ate the top of the
> line, and produced by the biggest companies.
>
> With a huge operation, there is bound to be more
> resources to draw on, more
> potential to produce excellence. It doesn't
> automatically mean that big
> means bland.
>
> Smaller growers may only have one batch of fruit to
> process, so their
> eventual oil quality may well not be reliable.
>
> Mike Wilson.
>
>Surely this is a simplistic argument. You ask us who
produces the top wines in Australia and then you
answer in the voice of an imaginary dominant value
group that identifies the biggest wine companies as
the producers of the best wines, i.e. Grange Hermitage
and Rosemount Roxborough. Of course it all depends
upon the context of the evaluation. Are you saying the
most expensive wines are the best? Grange has now
become a commodity that is rarely consumed. Its
symbolic value has ascribed it a capital value which
transcends its value as a beverage for consumption.
Roxborough Chardonnay is held in greater esteem in its
state of origin, NSW, than in SA where Hunter Valley
wines are not greeted with the same level of interest
as regions such as Clare Valley, Margaret River or
Mornington Peninsula.

Jeffrey Grosset, in the Clare Valley, is a small
producer who was recently judged the best Riesling
producer in the world. Adam Wynn at Mountadam Wines,
Eden Valley, produces complex wines from single
vineyards by picking and processing different rows in
the vineyard at different times and placing them in
different new and used French oak barrels and
subjecting different components to different degrees
of fermentation and different development and
maturation processes.

Of course big wine companies enjoy resources beyond
those available to most small wineries. Yes, with
quality fruit and skilled wine making there is always
the potential to produce excellence. There is no
reason why big should equal bland.Large and small
producers are both subject to volume/quality concerns.
In the case of Coonawarra red wines the desire for
profit motivated many of the larger wineries to
produce wines from excessively high yielding vineyards
resulting in high volume, fruit driven wines lacking
complexity. Again producers have allowed the commodity
value of the Coonawarra region to ascribe a value to
some wines which do not represent the excellence the
region is renowned for producing.

Great wine and great olive oil is first and foremost
made from great fruit. The fruit and the product is
distinctive in the market place because of the
terroir; that is the regional characteristics such as
soil, climate, rainfall etc. The product is further
distinguished by its mode of production. Different
components are assembled and treated in different ways
to provide complexity and to develop the intensity of
characteristics identified in the fruit.And of course
the product is positioned in the market place with a
commodity value which may represent the advertising
dollar more than the quality of the product itself.
Certainly the large wineries have much greater
economic capital than the small producers and hence a
much greater capacity (and volume) to sell their
product. There are very few bad wines ( ie faulty
wines) made in Australia today. There are many
different qualities and price points available, just
as one would expect with olive oil.

Any producer, large or small with access to premium
fruit, appropriate equipment and creative and
technical skills is capable of producing great wine or
olive oil.Large producers produce many different
products, including 'hands on', cutting edge attention
to detail super premium products and large volume
every day consumption products. The point of
contention that concerns us all is in the equation
between creative, quality interests versus the need
for financial return and accountability. Size is not
the issue! Quality will always be represented by
different niche markets and different socially
constructed perceptions of quality and value.



Antony Whiting
First Creek
Waterfall Gully
South Australia.


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