For small winemakers across Victoria, the closure of Melbourne restaurants was an almost fatal blow.
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For the big guys and exporters, the 200 per cent Chinese wine tariff was their crisis point.
Nagambie winery Tar&Roses is somewhere in the middle, supplying Dan Murphys and Coles stores across the country yet still remaining ‘boutique’.
Established by winemakers Narelle King and the late Don Lewis in 2006, Tar&Roses rapidly expanded by using long-term contracts with vineyards and wineries to grow without massive capital investment.
The method worked well, starting with red wines in Heathcote before expanding into the Goulburn Valley, Strathbogie Ranges and King Valley.
“In the first few months of the pandemic we took a lot of losses,” Ms King said.
“Fifty per cent of our business was on-premises (restaurants, bars) but the sales and distribution guys swung into action soon after. We were able to pivot into retail sales.”
Alongside many Victorian wines, Tar&Roses has spent the past 12 months in more shopping baskets and home delivery boxes than ever before, but people are still being surprised by the quality.
“We are getting people up here (Nagambie) who are astounded by what we have,” Ms King said.
“It’s amazing to see these people who’d normally be on a plane to Bali or similar come up and discover what’s right here.
“We run a cellar door — although it’s more of barrel shed, very rustic — on Vickers Rd. We’re attempting to open it on the first full weekend of each month but I don’t think October is going to happen.”
Currently wineries in regional Victoria are heavily restricted by seating number caps and rely on Melbourne day-trippers for the bulk of their cellar door sales.
Tar&Roses began 15 years ago when Ms King and business partner Mr Lewis decided to stop wandering the Mediterranean and set up shop in central Victoria.
“We used to work at Mitchelton and did some work for a Spanish company,” Ms King said.
“We were doing a lot of stuff in Europe and were approached to make Spanish-type wines here in central Victoria and it suited us well. We realised everything we needed was here, and I was living in Bendigo at the time.”
The proposition also suited Mr Lewis, who had a passion for both Spanish and Victorian wine and was out to revitalise the Victorian wine industry with bold reds and sharp whites.
In 2006 there were about 560 winemakers in Victoria — today there are 700 wineries and 3000 vineyards involved in the $7.6 billion dollar Victorian industry.
Across the state, those wineries normally cater to 12.2 million winery visits, according to Wine Victoria.
Victoria now has more wine producers than any other state in Australia, but produces less litres due to a lack of mass-producing regions like South Australia’s Riverland and NSW’s Riverina.
Like all Victorian winemakers, Tar&Roses is keen to see hospitality back in action.
“We’ve got good sales into the chains but people miss the restaurant trade,” Ms King said.
In February, Wine Victoria released a ‘Behind the Vines’ directory in an effort to connect Victorians with their local wineries.
Wine Australia chair Angie Bradbury described the directory as an easy click-to-purchase website which kept sales flowing through cellar doors — albeit digitally.
“It’s incredibly important to be drinking local wines now more than ever,” Ms Bradbury said.
“Many of our fantastic wineries rely heavily on tourism and the hospitality sector, so 2020 was an incredibly difficult year.”
When asked if there was anything the government could do to improve the situation, Ms King said fixing the China situation was the big ask.
“Really, our biggest impact at the moment is China.”
In 2020, China introduced 200 per cent and higher tariffs on Australian wine, making the entire trade unviable in the wine-hungry Chinese market.
“A lot of big companies who were supplying China are going to flood other markets now,” Ms King said.
“I was looking at a 2021 bulk order list the other day and one of the big companies had bulk Shiraz at $1.50 a litre. It hadn’t been picked off the vine yet. That’s just ridiculous.”
The looming threat of a wine price drop has smaller producers nervously holding out for an end to lockdowns, in turn ending their reliance on liquor chain giants and online shopping.
“Overall the government has done well,” Ms King said.
“Waiving the liquor licence fees was useful and the Victorian Government’s shop local, buy local campaign helped.
“They paid for freight costs within the state and that was really good for small producers because freight is the killer.”
The vineyards Ms King has contracts with are mainly family-owned, just like Tar&Roses.
“That’s not on purpose by any means, but we seem to gravitate towards them,” she said.
The 2020 harvest was impacted by bushfires in the King Valley and low yields in Heathcote.
The long, cool 2021 harvest has delivered fantastic results to a nervous but optimistic industry.
“The reds (from Heathcote) look really strong,” Ms King said.
“Between the Shiraz, the Tempranillo and the Sangiovese I can’t pick a favourite.”
Journalist