Wine with Meg + Mel
The fun + frank podcast which helps you navigate the world of wine. Hosted by Australia's first female Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann, and self-titled Master of Sabrage Mel Gilcrist.
Wine with Meg + Mel
Wine News: Australia's new top grape, Burgundy's bougee auction, Global praise for Australian sparkling winemaker, what we think of current wine campaigns
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Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mal. We are here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm our Gokurist Rambai Master of Wine, meg Brotman. We are doing another wine news episode today. We are there's lots going on.
Speaker 2:It's all good news, though.
Speaker 1:There is. So look, here's what we're covering today. We have a new most crushed grape variety in Australia. What is it? Dun dun dun Shh? No, no, that was that was I was going to get to it. Okay, I was doing a tease. Okay, I think people might have an idea now, but you know, okay, no it's.
Speaker 2:Shambushan.
Speaker 1:Is that how you pronounce it? Anyway, move on. Okay, we've got vineyards in Spain hit by some extreme weather, a sparkling wine maker getting big accolades overseas. Burgundy, a crazy wine auction, some crazy money going around there, and then we're going to have a bit of fun with some wine campaigns and say what we think.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I haven't seen these campaigns. Can I give my honest opinion?
Speaker 1:Okay, you should give your honest opinion.
Speaker 2:I think it's getting more interesting wine marketing.
Speaker 1:I've got to say Okay, so look, we're going to start off with. We have here. This is your moment. Now you're allowed to say it. There is a new, most crushed grape variety in Australia. What are we drinking now?
Speaker 2:So it's not really what we're drinking. It's what we crushed, most of which is Chardonnay. So for the first time since forever, basically, chardonnay has overtaken Shiraz as the most crushed grape variety in Australia. So every year we do a national grape crush survey. So it's run through Wine Australia. An amazing woman, sandy Hathaway, sends out a survey to everyone. You don't have to fill it in, it's voluntary. We all go back with what we've crushed, and Chardonnay came out on top. The thing is it's not that Chardonnay we're producing more Chardonnay, it's that we've crushed less Shiraz. So I think it was 22,000-odd tonne less Shiraz was crushed in the river land than in previous years.
Speaker 1:But I mean that must reflect drinking it reflects China. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Because there's not such a demand. You know we've spoken about Accolade wanting to go to their grape growers and get out of their contracts. It's just leaving fruit hanging on the vine. No one's picking up the Shiraz grapes because they can't sell it, because there was a huge market for Shiraz and now that market has died. But we are drinking lighter styles and we're seeing this in China as well, that they are moving towards white wine and lighter styles and with Austrade in August I'm doing an event called Shine Shenzhen, which is only for white wine and sparkling wine from Australia, Really, and Shenzhen. The average age of the person living in Shenzhen is 30. It's a really young demographic. It's like one of these dot-commy areas, you know. They do all this sort of computer-y stuff. Anyway, they're all very young and they're all very smart and they've got moderate amounts of disposable income and they're moving towards these lighter styles and it really suits that part of China because it's south, so it's really warm and humid and tropical. Almost that's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are seeing a shift and it's great and it's our favourite grape variety, so we're happy Do you know what's funny, like what I saw, what I've seen popping up on the news and stuff has been like this daggy old grape is now cool again and stuff. But what you're saying is it's not even necessarily that.
Speaker 2:No, it's not that. It's just that the daggy old grape of Shiraz has become daggier almost. Oh, my God it is so much daggier. Yeah, it is so much daggier. Yeah, it's suffering a bit of an identity crisis, Shiraz, at the moment, but we know that that sub $10, which is where a lot of this Shiraz went is people don't want it anymore, All companies are divesting themselves of these brands, so there's no growth in that area.
Speaker 2:So as a result of less Shiraz crush, chardonnay sort of moved up to the top, and I think Chardonnay's always been the second most crushed grape variety. So it's not a big change, but it points to the structural oversupply that we have in the industry with.
Speaker 1:Shiraz yeah.
Speaker 2:And I would argue, almost Cabernet as well. Oh, my. God, big time. I know, I know it's just crazy, but it's. I think we will see a shift to more people are drinking less Um, and then you know there's lower alcohol in a Chardonnay, it's you know anywhere between 12 and a half and 13 and a half percent.
Speaker 1:It's not even just like going from Shiraz to Cab. It's literally a red to white, which is crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah true, but again, shifting demographics, yeah, shifting lifestyle patterns, yeah, um, and global, it's not. You know, china was a big red market and now we're seeing a shift, yeah, towards white wine, which is what look it's. It's a shift from a small base, yeah, but it's. You know, as markets mature, they often start off we've discussed this before you start off with bang for buck wines, so you can taste lots and lots of flavour. Yeah, shiraz does it all. Yeah, lots of berry fruit. You can throw a shitload of oak at it. Yes, you can taste the flavour. Yes, and then, as markets, that's what we're seeing with Chardonnay and the decrease in Shiraz.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so that's good news. All right. Well, we're moving on Going to Spain. So there's been a string of extreme weather events which is pretty devastating. So we're in the northwest. You're going to have to repronounce this Bieso, Bieso. I can't, valde-orus, I can't make that noise with my tongue. Valde-orus, valde-orus, can you?
Speaker 2:I can't roll my tongue. Oh, it's a genetic thing, so it's not your fault.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, that's good, it's not your fault. But they've had crazy storms, have had hailstorms the size of golf balls, and what it's doing is it's crushing graves, tearing leaves off vines, damaging canes and permanent wood. What does all this mean?
Speaker 2:Reduced yield. Yeah, how do we actually counteract against these massive hail events that we're seeing? It's not just in Spain. You know, france has been hit by hailstorms as well. It's just it's part of changing climate, obviously. Yeah, I read there's a thing that was advertised in a magazine for hail, yeah, and it's like you've got these almost like a sunroof down the wires of the vines and then if you think you're going to have hail, you hit a button and within 60 seconds it covers the entire vineyard.
Speaker 2:The cost is 6,000 euros per square metre or something ridiculous. We worked out it's like a quarter of a million per hectare. But if you're in someone like Chablis, where your wine is going to yes, you can charge a lot for your wine then it is something. And as the technology improves, it's going to become more, it's going to become cheaper. But you've seen Mendoza? Mendoza has the big shade cloth over the vineyards and that's because of hail and it doesn't impact. No, because it's like a used shade cloth. But you can buy them with different grades of sun infiltration.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's cool. So it's not like 100% U SP 50 or whatever.
Speaker 2:Oh, this mechanical thing, though it sounds a lot more expensive than a shade cloth. It's so beautiful. I was just like, oh my God, look at this thing. It's fantastic.
Speaker 1:It's a good point, though, because for so long we've had things to deal with frost. We've got helicopters and windmill things and there's all this action that we can take against it, but it's like we've just had to put up with hail.
Speaker 2:Well, in Burgundy they have cannons which this is going back centuries, which they thought they used to set off to break up the hail clouds. They don't work.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, how cool would it be if they did, yeah, but it's kind of.
Speaker 2:It has existed, but it was rare, yeah, okay. And the problem is now it is every year. We are hearing about some hail storm somewhere in Europe or Australia. We had one last year, yeah, and they're occurring later in the season. If they occur in winter, we don't care, because everything's dormant. If they occur in spring, when the little leaves are coming out, they damage the leaves, so you've got less photosynthetic area, so it's hard to ripen your grapes. It can damage fruit, it can write off fruit. It's damaging canes I mean golf balls. Can you imagine the pain if it hit you? It looks awful, yeah, and the pictures are pretty graphic. And then on the other side, in Santa Barbara in California, we have massive wildfires oh my God. And you know they're doing a lot of research on smoke taint and everything, but it's just like, oh my God, yeah, that one's pretty devastating. It is devastating and there's not much you can do about it unless we put in permanent hail cloth over the top, which is what they do in Mendoza.
Speaker 1:Well, moving on we are going to. For the first time ever, an Australian has been crowned Sparkling Winemaker of the Year. Is this true? The world's most prestigious wine awards, so it's International.
Speaker 2:Wine Challenge. Is that the world's most prestigious wine awards? It's the biggest, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it was like the London Wine Show or something.
Speaker 2:Well, it was, that is, the London one.
Speaker 1:Oh is it.
Speaker 2:It used to be called the London International Wine Challenge and now it's just called the International Wine Challenge. Okay, gotcha, it's done in London. Yeah, it's got judges from all over the world, people who are specialised in winemaking and marketing and business, so really broad group of judges. It is a really good. There's rigour in this wine show.
Speaker 2:And yeah, house of Arras, ed Carr superstar has won for the first time ever. It's always gone to a Champenoise Won Best Sparkling Winemaker in the world for House of Arras and it was for the 2015 Blanc de Blanc that won the trophy for Best Sparkling Wine. And I went online it's $136. That's not even that much and that's from House of Arras.
Speaker 1:Have you tasted it.
Speaker 2:No, I was trying to get a bottle for today. Yeah, that would have been good, but I think it's probably all sold out now because he's won this massive prize.
Speaker 1:Oh good on him, but it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:I mean he is a genius and that's great for Australian sparkling. It is, and it's all from Tasmania, yeah, but you know House of Arras has been bought by Handpicked, you know. Yes, it was sold, it wasn't last year.
Speaker 1:But do you think that is Australian sparkling known around the world Like I feel like England has come out and surpassed us out of nowhere. Well, england, just because really Like England?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess so. And other countries in the world like California, oregon, new Zealand, australia, make sparkling wine, but we are competing against that huge Champagne yes, the Champagnoise. So I think that we just need to be look at each individual country's styles as they are and not make a comparison. Dan Buckle said this, you know. Yeah, don't compare Australian sparkling with champagne. And the other thing is we now have Tasmania as our cool climate sparkling fruit area. You know it used to be the Yarra. True, things have changed. So now we know that Tassie makes great fruit and we're going to make the wine out of it. Well done. I'm not sure how long they age on leaves. And this is the thing with Australian sparkling, because with champagne we know that it's 15 months minimum and Carver's nine months minimum. We don't have those rules in Australia, so it's kind of like well, would it be good to advertise that? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, do you think it would be good for our brands if we actually do? You think that we should put rules on it?
Speaker 2:I don't think we should legislate for it. No, I think that we should advertise it, though.
Speaker 1:I think we should inform people because it does change the style If we're not consistent.
Speaker 2:True, true, it would be by an individual product, by product by product. Yeah, so it is a little bit harder.
Speaker 1:Unless we legislate, we can't really advertise. Yeah, true, but anyway, congratulations, edgar, and awesome that Australian Sparkling is getting known around the world. I'm so excited to try it. Oh, okay, so next up is a fun one. So we have had has been a new wine auction just happened in Burgundy and it's broken eight world records. Where do people have money at the moment.
Speaker 2:People who have money always have money. And don't forget we've got higher interest rates than we've had for a long period of time. The stock markets are doing pretty well higher interest rates than we've had for a long period of time. The stock markets are doing pretty well.
Speaker 1:US economy surprisingly, is actually booming despite what everyone thinks Really.
Speaker 2:And so people have money, always have money, and they just make more money. And those of us that don't have a lot of money, we can't afford to buy one bottle of Burgundy, let alone. Wow.
Speaker 1:Wow, six bottles of.
Speaker 2:Chevalier Montrachet. They went for €106,000. About to what? €180,000 Australian dollars, far out $30,000 a bottle. I mean seriously, and the thing that it's an investment, it's an investment. These wines will never be drunk and I argue, is that the point? Oh, my God, you know, and I'm sure, these wineries did not make that wine for it just to be traded. Do they say who actually bought it?
Speaker 2:No, they don't, but wasn't it two bottles, it was some La Tache or something. Only a couple of bottles went for 40,000 each as well, I can't remember. I did read the article and I was just like 10,000 euros per bottle, oh my. God.
Speaker 1:This is crazy. Oh, that's Eschizote B-R-C-E-M-E-N-T-R-E-C-H-E-R yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, these are wines league. We will never taste them, we will never be able to buy them.
Speaker 1:Let's move on. It's just depressing. I reckon it is a bit depressing. It's Burgundy.
Speaker 2:They just crush it, hey, like. Yeah, they're collectible and it's because it's a finite supply. Yeah, it's never going to get bigger. Possibly will only ever get smaller. And when they have these great vintages, which, you know, they claim is every second year, people want the wines. And they want them because they are as rare as hen's teeth. You know they're very, very hard to find and so people want to hold them. It's that desire, you know, for the Raiders of the Lost Ark, or they want something that no one else has got.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go, If you stumble on $200,000 and want some really rare burgundy that's how much it's gone for.
Speaker 2:All right, I'm giving you $200,000. What are you going to do with it? Not me, I'm poor. But would you? I'd buy a house. The thing is, for people that have that money it's a drop in the ocean.
Speaker 1:Here we go. So this is one of the people buying this wine. He owns a company which produces electronic components for mobile phones, computers and cars. He is ranked 498th in the Forbes billionaires list. Are there that many billionaires? That's depressing, yeah, all right. Well, there we go, moving on, okay. So the last thing that I wanted to do is just something fun.
Speaker 2:We're going to have a look at some of the campaigns that are happening in wine at the moment, and the reason I want to have a look is because wine marketing is so boring yes, and, as we were discussing earlier when we brought this subject up, there is a wine institute of marketing in america which has done a study on Gen Zs and millennials to find out what they want. And it is different to what boomers and Xs wanted. Yeah, but then they haven't actually formulated the marketing plan around it, it's just the original study.
Speaker 1:No, so we know that Gen X they and upwards care about vintage and vineyards and winemaking and it looks like millennials and downwards care about sustainability, transparency, value, small business, that sort of thing which does actually say less about the wine. But is that?
Speaker 2:because we know that people don't get into wine any generation boomers, xs, millennials we're now seeing it until they're 37. In terms of that, wanting to know where it's from, how it's made, spending more money In your 20s and even though I'm a wine person, I wasn't drinking, you know hideously expensive bottles of wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I wonder if these studies compare to what Gen X?
Speaker 2:You've got to compare age to age. Yeah, that's fair, because I think I don't know anyone in their 20s who would say, oh, I fancy a glass of Chablis over a brew, or you know a gin and tonic or something. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I think it's just stage of life plus generation. I think with Gen Z certainly it is about authenticity and experiences. But that's what it is. When you're in your 20s, in your 50s, like I am, you just want to be at home having a glass of wine. You don't want to be experiencing anything, because it's cold out there and you know I want to be in bed at 9 o'clock because, some bitch tells me I have to get up at 5.30 so I can come and do a podcast at 7.30 in the morning.
Speaker 1:I know it's so early, I know right. Okay, look, we're going to dive into some of these. We're going to see what we think. The first a day.
Speaker 2:I have nothing to say, I just this is Hugo wines which we've tried, which are actually good.
Speaker 1:Daniel Ricciardo is a Formula One race car driver. He's a great personality and look, we've discussed it before. It works Like when you, when you have these millennials who don't care about vineyard and region and stuff, you slap a funny guy that they love with this wine and they'll buy it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. It's the same with all the rappers, with the champagnes. That's why Champagne House is a you know going to cool people. This is the guy that has Daniel Ricciardo the Crystal Shoei.
Speaker 1:Yes, is that right? Decanter, yeah, yeah, which we all know, I love, which Mel really wants, I still want.
Speaker 2:To add to her ugly decanter list. Yes, but I think okay, name it after him Dry Visitation. They'll buy the wine. Good on them. Does it help the wine industry?
Speaker 1:No, it's a stunt St.
Speaker 2:Hugo is a good solid. I've tried some of the wines.
Speaker 1:They are good, yes they are, oh, absolutely so. It's not like you know, they're just trading on his name.
Speaker 2:Oh God, yeah there's. You know there's good wine behind it all and, from what I understand, he actually really is into wine, he's into it, yeah. So the whole story kind of fits together. Renaming one store I understand is yeah, it's all for PR. It's going to be a high expectation, but it's got a lot of news.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has. So there you go. The next one is okay. This is fun, meg, if I said to you what do you prefer to wear a bucket hat?
Speaker 2:a cap or a beanie? Oh well, it depends on the season. It's all a bit much, I guess. Probably what's a cap, like a baseball cap? No, that's definitely not A bucket.
Speaker 1:A bucket. Oh, I bet that means that you're into like something weird and funky. So this latest one is the Grampians wine. The Grampians wine have done a quiz about which Grampians wine is your perfect match, based on your personality. Now the funny thing about the quiz is it does actually include some questions about like what style of wine do you like, big and bold or fruity? And then you've got the next question is like what kind of hat do you like to wear?
Speaker 2:And it's like Well, only bucket hat, because stage of life again got to save the skin from ageing, so it protects me from Bucket hats are cool.
Speaker 1:No wonder you're a judge and young gun if you wear bucket hats.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. Well, I look terrible in a beanie because they always come down too low for my glasses and it's all just hard to find a good beanie that actually works, but like questions in this were like what do you prefer to watch?
Speaker 1:ABC, iview or Netflix? What do you think about quizzes like this? And it comes out at the end and it says we think that you like adventurous Grampian Twins.
Speaker 2:It reminds me of the quiz on Schitt's Creek that they did about whether your romance was on fire or not. Do you remember? Yes, and no matter which way you took it, you were always going to be a loser. Because I think you can game these quizzes. Because if I said iView, clearly they're putting me in an old girls thing. If I said old Netflix, they're putting me in another thing Bucket hats. I did not know were trendy.
Speaker 1:That goes to show how untrendy I am.
Speaker 2:So yeah, look, it's a bit of fun, it's engaging audiences, it's like that Good Pair Days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good Pair Days. Think that they have. Actually they do it more around. They're trying to get your taste profile? Yeah, absolutely. Whereas this one it's personality-based and, honestly, I think it's fun. It's not going to set the world on fire, no, I agree, and fun.
Speaker 2:It's not going to set the world on fire. No, I agree. And why not? Why not have something that engages people, and they're going to be getting data from this as well.
Speaker 1:Which is, and everyone loves doing a little personality quiz? Of course we do. You're exactly right. It all comes down to the fact that they get data and then, when they have something with a good, strong message, it's going to end up in all our inboxes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely For those of you wearing bucket hats, when they've got Grampians bucket hats, or I'll be getting the Grampians beanie or whatever. Yes, it's why not.
Speaker 1:Well, look, I'm going to include a link.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I'll take the personality quiz.
Speaker 2:And what are the personalities?
Speaker 1:Well, it comes down to like you're adventurous, so we think that you'd like alternative varieties Okay. Or like you're a traditionalist and you like comfort, so you'd like a big red and do you have more than two options Like? Is it A, b, c, d or is it just A?
Speaker 2:I think it was three or four.
Speaker 1:Okay yeah, okay, yeah, so there we go, take the quiz. It's going in the show notes. It'll go on the. You can't put links in Instagram.
Speaker 2:We'll work out a way of doing it. I'm sure you can go to it. If not, you could possibly go onto the Grampians Wine site and take the quiz there, grampianswinecomau.
Speaker 1:Okay, last one, the dark side of wine.
Speaker 2:I'm your father, Luke. Oh my God, I've got a really bad cold, so I can actually do Darth Vader's wheezing at the moment.
Speaker 1:That is going to be our social media grab. Yeah, so okay. So look, every wine region does this. They do like their signature event or a signature weekend or something like that, and you know King Valley do like italian, and it's really cool, it makes sense, and I think there's some wine regions that are just like. You have choices right. You can either do something generic and just be like wine and food weekend. Come visit us, yep, or you can do something kind of interesting if there's not nothing that like naturally aligns, and so what rather glenn are doing is called the dark side of Wine, and it looks like it's all kind of centered around nine type events. I kind of love that there's a masquerade ball. I do wonder if anyone will go, but I love that it's happening.
Speaker 2:People will go, people from the region will go and hopefully, you know, people from Melbourne will go up. This is to drive visitation to regions. We know wine regions are suffering. Yeah, go Fun.
Speaker 1:Masquerade it's so fun.
Speaker 2:Wear a ball gown. Everyone's all over Bridgerton at the moment, it's true, so drag out your frock that you took to Bridgerton and put a mask on it.
Speaker 1:Do you think people from Melbourne?
Speaker 2:will actually go. Well, I hope they do. I hope they do. I think it's great, are they? Yeah, I think they are. It's all this. You know Yarra Valley has fireside. It's all around winter. We know visitation drops off during winter. It's not enough, as you said, to just say come and visit our cellar doors. You can make a whole weekend of this and go to a masquerade. Well, I imagine the wine's rather glen. You know there's muskets and topaques from hundreds of years old. That'd be fantastic. I think it's worth going and I'm sure each winery has an individual event.
Speaker 1:Different. Yeah, it's like the dark arts of Rutherglen will be revealed in the dark.
Speaker 2:It's all very like intriguing, to be honest, and I wonder if they can deliver it kind of reminds me a little bit of that Barossa ad that they did with the Nick Cave song, which never landed. Oh yeah, you know, it was all very earthy it was and bloody almost. I think there was sort of bits of meat and things that never everyone in the wine industry loved it. But everyone outside the wine industry said what are they advertising?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It didn't really align with what Barossa was or what the perception of Barossa was, but I think this is great. I think this is something that we need to be doing to liven up the wine industry. You know, have fun. The problem is cost of living. I hope the events aren't too expensive and I hope that they get, you know, good accommodation deals across it so that you know people are sort of really inspired to go and more bridge the weekend. So maybe a Friday night event, a Saturday event and then maybe an early lunch or something on Sunday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this looks like exactly what they're doing.
Speaker 2:There's some cool events here. There's stuff around art there's, you know, some cool like drift and I saw in the headline that there was stargazing, which is really cool. Oh, no, sitting outside drinking wine looking at the stars. How awesome is that. We were on our honeymoon. Oh, in New. Zealand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had a stargazing thing planned and I cancelled it. I was like how?
Speaker 2:boring. That's the one in Christ near Christchurch in the South Island.
Speaker 1:No, was it like. Is it called Mount Cook? Yeah, yeah, oh, is that near us? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I desperately, desperately wanted to go to that and I booked in as well and it absolutely. We couldn't see Mount Cook, oh no. It was just cloud cover to the lake at Mount Cook so I cancelled it and I was so disappointed because it's in some farmer's field. You go out there and oh, it's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, how about this? This one sounds cool. Musket of Rutherglen Classification Tasting.
Speaker 2:That would be great, that's cool, that's education and fun and beautiful wine.
Speaker 1:Back vintage tastings of Duras, a speakeasy, really cool Thumbs up from us and Rutherglen's a kind.
Speaker 2:And kind of it's got some beautiful old architecture and you know we've discussed before that. There's the outside one of the pubs. It was the mortuary. It still exists. It's this tiny little brick building.
Speaker 1:So I guess they're playing off that. That's fun yeah.
Speaker 2:I love Rutherglen as a region.
Speaker 1:If anyone goes, please let us know how it went. Send us your feedback. My husband is he? I think he's in Chile. Can I head out? I can't go anywhere after 7pm with a baby. Oh, I know you lie, but you can go for lunches. I could go for lunch. I have to head out for lunch, all right. Well, that is the end of our news episode this week. We are going to be back with you next time. We've got some fun episodes planned about bubbles, I know, or mousse, mousse, mousse, because we're fancy. All right, we'll see you next time and until then, enjoy your next glass of wine and drink well.
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