Jancis Robinson, the world's leading wine critic, recently wrote an article on Australian wine in the Financial Times. Her piece was fairly scathing to say the least.

Here is an excerpt (this quote taken from the May 2009 Edition of Wine Business Magazine), "Something very strange has happened to Australian wine. While more and more truly fine Australian wine is being produced, Australia's wine fortunes and reputation have plummeted. Fashions in wine, just as in everything else, come and go, but the sheer speed with which Australia has moved from being revered to being reviled is quite remarkable." Her comments have been supported by a number of British journalists and reflected in rapidly diminishing exports to the UK. Jancis raises a very real issue that the Australian wine industry is facing, and that is one of identity. Strongly supported by the government in the form of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, under the banner 'Brand Australia', our loveable 'critter wines' such as Yellow Tail have built, through sheer strength of sales, a remarkably strong national brand image that is now appearing to have a detrimental effect on Australian wine exporters. The impression many foreign wine drinkers have of Australian wine is that it is an industrial, factory produced product, with no unique personality or significant quality. Our wines represent sunshine in a bottle and great value for money, if you are after a reliable beverage.

Now that the love affair with Australian wine appears to be over, there is a significant challenge for Australian wine producers to collectively reposition our product. I believe, like Jancis, that the future of Australian wine lies with the promotion and distribution of unique, high quality, regionally true wines that are produced in a fashion that embraces the technological advantage Australia has, but doesn’t fall into the trap of seeming 'industrial' or 'simplistic.' In the coming years, as the wine drinking world hopefully turns its attention to wines like I just described, there will be an opportunity for a greater number of smaller, high quality wine producers, such as Wandin Valley, to rebuild and redefine the identity of Australian wine. M.B.