I have, at various times, looked at the possibility of owning a small plot of vines with the view of making and then selling our own wine.  We even looked at starting a cellar door in McLaren Vale working with small producers to provide a physical outlet for their wines.  With today’s environment are these concepts just silly?

Make no bones about it the wine industry is hurting and will be for a long time.  Sure many people are trying to convince us that the industry is on the way up but I do not believe that for a second. To explain my view I would like to share a story of a small winery and their struggle to stay operational.

After tending to a small vineyard in return for some grapes to make their own wine for their own consumption the Linke’s decided to take the plunge and start their own commercial venture called Kara Yerta Wines from Eden Valley (South Australia).  This part time venture was to make just a few hundred cases of wine from the vineyard they were tending with Riesling, Semillon and Shiraz grapes.  They though how good would it be to make this wine then share this wine with others so to get a profit from something they we’re already doing for fun.  How hard could that be?
Well a winemaker mentor and winemaking facilities were sourced and away they went. The wines received good reviews but the brand was not well known.  A Kara Yerta blog and other social media practices were put in place.  This must surely mean the wine would move quicker – right?  As I have found with my online venture that these elements do not ensure anybody will be suddenly sell lots of wine.  But still, how hard can it really be selling a few hundred cases of wine per year?

The next idea to market and thus sell their wine was the cellar door concept.  Lots of wineries do it so why couldn’t they do it as well?  It soon became apparent that a cellar door was cost prohibitive for such a small venture.  Why not join forces with other wineries in the same situation?  Until the licensing laws were changed just over 2 years ago this concept was difficult.  However with the changes the concept of Collective Barossa was born.  3 small Barossa wineries getting together to sell their wines under the 1 collective banner.  Thus Marie Linke (from Karra Yerta) found herself running this new cellar door as a separate business.

Now we fast forward to about 6 weeks ago and after continuous badgering from their accountant they realized that this new cellar door venture was not making money.  A decision to close the Collective Barossa was made.

I have followed Collective Barossa closely over the time they have been open and I have seen a hard working person try many things to make the venture work.  One could not have put more hours into making their business a success.  However, we all know that hard work does not always mean success.

Then consider Karra Yerta.  After tending the vines (and the associated costs) no grapes were picked in 2011 due to the onset of disease after a wet summer that was also relatively cold.  Even with missing the 2011 vintage the wine stocks continued to be high which led to a decision to sell the grapes from this vintage (2012) and not make any wine.

Without knowing the details of what is next it would not be difficult to join the dots and realize that Karra Yerta Wines may not be with us any longer.

So was does this mean to the average wine punter?  Well firstly good people are hurting in this environment and unfortunately many have been doing this for so long that they do not know what else to do.  Secondly, the high quality small artesian producer is being forced out to the point that at this rate the potential monopoly by a few wine companies will only become stronger.  This outcome will see wines produced by accountants and quality wines being sold at high prices overseas.

What can we do, I hear you ask?  Well next time you are looking for a wine check out the independent wine stores and buy a few bottles from these small producers.  If we all did this for even a portion of our our wine purchases we could help these artesian producers to survive.  I am wanting to help these small producers – are you?