Subscriber login Close [x]
remember me
You are not logged in.

Regionality is the only solution, warns Tyrell

Published:  03 November, 2009

Regionalist Bruce Tyrell is the latest high profile Australian winemaker to return to the UK to make his case for the country's focus on regionality and re-assure buyers that it is listening to their needs.

Regionalist Bruce Tyrell is the latest high profile Australian winemaker to return to the UK to make his case for the country's focus on regionality and re-assure buyers that it is listening to their needs.

He told Harpers Wine & Spirit: "There has not been enough faces coming here. If you are not careful then the perception can become the truth."

He repeated the call of Neil McGuigan of McGuigan Wines (Harpers Wine & Spirit, October 2) for more of the new generation of winemakers to come to the UK and get the industry and consumers here excited about their wines.

"That generation does not know what it is like to spend eight to 10 weeks out on the road. Even if they are doing well domestically, they need to have their hands in other markets. No-one is going to order your wine unless you are out there talking to them."

The focus on regionality in export markets was the right way to go, he stressed. "Regionality has had its fair share of detractors, but if we don't get that right then we really are buggered," he said.

He said his decision to get out of the "price point" game in the UK and switch its focus to the independent and specialists sector was one of the best moves he has ever done. To do so meant changing every distributor around the world - hence its switch to Fells earlier in the year. "We could see the market was going to get very cheap and very dirty so we decided to get out of Dodge City whilst we could," says Tyrell. "Fells is out there on the streets making our case for us. It is very different to what we had with Paragon," he added.

Tyrell said he was particularly proud to be just named Winery of the Year by Australian critic, James Halliday, as He said the strength of the Australian dollar continued to be a real concern and he feared it could get stronger by the end of the year.

Keywords: