"Teamwork is the thing that talks"

As mentioned in one of my earliest blog entries, the whole idea of "selling" our wine came from a night at Melbourne's Crown Casino where I literally bumped into Jimmy Lindner (Langmeil Wines) after I had attended the Peter Crimmins Medal Dinner (aka as the Hawthorn Football Club's Best and Fairest Dinner).

As a keen supporter of the Hawks since 1989 (and a proud, passionate and paid-up member since 1999) the club - much like the wine industry - has had it's fair share of ups and downs; times of exhilaration and inspiration, and times of despondency and frustration. I never lost faith in my Hawks but there were days where I did wonder just how long it was going to be until things improved. I have had similar feelings with our wines - concerns about sales or the ability to make a profit, if the vintage will be a successful one etc to happier moments of seeing glowing reviews, or receiving emails from happy customers or large orders that give us the capacity to finance the coming year's processing.

The winning formula for Hawthorn in 2008 was their ability to work as a team. I would like to think that the same philosophy (again, as stated in my earlier blog "We're all in this together") will breed success with not only our wines, but those of the Barossa/Eden Valley, and indeed Australia as a whole.

Australian wine has copped its fair share of negative publicity, particularly in the US and UK press in recent weeks. It is certainly time that Australian wineries stood together, or in some cases, continued to stand together, and realised that we are all on the same team - our products as varied on every point as what the players on the field are - Australian Barossa Shirazes as big and powerful as Buddy Franklin, and our Eden Valley Rieslings with as much class and finesse as Luke Hodge - all different aspects that when put together form a portfolio that one can only be proud of!

The wine industry, much like football, is a funny game - there really are no certainties. What happens, happens, and you make the best of what you have. You can make progress going it alone but it's never as much fun or as successful as when you band together to share the passion and pick up on each other's drive. There are a few things in the making over here right now that relate to the teamwork aspect (in regards to the wine) but more about that in a later post. For now, I am enjoying the outcome of the 2008 Grand Final - a result that I waited 17 years for... Congratulations to the Hawthorn team of 2008. You are an inspiration!

Melbournians and Mooncakes

Spring is here and what a magnificent weekend it was, in every way. Our favourite Melbournian friend, Terence (www.terencepang.com) came for another visit. We had not seen him since April so it was a long time between visits. Terence brought two friends with him, Moses (from Singapore) and Dennis (an ex-pat American who resides in Australia and works with Terence in Melbourne).

Terence, Moses and Dennis had flown into Adelaide the night before to meet up and travel from Adelaide to the Barossa for the annual Artisans of the Barossa tasting held at the Angaston Institute. Terence makes his trips from Melbourne to the Barossa as crammed full of all things vinous as possible but always makes time to visit us. He is definitely one of our favourite visitors and we always enjoy the time spent with him immensely.

We opened up a bottle of our 2005 Eden Valley Riesling, a 2005 Bullfrog Flat Shiraz, a 2008 Eden Valley Riesling (not released yet) and a non-vintage Sparkling Shiraz - a collaboration between us, our neighbours, Colin & Fiona Sheppard of Flaxman Wines and one of their friends, Nathan. Sitting in the old red-gum stable, sharing mooncakes - a lovely gift to us from Terence - (see below for information on these treats), cheese, crackers and wines, life could not have been any better!

We ended up sitting around our kitchen table sharing fabulous Roaring Fordie's pizza til quite late in the evening. It was a terrific night and we hope to have the company of Terence, Moses and Dennis again sooner rather than later.

MOONCAKES - During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each mooncake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival the rebels attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this event.

You can read more about mooncakes here: http://www.chinatown.com.au/eng/article.asp?masterid=155&articleid=743

New Halliday reviews and ratings

Every July, those of us who have submitted wines to James Halliday for inclusion (or exclusion if your wines are not up to a very high standard) into his Wine Companion book are able to finally see how our wines have fared. It's always a bit of a gamble as the personal preferences of writers, such as Halliday and Parker in particular, can either make or break your business.

2008 (for the 2009 edition) was the first year that an assistant was chosen to help sort through the enormous amount of samples received. Halliday chose Ben Edwards who is the head of the Australian Sommeliers Association. The 2009 edition of the Australian Wine Companion has tasting notes for 5778 wines, features 169 new wineries and overall, profiles 1661 wineries. Indeed, a large and comprehensive collection of too many wines to even attempt to try.

Considering we only submitted three wines this year, we are very happy with the results. This year Karra Yerta Wines received a general 4 star rating which means we are deemed "a very good producer of wines with class and character".

Our 2007 Eden Valley Riesling rated "highly recommended" at 90 points.
"..... a light-bodied palate with apple and lime fruit, with a touch of minerality on the finish. A success for '07".

The 2005 Barossa Shiraz and 2005 Bullfrog Flat Eden Valley Shiraz also both rated 90 points.

For full reviews, purchase the book or join online here: www.winecompanion.com.au

The sad loss of a true Barossa Icon

There has been a long time between blogs on this wine page and that is because business has, to a point, taken a back seat as we deal with other issues. James and I have been grappling to understand life and the fragility of it over the past weeks. Time is certainly our most precious resource but we often do not realise it.

One of our dearest friends, Mark Short, who was well-known in the Barossa Valley and beyond for having one of the most amazing collections of antique Barossa Germanic furniture and other historical collectables has just passed away after a month long battle with pancreatic cancer. Although he had been ill for a few months, none of us were aware of the severity of his illness, including him. The decline in his health was so fast that it sent us and our closest circle of friends into a spin. He was an amazing man - a true Barossa Icon - who we shared many fun times with over the past twenty-five years. His passing will leave a void in our life that can never be filled.

Some of you may remember meeting Mark at our "Afternoon in Eden" wine event last November. He provided the antique furniture - the tables we sat at and benches, and the many other items that were on display. We had planned to have an exclusive event displaying more of his furniture in a combined showcase/wine-tasting weekend with Rik Eubel, one of the Barossa's finest furniture restorers, but alas, this never eventuated.

If there is any good news to come out of this however, it is likely that quite a few significant pieces of Mark's collection are going to be purchased by another local businessman to place in a Barossa Museum so as to keep some of the Barossa's heritage in the area. This is a lovely gesture and one that gives us and many other of Mark's friends some comfort as his furniture was his life and it was so important for him to "keep some of the best things in the Valley".

I guess it's times like this that make us all reassess what is important in life. Running a business is always hard work and we often do not take time out to do things we should, so even though we have to continue to work hard at selling and making our wine, we are committed to finding more balance in life so that we can spend more time with people we care about and to find at least some level of fulfilment in life each day.

The photo with this blog is of Mark with an antique (completely wooden) Barossa rake. It was taken at the end of our wine-tasting day in November 2007. His passion for his collectables and furniture gave him so much happiness in his short life. He was only 51. He left us far too soon but now at least his pain is over and he can finally rest. RIP "old matey".

Our sincerest sympathies to Mark's wife, Genny, his daughters Melissa and Emma, step-daughter Kylie and the rest of his family.

"There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark." PINK FLOYD

Are we Australia's smallest winery?

I have just started working on our first ever advertising campaign. The inspiration has come from the simple question asked by so many within the wine industry when I tell them how much wine we produce each year: "Why do you bother?"

Well, it is an odd thing that our customers appreciate the fact that we are so tiny, as opposed to many larger winery owners who think we are totally wasting our time. One fellow even stated that it would never be worth our while exporting. I politely told him that we had in fact sent an entire pallet (64 cases) to the UK last year and he was quite astounded.

I can recall how one of our former accountants used to persist in calling us "life-stylers". I don't think he meant to be condescending but I did find it a little negative. He stated that we would never make a reasonable income from our wine sales, ever. He refused to even acknowledge us as being a "small business".

Yes we are probably Australia's smallest winery, or at least one of the smallest: we process under 5 tonnes of grapes, produce less than 500 cases and end up with less than 5000 bottles per year, but that does not mean that we cannot contribute to the premium end of the Australian wine industry. In fact, I think it is an advantage as people we deal with, on any level, be it retailers, customers, wholesalers, salespeople etc, all deal directly with my husband, James, or myself.

There are no other employees to misplace paperwork or labels. We can do that all on our own, thankyou! Just joking. We seem to be coping quite well with the multi-tasking that comes with running a business with our own hands. And when we get positive comments from reputable wine writers and appreciative customers who themselves are beginning to question the motives of the multi-national wine companies, it provides great inspiration for us to keep at it.

Yes, there will be times when we get behind if the entire family catches influenza, or we may be bogged down in paperwork during pruning time, but we do catch up. That's just a part of being a small (tiny) family business. Our new motto is to "Appreciate the little things in life.." Yes, little we may be, but a significant impact we will make, eventually. And there are more and more of us "little guys" out there. So next time someone asks me why we bother, I will smile and say.. because we can....