Aussie Shiraz + USA Wine Market = Greed
As noted here I've been trying to taste my way through the 2002 Aussie shiraz that are marketed here in the USA. Most of what I have been able to get has been reasonably priced. But there is one glaring example of outright greed. For the last month or so I have been trying to get some of the Kalleske Shiraz which I have been informed sold for between AUS$30-40/bottle in Oz – if you could get it! The shop that I buy most of my wine from has been looking for a source of the wine, found one, and put me down for a 6 pack. As the weeks have passed discussions as to when the wine would be available and its price have gone on and on. Finally today, while I was buying more examples of shiraz from the 2002 vintage I was told that the distributor for the Kalleske was asking USD$700/dozen wholesale!! What was going to be my cost retail, about USD$70 a bottle (about AUD$100). Fortunately the retail guys I deal with are no fools. Even if I am willing to pay USD$70 a bottle (which I am not), they are very unlikely to get the wine. Why? Well for a start they have so much Aussie wine to sell that a few dozen of one more shiraz, even if it’s a 100 pointer, doesn’t change their bottom line. What it does do however is hurt the Kalleske image, at least on the southern west coast as this type of greed gets discussed in the shop, at their wine tastings, wine dinners, and wine bar. And now in a wine forum. As they say over here “From little acorns……..

So all you distributors out there trying to sell Aussie wine into the USA if you want a solid reliable market for the future, take a reasonable profit. If you want us to turn to the rest of the wine world then be greedy, its not like we have a shortage of wine choices over here! For the cost of one bottle of Kalleske I could buy a bottle of the Bordeaux 2nd growth that showed me what great wine can taste like, plus a bottle of excellent Aussie shiraz.