How we destroyed Murray Basin wines is a sad story of allowing self proclaimed wine experts to explain the nuances of taste to the masses.
This group took time to develop their spiel but soon enough were explaining why wines from dry grown vines were better than those produced with irrigation. By doing so they inferred that all water is not the same with the difference depending upon how the vine accessed water. The more creative commentators expanded upon this when explaining that the best wines come from vines which are at peace with nature since the roots achieve a natural harmony with the ground. And do not forget the worms!
Hard workers along the Riverlands were not to know that wine is more about mythology than taste when irrigation began in 1887 at Mildura.
Immigrants, battlers, soldier settlers, the blockies, all having a go, and they gave back what we asked for by delivering oranges and buckets of grapes. As the taste for table wines developed, we asked our Murray Basin growers to replant with table wine varieties.
In the 1960s that remarkable invention, the wine cask appeared. Consumers were happy and cask sales grew strongly, peaking around 80% of sales in the 1980s. Yet a simmering dislike of this invention soon appeared among “the experts” and sure enough wine shops divided into two sections, bottles versus bags and then the Riverland was doomed.
You learn a lot by visiting wine regions and a visit to Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentine, in 2002 taught me that the vista is all in the business of wine. Flood irrigated vineyards with the towering back-drop of the snow-covered Andes, trumps the red, dusty plains of Renmark-Mildura.
A hostile press, being branded as makers of goon bags, using bad water, and using critters on labels are heavy burdens. The word spread to overseas buyers that the wines were no good and from that moment they had no chance.
The blockies came to live on the hot, red sandy plains and can be proud of what they achieved. They are our people, and the Murray Basin growers did not deserve the dreadful marketing position they now have.
They must retain hope as a better way is still possible. How we destroyed Murray Basin wines should not be allowed to be the end of the story.
The trophy winners from this year’s Riverland Wine Show are a good place for you to judge that for yourself.
