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Welcome to the August edition of the WCA e-news
It feels like we have hit the ‘busy’ button again this year, with a lot of activity in the period between August and December this year.
Last week saw the results of the Sydney Royal Wine Show released and then celebrated at a fantastic WCA lunch at the Hyatt Regency Sydney with a sell-out crowd of 220 happy people. View the list of 2023 winners here. Well done to Chair of Judges Sarah Crowe and her team. It was also great to see a video from International Judge Clara Rubin given her insight into the show and also to the wine industry in the UK.
I was delighted to see the 2023 NSW Legend of the Vine be awarded to Hunter and NSW Vigneron and Educator, Liz Riley. Liz has made a massive contribution to the wine industry in Australia, and it is great to see this award be presented to someone in the viticultural space. Read press release here.
We have a number of events coming up. The Royal Adelaide Wine & Spirits Awards Lunch is scheduled for October 6th in Adelaide, and the Wine Communicators Awards Night comes back to Sydney in November. At the time of writing, there are local WCA Chapter events being planned in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Check out our latest event calendar here.
We continue to host a Webinar Program with the next being held on the 12th of September with WCA Board Director and founder of Purple Giraffe, Lynda Schenk presenting on ‘Using Chat GBT and other AI’ (register here). Meanwhile, the mentor program continues, and we had a catch up this week with both mentors and mentees.
Another one for the diary is the annual Wine Australia Exporter Update on September 7th. In a challenging time for the Australian wine industry, information is power and so this is not to be missed. Find out more here.
Keep up to date with all these events and more via our newsletter and website.
And finally, the WCA SA Chapter has three positions to fill on the committee. This is a great opportunity to get involved in the local wine community and expand your networks. If you're a wine professional specialising in wine marketing, communications, sales or branding we'd love to hear from you! Please contact us at wca@winecommunicators.com.au for details.
Cheers,
Angus Barnes 🍷
WCA Executive Chair
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2023 Wine Communicator Awards
Entries close 1 September
The Wine Communicator Awards is a wonderful opportunity for individuals or teams to showcase their outstanding contributions to the wine industry through their communications efforts.
With entries closing soon, now is the time to submit your nomination. Be an Award winner in 2023!
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2023 Vineyard of the Year Awards
Now open for registrations.
The Vineyard of the Year Awards are designed to strengthen the connection between the wine in your glass, the place it comes from and the way the grapes are grown by placing vineyards and growers across the nation at the heart of the Australian wine story and wine community.
Each year they’ve profiled the special sites and remarkable custodianship of 50 winegrowers in a celebration of Australian viticulture.
Wine writer Max Allen has curated the awards since their inception in 2020 alongside a panel of Australia’s leading professionals and academics with expertise in viticulture, grapevines and sustainability.
Entries close 29 September. Find out more about the Awards criteria and registrations via the button below.
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Royal Adelaide Wine & Spirits Awards Lunch
6 October, Adelaide Showground
Tickets are now on sale for this flagship event on the wine industry calendar. Be one of the first to hear the trophy winners from this year's Royal Adelaide Wine Show over a 3 course sit down lunch.
Get your table together now and book your tickets!
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Margaret River Fine Vines Festival
20-29 October, Margaret River, WA
Choose from whale watching with wine in hand, varietal deep dives, garden parties, masterclasses and more.
WCA Members Special Offer - receive a 10% discount on tickets to the Busselton Wine Hop, which takes place on Saturday 21 October. Book now here.
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Webinar: ChatGPT & other AI
Tuesday 12 September, 12.30pm ACST
Lynda Schenk from Purple Giraffe and WCA board member believes that if you don’t get on board you will be left behind, so she has embraced AI to increase her team’s efficiency. Come along to this webinar and discover ChatGPT and other AI tools.
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2023 DtC Benchmarking Underway
As well as covering the usual full range of metrics relating to cellar door, club and online sales, this year’s survey will take a closer look at pricing and examine what the biggest hurdles and most important breakthroughs were for wine businesses during the last 12 months.
Any questions contact Peter McAtamney:
peter@winebusinesssolutions.com.au
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Wine Tourism & Cellar Door Grant - Applications Open
Eligible Australian wine producers can, from 1 August 2023, apply for Round 5 of the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program.
The program invites wine and cider producers to apply for grants of up to $100,000 for their eligible, rebatable cellar door sales.
The grant is part of a suite of measures developed with the Australian grape and wine community after extensive consultations on reforms to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) arrangements implemented in 2018–19.
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Bailey's Snippet - Wine Australia
Dorothy Parker was always good for quote. In 1932, the New York Herald Tribune asked her for a list of the most beautiful words. Dorothy said, “To me, the most beautiful word in the English language is cellar-door.” She also once said, “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” Curiosity is something all great creative thinkers, artists, musicians, designers and scientists have in common. It is integral to a creative mindset.
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Curiosity centres on pursuing new knowledge whereas creativity involves transforming acquired knowledge into something new. The ability to be creative has always been a big part of what separates human beings from machines, apart from maybe R2-D2 or the Robot in Lost in Space.
I am not a devotee of Ned Ludd and while I’m sure Nickelback could use Artifical Intelligence to write their latest single, there is no way that AI could produce anything as raw and as visceral as the Masters Apprentinces’ debut single from 1966, Undecided which amazingly also contained the classic War or Hands of Time on the b-side.
Undecided was written by guitarists Mick Bower and Rick Morrison in 15 minutes and got its title from the fact that no one could agree on a name. It's also one of the first Australian records to feature any form of guitar distortion. Bower's amp blew a valve after arriving at the studio, but the band loved the tone and decided not to repair it. Try asking AI to replicate that sound.
When they formed in Adelaide in early 1965, the band members saw themselves as apprentices to musical "masters" like Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, and hence their name paid homage to these heroes. Before the grammar police launch an attack, they decided early on to dispense with the apostrophe.
The Masters Apprentices were the first Australian band to be signed to be signed to a major international record label, when they signed with CBS Records in 1970. Unfortunately, bad luck and tryanny of distance saw major overseas success elude them and they broke up in 1972. However, they remain one of Australia’s greatest musical exports.
One of Australia’s other great exports, wine, has faced exceptionally tough global trading conditions and this has impacted export performance. Figures released by Wine Australia for the 2022–23 financial year show that Australian wine exports declined by 10 per cent in value to $1.87 billion and 1 per cent in volume to 621 million litres. The total value of exports was 19 per cent below the previous 10-year average of $2.31 billion, while volume was 15 per cent below the previous 10-year average of 733 million litres.
Wine Australia also released an update on the global supply situation, which reports that early estimates indicate global wine production in 2023 will be below average for the fifth year in a row. However, it is still expected to exceed demand by around 10 per cent, as wine consumption continues its long-term decline.
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Regional Association Membership - Now available!
We are expanding our membership offering to cater for Australian based regional wine associations looking to collaborate with WCA to promote local initiatives and access our range of member benefits.
Join before August 30 to receive a 10% discount. Use coupon code REGION23.
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