It’s next stop China for Australia’s First Families of Wine (AFFW), a group created by 12 family-owned Australian wineries, with the shared aim of promoting Aussie drops and the history that goes with them.
Comprising representatives from Tyrell’s, De Bortoli, McWilliams, Yalumba, Brown Brothers and Taylor’s (among others), one representative from each winery will pack their bags and head off to China in September as part of a marketing co-operative to share the story of Australian wines and help quench China’s thirst for top quality drops.
Mitchell Taylor, chairman of AFFW told Food magazine the Chinese market is a huge opportunity for Australian wineries.
“Taylor’s Wine has had good growth there. We’ve been over there for 15 years and the positive thing about the Chinese market is it’s actually Australia’s largest export market for premium wine. So when you’re looking at selling wine at the luxury end, China is our number one export destination.
“There are some great opportunities there for high quality wines, but when you go selling high quality wine you’ve got to go and tell the story, sell it with the food, the matching, so there are plenty of wine dinners, travelling around and talking through master classes,” he said.
And that’s exactly what AFFW will be doing in September next year. The Chinese, according to Taylor, have huge respect for family and tradition, so representatives from each winery will be going on a five city tour through Hong Kong and China, talking to the media and highlighting the quality and the history of their wines.
“When you’re talking about quality wine, people want a wine that’s got tradition and a story behind it. They want to know where it’s from, they want to know stories about the vineyard, about the winery. It sort of gives the label a bit of provenance and currency,” says Taylor.
“And with the [current] oversupply of wine, there are quite a lot of made up wines that really don’t have much character, that just think of a name, slap a label on it and hope the consumer buys it. So for the discerning wine consumer it’s very important to get the AFFW message across.”