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June 13, 2003
I've spend some time cruising the wine districts these last two weeks. Expansion is everywhere---- in the Clare Valley, Langhorne Creek and the Barossa---- and it is all based on River Murray water. More and more vineyards are going in.
It had the feel of a boom time coming. Yet the historical reality is more akin to this----boom and bust.
From what I could see it is the big boys moving in. They are after quick profits----- high-volume, low priced wines--- and they appear to indifferent to the increasing salinity levels. As Philip White, the wine critic, observes:
"Winemakers tend to blame the cotton and rice growers for salinity, particularly in the Murray, but their record here is really bad. The aquifers of McLaren Vale, Polish Valley, Padthaway, Langhorne Creek, to an increasing degree, the Barossa Valley and even Coonawarra is not healthy, they are all very badly damaged by winemaking."
It won't be long before you can taste the salt in the wine.
The expansionists are not there for the long haul. They have no concern about developing a regional identity or sustainability. Its quick profits. But such businesses are not sustainable in the long run. Philip White again:
"In the last 30 years we had a really good opportunity to be the world's best dry grain viticulturists, instead of that we chose to be the world's best irrigators, and we have ridiculous figures where you know, it's up to a 1000 tonnes of water to make one tonne of cheap cask wine which is sold for less than the price of bottled water. That is not sustainable and if I was a shareholder from whichever country, I'd be very, very concerned about the future of that business."
From what I saw there is a question mark over the industry in South Australia. In 2001 it was Normans in trouble. In 2003 it is Southcorp.
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Good old 'externalities'!