Wine with Meg + Mel
The fun + frank podcast which helps you navigate the world of wine. Hosted by Australia's first female Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann, and self-titled Master of Sabrage Mel Gilcrist.
Wine with Meg + Mel
Wine News - May: Rob Dolan Wines in administration, Vinarchy launches, China update, industry shout outs
- In light of the new pope, we ask the question: what do they drink in the Vatican? (The answer has Mel considering turning up to Sunday mass)
- Wine’s new power player, Vinarchy, and what it means for the industry.
- An update on China exports – restocking, or a true comeback?
- A few industry shout-outs
- And… things get real. Meg opens up about what it’s really like when the winery you work for goes into administration.
Follow us on instagram @winewithmegandmel
Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. We're here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm joined by Meg Brotman, master of Wine. I am Mel Gilchrist. Okay, well, it's been a little while since we've done a Wine News and we've got a few topics today. But first we're going to skip what you've been drinking, but we will ask meg do you have a fun fact?
Speaker 2:I do just because we've elected a new pope yeah, um I don't know what his new pope name will be, but he's the first american um north american pope. Does he get a different name? Yeah, they have their.
Speaker 1:I think his name's leo, yeah it's his real name, but I don't just get like a pope name.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because what was Francis? What was his name? His name was like Alejandro or Jorge or something. He was from Mendoza. Anyway, my little fun fact which I just wanted to tell you Did you know that per capita consumption of alcohol is the highest in Vatican City? Isn't that cool. And I said to you, yeah, but it'd be the per capita consumption of crappy wine. And you said no, I reckon they drink good wine?
Speaker 1:I reckon they do.
Speaker 2:And then I had a look and they only have one supermarket, but the Vatican City is tax free. Yeah, and you found out that they drink wine.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I asked Chat GPT, who's my best friend, what do they buy to drink? So I haven't specifically said for communion, so I don't know if this is for communion, but one of the top things that they are known to buy is Barolo, Asti, Spumante wines from Tuscany.
Speaker 2:I don't reckon they'd be giving the good stuff to the peasants.
Speaker 1:You know what, like, I went to a Catholic school and stuff, but I'm not into any of that. Now, if there was Barolo at church, did you have the wine? No, actually I never had it. I had the bread, but I never had the wine at church, because it's the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.
Speaker 2:But they didn't give you the wine.
Speaker 1:I think I was too young. I think I tapped out by the time I was old enough to drink the wine. But if it was Barolo Meg, they might get me back. True Right, no Times are tough. I'd go to church for a Barolo.
Speaker 2:I'd have to sit through an hour-long service for like one sip of Barolo and a crappy rice cracker. No, I think, is it rice crackers?
Speaker 1:I don't know. No, yeah, have you never eaten it? Are you not Catholic or anything You're not like? Nah, you're not. No, that checks out, Doesn't God?
Speaker 2:smite you from above if you do it like if you're not a Catholic, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:No, you're not allowed to eat that body. That's a pretty bad thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, it's been tipped to two, just to give it a kick.
Speaker 1:It's really, oh my God, they're like forever. Oh, it's not a nice snack, it's very boring. It's like a rice cracker. Yeah, it's not as nice as a rice cracker. It's like a rice cracker, but it is like a rice cracker that's been on the bench for three days with no salt. Yeah, yeah, austin's nodding. By the way, we have Austin here with us today. Austin is yeah, he's nodding. He's agreeing with me. Some of us here are going to heaven. Meg, good luck.
Speaker 2:Sorry, it's so boring, I reckon.
Speaker 1:I know all the cool people will be somewhere else, but Austin is with us. He is taking videos, not the good kind of hot like the burn through. Anyway, make sure you check out our Instagram, where we are going to have some schmick videos, and make sure you follow Austin, who is kindly making these videos for us. Okay, today we have wine news. Let me just go through what we are going to cover today. First we have Vinarki, which is the new. They're calling it a merger, but it's not actually a merger. I dug into that. We have an update on what's going on with China since the tariffs have been lifted. I'm sure everyone tuning in has some interest about what's going on with Rob Dolan, and you have agreed to lift the lid on that a little bit. And then we just have a couple of smaller shout outs of smaller things going on around the industry. So let's just get into it.
Speaker 1:Vinaki so Vinaki. It's really interesting. They're using the word merged. So Accade wines and pennerick cards global wine businesses have merged to form vinaki. And then I was like digging into it and I was like what do you mean? They've merged? They haven't merged.
Speaker 2:Accolade bought yes, and if you read, if you read any article, because, even though they're using the term merge because it sounds better, yeah, we will absorb most of the pennerick staffard stuff. I'm sorry, it's yeah, you, it's not. The accolade was far bigger than Pernod Ricard, it's. Look, they're going to get rid of 50 brands. They've got 150. They have three pillars, apparently Hardee's, yeah, jacob's Creek. Yeah, and your old mate, my old mate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, jacobs Creek. Yeah, and your old mate, my old mate, campo Viejo, campo Viejo. Yeah, nice pronunciation.
Speaker 2:So they are the three mega brands.
Speaker 1:For me. I don't understand how, from like a competition standpoint, they're even allowed to do it. It feels like they are going to have so much power in the wine game. Like the merger means more global power, better retail leverage. They're going to have a major Aussie HQ have you looked at our supermarkets lately. What do you mean?
Speaker 2:In terms of market competition.
Speaker 1:Well, that's true. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:So I mean, where are they headquartered? Pernod Ricard would be in France.
Speaker 1:No, no, no. Pernod Ricard was Pernod Ricard winemakers was headquartered in Sydney, okay, but now this headquarters is going to be in Adelaide. Now my main question I know that there's a whole lot of, like business, interesting stuff we can discuss, but do you think the name sounds like a D-grade rock band? It's Like kind of screamo. Do you imagine 40-year-old men with eyeliner on?
Speaker 2:What's that famous mockumentary? It goes to number 11. Spinal Tap it's like Spinal Tap. That's what I thought when I heard it. I thought is this a joke? Because I could just imagine Spinal Tap. It's full right, it's terrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Did you read the week that was?
Speaker 1:No, what'd they say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need. You know it's the least punk. We actually need more punk attitude in the wine industry.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's funny. The least punk attitude, yeah.
Speaker 2:That we're getting. There's no anarchy vibe at all. Yeah For trying to appeal to the young ones that were born in 1970. Do you think that's yeah With the punk making along with it? I mean it's not going to appeal to Gen Z or millennials. That's just such a dick name.
Speaker 1:It's, just it's a spinal tap. It is a really crap name, let's be honest. But Doesn't this feel like beer? This feels like beer, right, it feels like the bigger players are starting to gobble the smaller players, and this is exactly how it started in beer, like 10 years ago, and now there is no craft beer anymore. Like, is this the start of the end?
Speaker 2:This happened in the 90s with wine. Yeah, wine was the first, beer is the second. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:So you still hold out hope that we are going to stay really, because, like wine is infamously divided in a good way, like there is so many, like mum and pop family, like there's just so many producers in wine, you can't compete. Okay, well, what side are you on? First you were telling me it's not going to happen. Now it feels like you're telling me it is going to happen.
Speaker 2:No, I think that what they do and this always happens they absorb all these fantastic brands that are really, really successful and then they realise that they can't manage it because they're big corporates, so they spit them out. The other side I've got an example of a friend of mine's brand at the moment that's in a big group, and so they get rid of them, they ruin them, they decimate them Seaview is an example Treasury great brand $6.99 a bottle fantastic wine, delivered on what it was supposed to be.
Speaker 2:You couldn't even find Seaview anymore and it's they don't know what to do with them. The only people that Endeavor because they've got premium they haven't bought sort of the consumer-led brands are managing to do it in a reasonable way. But I mean Campo Viejo versus Harvey.
Speaker 1:Oh I mean no, no, they're all massive brands anyway, like all the Pernod Ricard wines are big corporates. Let's be clear. It just feels like this super group of wine happening with all these huge labels.
Speaker 2:Who did they have? That was small, no one yeah no, no, no, they did it.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no, they did it. Oh, no, no. Actually, the Pernod Ricard winemakers had quite a few small boutique ones, but yeah, anything significant was.
Speaker 2:The problem is they can buy shelf space. That is the biggest concern.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's what happened with beer. Is they started buying all the taps?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and unless retailers. So this is incumbent on our retailers. Stand up for more independent winemakers. Yeah, they'll just become generic treasury pen and record. It's like you go to restaurants and you see it's a treasury wine list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can tell.
Speaker 2:We'll print it, We'll put it in nice. You know, little plastic folders for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As long as you're the store of our wines At the Contis Lounge.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The Contis Lounge. Yeah, it's a bloody treasury wine. It's fucking appalling. I'm sorry they should be showcasing our wine, the greatest wine, I mean, I know it's a business class lounge. I'm sounding like a bit of a toss pot, aren't I?
Speaker 1:But yeah, I wouldn't know Meg, I wouldn't. Must be nice, tell me what it's like.
Speaker 2:It's funded by our bloody government. Yeah, really, work out, don't start me, anyway. Where was I? Yes, they should be forced to showcase small wine producers in that lounge, as should the bloody airports.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's my opinion. No, that's fair, that's fair, that's a really good point.
Speaker 2:So should Parliament House.
Speaker 1:What Do they drink wine at Parliament House?
Speaker 2:They only have in Victoria Victorian wines, which I actually think they do.
Speaker 1:I thought they specifically don't have wine there anymore, because that moment when Barnaby Joyce was all drunk and he was like, oh, they have wine at Parliament House, but I know that the Governor-General the last Governor-General she only had Victorian wine that was served.
Speaker 2:But you know, if these large companies can't get behind the smaller producers, then we've got no hope.
Speaker 1:Alright, well, let's segue. No, no, no, no, we went really far, but I like where we went with it. Okay, so our next topic is China has lifted their tariffs. I think it's time that we do an update on this, because I think a lot of people would be watching going what's going on there? Apparently, this ruined the wine industry. So China? So is this? Is this going to fix things? My, my question. Okay, so look, red wine exports surged from 1 million litres to 32 million since March. That's crazy. So, meg will winemakers? Are we going to go all in on China again, or have we learnt from putting all our grapes in the one basket?
Speaker 2:Okay, so for three years we were out of China, so all of the stocks were run down. The stock that currently is there when we reopened is old.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:What we're doing at the moment is we're refilling shares. Refilling okay.
Speaker 1:So people aren't necessarily buying it.
Speaker 2:No, let's wait and see this time next year whether there's repeat.
Speaker 1:Well, what do you think? What's your intel so far? Do you think the China's?
Speaker 2:consumption has been decreasing since 2018. It would take what is the statistics. It would take China drinking at its 2018 consumption rate. It would take four years to move through. We've got two years of stock sitting here without making a new vintage.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That was when the tariffs were free. 2025 vintage. Yeah, it took two years to move from that stock. Don't forget that stock in tank is old.
Speaker 1:It just looks like it's gone down the drain, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't think we should not be. I can even see Wine Australia doing a shift back because it's easy. Yeah, you know, you do these trade tastings and a bazillion people turn up. Now of that, maybe 30% are real wine pickers. No, but they're in the Chinese market. There's 20% youth unemployment. Who's drinking the wine? Pretty much the youth. That's who we need to be talking to the youth, really.
Speaker 1:I thought the wine was all much the youth. That's who we need to be talking to the youth, really. I thought the wine was all going to business people who use it as like kickers and stuff gifting. Gifting was banned by Xi Jinping. I thought they were doing it anyway.
Speaker 2:They do do it anyway, it's like anything, yeah, it's like anywhere in the world. Laws are going to be fewer because, obviously because one china's population, but there's 20 youth unemployment. People can't afford to live. The economy's because of the property bust is completely stale. Yeah, um, it's an interesting time and you know the places that take. You go into an average time. Average chinese restaurants. Average restaurant in china. We would like to eat like yeah, not some sort of international restaurant oh I'm seeing a really cute little girl. Don't distract me um.
Speaker 1:They don't serve wine, they serve beer yeah, yeah, yeah um, so it's a sort of more wealthy people that drink wine anyway in china it's not part of daily, so you don't sound like you have the highest hopes for this going super well and us going back to the glory days of china.
Speaker 2:I don't want us to be putting too many marketing dollars in there. I want us to be spending our marketing dollars and maybe, Jim since we all voted you back in, Jim Chalmers put some money into export market development grants for the Australian wine industry, since it's been screwed because of politics two ways.
Speaker 1:I love that. No matter where we start, you find a way to land on politics.
Speaker 2:The thing is you know they funded some steelworks in Wyala to $12 million and we've been begging for money and that steelworks, I think, brought in like a billion in revenue. We did $4 billion at our peak in revenue and yet we're not getting any money. There's $50 million on the table for all of agriculture and it's just not enough. I think the wine industry needs definite restructuring, but we also need for those that are still standing. We need to have some sort of route to market and to say I'll just ring Austrade Well, that's not where I'm going, but anyway.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we've digressed, but good information. Okay, meg, this one's close to home. Yes, we met at Rob Dolan Wines. This is how this podcast all began.
Speaker 2:Yes, in COVID.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and up until recently you were working for Rob Dolan Wines, which anyone who is in the Arrow Valley probably knows. It was in the Herald Sun but it's actually not as widespread as I thought it would have gone. Rob Dolan-Wines has gone into administration. Yes, Can you tell us a little bit about how we got there and what now?
Speaker 2:So Rob Dolan-Wines went into administration on the 27th of March, which is all a very you then work in this sort of twilight zone. Everyone was made redundant on that day. That's crazy Because there was an underlying company that was liquidated straight away and that was a company that actually employed all of the staff. Then some of the staff were automatically sort of re-employed on a casual basis by the administrators to get them through. So the role of the administrator is to A put aside the I don't know how much they make a quarter million, $300,000 for the administrator and then try to claw back as much money as they can for the creditors.
Speaker 1:So I read in the Herald Sun that there was 8 million owed and 22, 30-something creditors, 35 creditors, 35 creditors. So I don't even understand how this process works. So are they getting paid back? What's happening?
Speaker 2:So what happens is the administrator tries to liquidate the stock, sell off stock, and in this case there's been an agreement for some of the stock to be bought by third parties and so they've paid the administrator money. So the administrator then takes whatever pot of money they've got, takes their fee out of it and then goes back to the creditors and says, okay, say we owe you $8 million and we've got $800,000. You get a percent. Yeah, wow. So if you're owed, say they get $0.10 in the dollar, which is sort of I was talking to our export manager, Garrett Harbison, and he'd been with McWilliams they get between usually, rule of thumb, $0.10 to $0.12 in the dollar.
Speaker 1:From the outset, like Rob Dolan looked like a really strong brand. Beautiful Salador, award-winning wines, great wines. To be honest, fantastic wine. How did we end up here? Like, how does that happen? Like, should other wines be nervous? Is this something that's taking over the industry? What's going on?
Speaker 2:Well, clearly I'm not the bosses of the business, but clearly there was a debt holding that just could not be covered.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is from, if you look at the amount of the creditors and the amount of money. I mean we were shocked because we saw the business from outside and we were in growth online.
Speaker 1:Like branded was in growth right, yeah, okay, it got robbed online.
Speaker 2:There's many parts in growth right, yeah, okay, it got robbed online. There's many parts.
Speaker 1:It's contracted, yeah, okay, so that's lots of parts.
Speaker 2:The market's a little bit tougher, okay. So you know, maybe there wasn't enough money being made on the bulk side, but from the branded perspective it was a super successful it was. You know, we had a consultant in and he said you know, you could be the envy of many wine companies yeah. So it is absolutely heartbreaking.
Speaker 1:It's really sad.
Speaker 2:The cellar door's been closed but it's in the building which has the farm, which is a function centre, and the owner of the farm, who was also a partner in Rob Dolan Wines, has taken over the cellar door, so he's working on that. So all of our local drinkers, cellar door people, are so happy. People were crying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, I bet. No, I know Like there's a really strong community around the business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, We've come up with. Our tagline is we're Valley Meats Village. That's what we're calling the salad door. Now, that's sort of our tagline.
Speaker 1:That's really cute. So the salad door will be open and can you still buy rub dollar wine there.
Speaker 2:Rub dollar wines is being sold through there.
Speaker 1:Okay, and if?
Speaker 2:we luck, they'll be able to trade out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So then, what do we know what the future?
Speaker 2:looks like. No, we don't. There's a creditors' meeting on Monday, the 12th of May, so by the time people hear the creditors' meeting, so we will know then whether they've been able to trade out of the business or it's been.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:We don't know. We sat on the first creditors' meeting and that's where the Herald Sun was and I was like, oh my God.
Speaker 2:And some yeah, it was. And I was like, oh my god. And the administrator, caitlin who was awesome, one of the best chicks I've ever met in my life she said, yeah, they, they've been ringing her. Yeah, it's unbelievable, and I mean seeing that newspaper story. It was behind a paywall but the top line was you know, and the iconic cellar door takes a hit. So all that poor cellar door people, it's been very hard to manage.
Speaker 2:It's been a bit of a lesson in crisis management yeah, absolutely which you know I'm not really equipped to do, but we any message that you send out through social media um yeah or digital means has to be approved by the administrator, because I didn't know that. So, um, we would send everything to the person we were dealing with and she would say yay or nay on whether we could send it, because you need to communicate, you can't just go death silent.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's been a little bit of blowback. There's been a couple of unhappy, a couple more than that. There's been some pretty tough phone calls and emails.
Speaker 1:I bet.
Speaker 2:Our Saladal staff have got a little bit of abuse but for the most part people are. We honoured the vouchers and the wine club memberships. That was because the ex-partner bought out that debt and honoured that, which was the most honourable thing to do yeah, okay. But some people have slipped through that crack and have tried to come and redeem their vouchers and haven't been able to.
Speaker 1:Okay, so there's some messy stuff.
Speaker 2:There's some messy stuff and it's been tough because no one from management's there, it's just us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so does that mean Rob's? Does Rob not? Is he not in the business at all?
Speaker 2:anymore. He's been gone since the day we went into administration.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so everyone has keys.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, yeah, it's all pretty. You feel like you've committed a crime.
Speaker 1:Really sad yeah.
Speaker 2:So they're collecting the keys and they're, you know, going through the keys and making sure that you're all.
Speaker 1:And I think the last thing everyone is going to be wondering is what about you now? Like that was your job right. Who wants to give me a job?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been helping the new operator of the cellar door with cellar door. I've also been working with the administrator. This is a lot of messy ends to tie up. Yeah, there's a lot in play. You know, distributors still need to get their wines and there was labelling to be done, so there was a lot of stuff to do. Hopefully, after the creditors' meeting on the 12th of May, we'll have a clearer picture and I'll just help out with Salador. And yeah, if anyone wants to offer me some consultancy work or a full-time job.
Speaker 1:Give me a call. I'd say you're an industry strategist for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I just think, just support your local winery.
Speaker 1:Support your local hey.
Speaker 2:You know we're not the first Someone who was I talking to who's a distributor. They've had another one of their wineries the other day go into administration.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough.
Speaker 2:We will see more and more of it and I just, you know, wish well everyone at Rob Dolan Wines. You know it's been a really tough, very stressful time because of course, we've been aware of it for a little bit longer than most people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was coming yeah.
Speaker 2:And everyone's been really gracious and honourable in the way they've been dealt with, because they were detained for their last week of work, yeah, and they have to claim back all of their leave entitlements and everything through FED, which is the Fair Wages Guarantee, or something which we were told was going to take 12 to 16 weeks and they've come back and said 30 weeks. Wow, yep.
Speaker 1:So some of these people Is there anyone out there that needs support that we can help in any way, like? Is there people needing jobs that we can do shout-outs for? Is there winemakers that have gone somewhere else that we can help in any way, like? Is there people needing jobs that we can do shout-outs for? Is there winemakers that have gone somewhere else that we can shout-out their brands? Is there anything that we can do now that our listeners who want to help can do?
Speaker 2:Just buy more Australian and outside Victorian and try to find family and I know it's a pain in the ass to not have to go outside of Dan Murphy's and BWS but support your small local stores as well, because on the day that we found out about the liquidation administration, a friend of mine her partner, has they have a pub and she went into liquidation the same day. Yeah, for a similar reason. Wow, the debt level. Just they have a pub and she went into liquidation.
Speaker 2:The same day. Yeah, for a similar reason. Wow, the debt level. Just they took out money and then the pub came back. It's hard Post-COVID. It's just heartbreaking. But our administrator was saying that she gets seven a week and back in the day, but pre-COVID, it was two. Wow. So hey, good business to be in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ruthless, ruthless.
Speaker 2:Although I've got to say it was with the person we were dealing with. She was just fantastic. She just, you know she has to get her job done, but she was very clear and she treated all the staff with real respect.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you seriously for opening up about that. That that's like it's a seriously hard time that you have gone through personally. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Not that I have still been working full time. Next week might be a bit of downtime and then I'm off to Van Expo. So I've got a week in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for fun, You're not even working.
Speaker 2:As I said to my Pete's going, so I said well, shit, I'm not working. Now Go Lights.
Speaker 1:So I said well shit, I'm not working now. Go Flights are really cheap yeah.
Speaker 2:Don't mean to be rude, being Hershey for you listening, but the Hershey Hotel, so why wouldn't I go, I know. But I'll go there and you know, our wonderful export consultant will come out open to work On your LinkedIn, I think it looks a bit trash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does a little bit. Yeah, jesus, all right. Well, look, we have just a couple of headlines, just like quick ones to run through to finish up today. The first one is Sarah Crowe has just released the latest vintage of Yarra Garing and it is a 10th vintage there, so congratulations. It is the 2023. So 2013 was Crowe's first year. I cannot believe she's been there 10 years I know, and somehow it just keeps getting better.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine it kind of without her, even though bridgie was there beforehand. Yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Well done yeah, it's awesome. So um 2023 wines, uh special dinner.
Speaker 2:Go and get invited I don't know.
Speaker 1:I k, kate, if you're listening. You know what, kate? I've never gone to a Yara Yaring dinner. Maybe you should have one and invite us. So there's that one. Okay, so we have another shout out. Um, so this is an interesting one that I'm. Are you across the Moris o'shea award? Yes, oh, okay, so I wasn't. So this is for industry people. Morris o'shea award is back marking its 35th anniversary, but it's only done every three years, which I guess I just wasn't across. This. Are you? What do you know about this? I don't know. Some of the materials mount pleasant, grange, grange, what?
Speaker 2:he's a very famous australian winemaker and he was I wouldn't know, it wouldn't say necessarily innovative, but he, I think refrigeration they were saying that he was really big on refrigeration in the hunter back in the was really big on refrigeration in the Hunter back in the day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So is he Mick Williams or Mount Pleasant? Because they're the two, the award is run by Mick Williams and Mount Pleasant.
Speaker 2:Well, Mount Pleasant bought Mick Williams. Oh okay, I can't remember what one he worked for, but he worked for something like 55 years.
Speaker 1:So there's an award called the Excellence in Action Award, which is returning. It's a new one that spotlights people navigating the messier modern challenges in wine, which is an interesting call out, considering what we've been talking about this episode. So I just wanted to put that in there to let people know that you can nominate for this award, so make sure you check it out and if someone is doing outstanding things in wine, you can nominate them. Matt Pleasant Is who we worked for. Yeah, okay, the father of Australian modern winemaking.
Speaker 2:I think from my uni days that he was accredited with introducing refrigeration in Hunter, which would have changed Hunter Simeon enormously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it would have.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I don't know if that's true, but that's sort of one of those legendary things that they said at uni Hunter 52, Hunter Valley, Stephen Hermitage.
Speaker 1:Well, look, that's it for us this week. Next week we are going to be looking at I don't know if it's been all over your socials and news and everything but I'm hearing a lot about the Castanet Murphy Awards and they've taken all of their wine and tasted it all and they've come out with the best of the best and we're like, well, we'll see about that, we're going to taste them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it'll be fun. I mean, it is sub 50.
Speaker 1:Yeah, seems like it.
Speaker 2:We're not drinking Barolo, but you know.
Speaker 1:We're not.
Speaker 2:It's all right.
Speaker 1:We'll see Next time. Dan, do the good stuff and then sponsor this segment. All right, we will see you next time. Aren't we, I know, Do we seem real like needy?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You love us. This is the only chance we get to catch up. If we didn't do the podcast, we wouldn't see each other, all right.
Speaker 2:I work at the Boccaccio, the restaurant.
Speaker 1:It's actually kind of halfway into the morning. Okay, are we going out for dinner Lunch, okay, great. Okay, join next class of wine.
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