This is such a simple question and one we often get asked. However, there is so much more to this question that I thought it would be a great topic to unpack and address.
At the beginning of 2020, we were selling our wines successfully into restaurants and we were steadily growing a wonderful wine club with enthusiastic lovers of hand made, high quality wines, at more than approachable prices.
When Covid first hit, lockdowns began, and our successful selling came to an immediate halt.
Restaurants shut their doors and wholesale wine orders stopped completely. At the time, our sales model was around 80% into restaurants, so it had a significant impact for us.
You may recall me jumping online with a video and my ‘Lockdown Survival Pack offer’ where you could “buy direct, help a winemaker and help flatten the curve”. This little video made waves across Australia and our sales model changed overnight.
The shift in mindset from buying from a physical store to buying online was huge, especially for the many who had never previous imagined doing such a thing. It was an incredible shift and one, as a producer, we very much welcomed.
This led me to question this concept of ‘convenience’. As human beings, we favour convenience above most things. Was this shift to buying online more or less convenient? Convenient for whom?
Growing up as the daughter of Spanish migrants, supermarket visits were not the norm. We would gather fruit and vegetables from our garden and orchard, my dad would bring home freshly caught fish and crustaceans from foraging at the local surf beach.
We also made regular visits to farms to choose animals for personal consumption and for fresh milk and cheese.
Subsequent trips to local markets were then made, where butchers would greet my parents by name, accompanied by a hand shake and friendly embrace. They would hand over our pre-chosen animal (nose to tail), cut up or left whole, according to our wishes.
This was how we ate. The only thing I recall my mum buying from the local ‘Mediterranean Wholesalers’ were tins of anchovies or tuna, coffee beans, rice and the occasional panettone.
Entering adulthood and venturing out into the world, I did take with me some of these habits. Overtime though, the lure of convenience became all too easy for me. Shortly after commencing university, I became a regular at the supermarket, convincing myself that it was still high quality and tasted the same.
Convenience is so seductive in a fast-paced world and we convince ourselves that it makes sense too.
What I understand now, after farming myself, is that convenience comes at a huge price. This price is generally paid for by the farmer or producer by way of wafer-thin or negative margins, or by the consumer - who pays higher prices - often for lesser quality products.
Why does the consumer pay higher prices?
Well, there is at least one, if not two or three extra layers of distribution, warehousing, sales and shipping costs involved. Otherwise known as: The ‘middle people’.
In many instances, distributors and retailers are strategically predatory towards producers.
In recent years, this dysfunctional distribution model led to scores of dairy farmers leaving the industry and even selling dairy cows to the abattoirs, at a time when global prices for Australian dairy products were at their peak. An indication that something was seriously wrong.
If the farmers cannot make reasonable margins and returns on their land, they leave the industry, leading to either less production (and higher prices) or a greater reliance on industrial (read: chemical) farming as bigger farmers are pressured into producing more to meet supply and demand at lower prices.
This leads me to our vineyard and wine business.
When people ask ‘where can I buy Weathercraft wine?’
I always answer ‘from us online or at the cellar door’. We are dedicated to producing high-quality, minimal intervention, artisan wines, at approachable prices.
We are fortunate enough to have built relationships with sommeliers, chefs and owners of a number of fantastic restaurants, who share our philosophy on quality and have subsequently listed our wines on their menus.
Like our existing club members and customers, these restaurants seek an understanding and connection with where their produce comes from and, perhaps more importantly, ‘how it has been grown’.
This network, combined with referrals from club members, has introduced us to a growing number of like-minded customers.
Reading the news of late, it’s obvious that food prices are set to increase for a variety of reasons including labour costs, fuel, supply chain issues and general supply and demand shifts. We have certainly felt the increase already as a producer.
Australia has always been known as a lucky country, and compared with many other economies around the world, we are indeed lucky. Australia though, is also very hypocritical.
What people desire for our future and the changes we seek for society in terms of sustainability as a nation, are often contrary to the day-to-day actions and decisions of the majority.
Buying local is more than popping down the road to the local shops. Buying local is about not buying imports, it's about travelling less, and choosing more often to buy directly from the growers and producers, whether online, at farm gates or cellar doors or at local markets.
There is a time and place for convenience, for sure. There is also however a balance, which is achievable and sustainable. So, if you happen to try our wine at restaurant, or through a friend, or at an event and you ask yourself ‘where can I buy Weathercraft?’, we invite you to connect with us personally by buying directly.
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Why notbook a wine tasting at our cellar door? We'd love to see you!
Or why not let us ship wine directly to your door. View ouronline wine store.
