BIG TIME WINE - TOSH TALK

WHAT'S IN A CLEANSKIN?

All wine is just a cleanskin with a label - isn't it? Technically yes. It isn't as if wine just pops up from the ground or falls from the sky already labelled and branded. It isn't like wine is just born, already named, ready to go (although their are many grape pickers and wine makers that would say child-birth would be more pleasant some vintages!).

Over the years I have been asked many times what my opinion is on cleanskin wines. There is no simple answer to this question unfortunately, but the following is what I do know.

Cleanskins came into wide distribution a few years ago now. They have always been around and available in smaller quantities (especially at cellar doors) however, the wide spread distribution and availability of unlabelled wines for commercial sale has only really occurred over the last decade or so.

Why? It is called a wine glut my friends.

To keep things very simple, Australia currently averages around 1.6 million tonnes a year in grape crush. (This can be as high as 2 million tonnes some vintages depending on growing conditions and subsequent yield). Get this though ... domestically we only consume around 1.2 million tonnes of this wine.

You've done the maths no doubt - this means we are over producing by around 25% - 30% each vintage, roughly.

In the past - or the golden years as they are referred to in the wine industry - we could move this excess wine off shore and sell it overseas.In fact, demand for our wines grew to such levels of popularity we needed this additional excess of grape crush to keep up with predicted demand of our wines. But times have changed...

The Aussie dollar is so high at present that it is getting increasingly more difficult to crack overseas markets. Those that are moving any volume are doing so at such slim profit margins in general, it simply keeps the cash flowing. It doesn't necessarily make them a lot of money.

As a result, some of our competitors - Chile, Argentina etc - are now much cheaper than us when it comes to wine prices. So much so that it is forcing much of our wine back on shore or worse still, forcing our international retail partners to slash prices to move the wine and hence creating an image of Australia as a cheap wine producing nation. Not good for future profits.

There is China of course. Every man and his dog are chasing the Chinese to buy our wine and it is indeed a region of great potential. This is a long road to hoe however and the tools were only picked up not so long ago.

This brings us back to the cleanskins on offer domestically now. In pallet loads. Allegedly cheap, good quality, and a real boon for the wine buying lover.

Let me tell you what I do know about cleanskins.

Firstly - if the wine was everything the winemaker/producer wanted it to be it would be under their brand/label.

Think about it. If the wine produced was so good, why wouldn't you have your name on it? Why wouldn't you build your brand, your future earning potential, your credibility as a fine wine producer with that wine? Not going to do you much good without a name on it...

Secondly - retailers love cleanskins because they can attach any story they like to it - and charge you more money to buy it, in the process.

That's right. If a wine is simply a cleanskin in a bottle, the retailer can pretty much say what they like (within the boundaries of the legal details required on all bottles such as region, alcohol content, grape variety etc) about the wine inside. Secret stash direct from a winemakers cellar? A lost batch of wine miraculously found covered in dust in the far corner of a forgotten about storage shed? High rating wine that the wine company no longer has a need for? Heard any of these or similar stories? Cleanskin wines are pretty much a license to say whatever you like.

Thirdly - rarely do cleanskin 'gems' continue to be available. Let's say you find a cleanskin you particularly love. It is reasonably priced, good quality, and fits the budget nicely thank you very much.

Most companies will sell off cleanskin to get rid of the stock. It may be a few pallets. It may be a hundred pallets. Bottom line is, once it is gone - it is generally gone. Cleanskins aren't made to be a continual seller. Why? Refer to point one. There is absolutely no value in a cleanskin to a winemaker/producer unless they can build some brand capital into the product. They might as well sell their grapes to other companies who can then make these grapes into a branded wine.

So, if you find a cleanskin gem you love, be prepared for it to run out. If you are told it won't, or some 'more' has been found, check to see all of your fingers are still on your hand, and wear sunglasses to avoid the glint from the gold tooth inside the salesman's mouth!

Therefore, all cleanskins must be bad?

No. There are some occasional flukes of fate where a genuine cleanskin opportunity has arisen.

As a general rule checklist though, I would follow the following rules:

1. Never pay too much for a cleanskin. (Remember the gold tooth glint!)
2. Taste the cleanskin wine prior to buying, if possible. (Wine history is littered with people trying a cleanskin wine that is of a much higher quality, only to get their wine home to find it isn't what they had initially tasted. How could they tell - there wasn't a label and the bottles looked exactly the same!)
3. If you find a cleanskin you like, buy a little more of it. It is finite.(Believe me, unless it is a low quality cask wine in a cleanskin where there is a vast quantity of it every year, chances are the one you like will run out quickly).
4. Buy Branded wines. (That way you know exactly what you are getting, who is producing it and you have someone to blame if something goes wrong!)

What about branded wines that are really cleanskins? That my friends is a story for another time..!