Morning all
Just flicking through some of the headlines from the weekend and came across this article from Patrick Schmitt MW writing in the Drinks Business. He had a chat recently with Richard Balfour-Lynn, owner of Hush Heath winery in Kent.
Big take home from the article is that it’s not good enough for English wine to just “expand”. We need to develop the markets and the method of selling, be it cellar door, wine tourism or retail here and abroad. Going into this blind, thinking it’s just an easy lifestyle industry is a sure fire way to lose your shirt, and you’ll be lucky to survive the next 5 years.
I’d like to add that setting up vineyards and wineries right now without any consideration to sustainability initiatives is criminal and destined to be on the wrong side of consumer trends. But that’s just me.
Check out the full article on the Drink’s Business Website…
DRINK’S BUSINESS ENGLISH WINE ARTICLE
Cheers
“Going into this blind, thinking it’s just an easy lifestyle industry is a sure fire way to lose your shirt, and you’ll be lucky to survive the next 5 years”
Think this is a worldwide phenomenon and it deserves its own article. I’ve got nothing to with English wine, but I’ve had people come to me and say “your work is drinking wine, you must be living the life” and it’s annoying when the reality is I’m barely scraping the barrel!
People see what they want to see and ignore the bits they don’t. Working in the wine trade is, on average, ridiculously poorly paid!