Drewism: There’s Better Stuff to Drink than [ kangaroo krap ]

Have you ever had a bottle of [ yellow tail ]? Come on, admit it. Everyone has. We all know that little kangaroo when we see it, and certainly know friends and family who have a bottle or two hanging around their kitchen. I myself am guilty of it as well. I even went so far as to share a bottle of Yellow Tail Reserve once in my life, and though it wasn’t an altogether awful experience, I must say that for $45 with corkage, I expected something a little more.

Yellow Tail, for those who have been under a rock for the last ten years, is an Australian wine brand, notable for its eye-catching label of a yellow-footed rock wallaby. A quick history: the brand was first developed in 2000 by the Casella family, originally of Sicily, who had relocated to New South Wales in the 1950s to start a new life for themselves. By 2003, the brand had become a behemoth - the number one imported wine to the US - and in that same time the original winery was forced to expand to nearly ten times its original size. Supply could barely keep up with demand. After only selling 112,000 cases in its first year, sales of Yellow Tail jumped to 7.5 million in 2005, helped in large part through distribution by low-cost retailers such as Costco. Also in that year, Yellow Tail became the first variety wine to move one million cases in a single month. At present, Yellowtail facilities have the capacity to store approximately 300 million liters (about 80 million gallons) on site with more wine produced and stored elsewhere.

Specializing in blended wine in the $8-10 range, Yellow Tail at first glance sounds like a dream: its quick to find, it sells well, and best of all, it’s cheap. From a marketing standpoint, Yellowtail hit the nail on the head. But they had the means to do so, with a large-scale distributor in Costco, financial backing through investors, and the hot Australian climate to load up its vines and churn out record crops each and every year. By mass-producing and mass-marketing Shiraz (same as Syrah, different name) and Chardonnay, Yellow Tail appealed to many casual wine drinkers worldwide who were desperate to try an entry red or an alternative to California chards, but who had neither the wine wherewithal nor the cash to pony up $15-20 a bottle for everyday dinner wine.

Today, Yellow Tail is one of the most recognized labels in the world.  Its annual revenues for the US alone are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and it comprises over 40% of all imports from Australia by volume (2006 data). To put things in perspective, Australian wines claim a volume market share of 9 percent worldwide; if Yellow Tail were to be excluded, this figure would drop to 5 percent. The success story apparent, Yellow Tail markets premium blended wine at basement prices, while concurrently targeting younger drinkers by through its instantly recognizable wine labels. With so many wines struggling to sell in the late 90’s, combined with beer being the beverage of choice for most of America’s youth and college students, this was a great way to recruit younger oenophiles as the traditional base got older and stopped buying wine. With all the good things that the Yellow Tail “phenomenon” spawned, why do I object so much to buying it?

The answer, and the reason for my lengthy discussion on this topic, becomes clear – or rather unclear - in the glass (no pun intended). A bottle of Yellow Tail, in general, has such a plethora of different grapes blended together that it might in fact not legally be called wine, at least according to contemporary Australian wine laws.

Shiraz makes for an easy blend with other classic grapes such as Grenache and Mourvedre, or Cabernet and Merlot, among many others. A few examples include Shiraz-Cabernet, Cabernet-Shiraz-Merlot, Grenache-Cab-Merlot, and Grenache-Shiraz-Mourvedre. Though the latter blend is an exception and can certainly make for some delicious wines coming from down under, at the end of the day there really is no way to recognize true varietal in Yellow Tail’s overly blended mess. Most contemporary blends contain a maximum of 4 grapes in a Syrah-based blend, or 5 for a Cabernet-based blend, but some of Yellow Tail’s contain six or more different varietals, many of which may not even be grown in Australia! For all you know, you might be drinking fermented grape juice made from grapes that were grown in Africa, India, or elsewhere in the South Pacific! I’d love to tell you that I’m making this stuff up, but I’m not.

As a result, Yellowtail by and large lacks a product that has a distinction of place. The truth is apparent on the label. Australian wine-labeling law stipulates the following:

“A minimum of 85 percent of the grape variety stated on the label must be used [to make the wine]; if two different types of grapes are used in a blended wine and neither grape represents 85 percent of the blend, both grapes must be mentioned on the label in order of importance (e.g., a wine labeled Cabernet/Shiraz has more Cabernet than Shiraz).”

Source: Kolpan, Smith, Weiss, et al. Culinary Institute of America's Complete Guide to Wines of the World.

So by designating ‘Shiraz-Cabernet-Merlot’ on the label, the folks at Yellowtail are telling you that 85% of the grapes in the bottle come from those three varieties. The proportions are unknown, though Shiraz appears in slightly higher percentage than the other two. What’s more troubling is that the remaining 15% is also unknown. There are likely a handful of similar grapes thrown in for good measure, though what they are, and more importantly, where they come from, remains a mystery.

So what am I suggesting as an alternative? California Syrah, for one. California produced 110,000 tons of Syrah grapes statewide in 2007, a large percentage of which could be characterized as ‘cool climate’. These are grapes that come from the cool coastal regions of Sonoma, Monterey, and Carneros, and without a doubt many will produce fabulous wines. Though an entirely different beast than Shiraz, cool-climate Syrah, as it has come to be known, is largely underrated in the United States. The slower ripening process, longer growing season, and lower yields lead to a wine grape that is highly sought after by many wineries looking either for a single varietal wine or for a Rhone-style blend. Cline Cellars makes a fabulous 100% Cool-climate Syrah from the Sonoma Coast appellation that is only $12.

The resulting product has proven in recent years to be very good, and an incredible value at that. Many growers from Paso Robles have come to Monterey in recent years looking for cool-climate Syrah either to bottle alone or to balance out their hot Cabernets and Merlots from San Luis Obispo county. Not surprisingly, many of these growers have been loathe to plant Syrah simply because of the lack of water availability in this region. It has been shown that Syrah is very susceptible to “burn” when conditions are such that water demands are high and its availability is low, particularly in the summer months when temperatures push well into the 100s. Syrah is an incredibly water-demanding creature, and even under stress its stomata tend to stay open (called anisohydric in viticulture jargon) and they continue to use water despite the fact that they are killing their own tissue in the process. Conversely, varietals such as Grenache close down their stomates when water becomes scarce (they are isohydric), and they essentially shut down photosynthesis in an effort to save water. This innate need to conserve is why Grenache does so well in the hot and dry climates of central Spain, in the Rhone Valley of France, and in Australia for that matter!

So why haven’t the Aussies taken the hint that continuing to plant Shiraz isn’t the best idea in these hot and arid climates? Probably because they can’t afford not to. Yellow Tail is a multi-billion dollar behemoth, and for the last near decade the stuff has flown off the shelves at record pace. Yet in the process, Yellowtail has effectively murdered the image of Australian Shiraz as a unique and quality grape from down under, mass-producing it to the point of retail over-saturation. And Yellow Tail has not only lowered its own standard in the process, but lowered the world’s standard for what is to be expected of the varietal it champions. But that’s all about to change.

Australia is at present experiencing a 100-year drought, and over the last several years some growers have lost as much as half of their crop due to yield limitations from water scarcity. This will certainly have an effect on the quality of wines coming out of Australia in the near future, but it will also have a supply effect on the industry as a whole down the road.

We’ll start to see the 2007 Australian reds hit the shelves in the next 18 months, so I’ll be keeping a close eye on things when they do. In the meantime, my advice would be to stop picking up the Kangaroo simply because it’s eye-catching and because it’s a no brainer. Put some thought into your decision-making at the wine store and dare to be different. There’s better stuff on the shelves from our own country to be had, and for comparable prices. And even if we don’t have a cooky marsupial on the label, it’s the substance in the bottle that really matters.

Comments

[Tim]

Nicely done - quite the lengthy discussion for YellowTail, but I guess someone has to do it.

I'm also very happy you brought up Cline because I've been shocked that my <$10 master hasn't written about my favorite TJs wine. In fact, I'm drinking the 06 Viognier as I write this - and I highly recommend it (as well as the Syrah you mentioned).

Lastly, if you ever spend $45 and drink Yellow Tail again - I will break a bottle over your head. Seriously, you're messing with wine economics here.

-Tim

[Drew]

Hey Tim,
Cline is certainly underrated. I try to pick 'em up whenever possible. My efforts to educate Mr. <$10 in this department are still proving difficult, however. Glad you picked up on it.

For the record, the YT Reserve was only about $15-20; corkage brought it to $45. But yes, I thought about breaking the bottle over my own head at the time, too.

[Tim]

Hey Drew - sorry I didn't realize you wrote that. I was quite impressed with Dorian for a second there.

I'm quite surprised a restaurant allowed you to bring in the bottle of YT! Actually, their sparkling white is on sale at BevMo and I was very close to purchasing it (I probably would have if not for the "break the bottle" comment I wrote the day before).

-Tim

[Mark V Marino]

Hello Drew,
Way to go these people need education to avoid being taken advantage of, one of my pet peeves are the wines that are sold as goes good with... No varietal at all just avoiding any labeling law! These people should be exposed as making inferior products by avoiding labeling. The people like those by the wild horse name that label stuff close but not accurately and use places in their name that are not the origin of their wines need to be exposed too! Keep on writing!