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SPECTATOR
www.samsmith.com SSPRING PRING 200 2007 7
OFF AND RACING
The Spring Portfolio

INDUSTRY NEWS
Grim Pickings
The 2008 vintage may be the smallest in While this will put pressure on cash flow and
more than 30 years, prompting wineries to endanger hard won shelf space in the UK and
turn to importing wine from Chile and South US markets it will also see a positive move out
Africa to fill orders. Drought, Murray River of the 700 million litre a year bulk wine market
irrigation water shortages, climate change and to countries such as China, a rapid decline
a national re-planting strategy of less than 2% in cleanskin availability and a return to more
per year has led to a miracle turnaround in
winery stocks, from gross surplus to shortage
in just two years.
sustainable pricing for bottled premium wine.
According to AWBC Manager of Information
and Analysis, Lawrie Stanford barring an
extraordinary rain event, there is the real
potential that Australia will be reducing
exports next year.
The Winemakers Federation concurred, with
an announcement in late September that the
2008 vintage is likely to collapse to anywhere
between 800,000 tonnes and 1.3 million
tonnes, well below our supply needs. It too
pointed to the likelihood of imported wine,
making up the shortfall, especially in our cask
wine market.
100 Not Out
What makes an old vine truly old? According to
Yalumba’s Robert Hill Smith it is high time that
some rigour was applied to one of Australia’s
most used (and abused) marketing terms. So he
has devised the Yalumba Old Vine Charter which
is “dedicated to the recognition, preservation and
promotion of these old vines.”
The Charter defines an Old Vine as 35 years of
age or older; an Antique Vine as 70 years or older;
a Centenarian Vine as 100 years or older and a
Tri-Centenary Vine as “very bloody exceptionally
old” having a life spanning three centuries.
“For Yalumba this means from the 2007 vintage
any wines using the Old Vine nomenclature,
either on a front label, back label or in supporting
documents will comply with the Yalumba Old
Vine Charter.
“In an era of rapid change in technology, lifestyle
and interest in the new and the now, we hope that
through this overdue initiative recognition of our
Australian viti-vini history, survival, heritage and
provenance may be proclaimed and celebrated.”
And that, is the last word on the subject!
75 Million Petrol
Heads Drink
More Wine
ACNielsen and Nielsen Sports, both business units
of The Nielsen Company have released a study
showing that wine consumption among National
Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)
fans is up 22% from last year, far outpacing the US
growth in wine. In 2006, retail wine sales in the US
(total grocery, drug, and selected liquor markets
only) reached a new record of $8.4 billion, up 7%
from 2005.
Nielsen FANLinks, a service that tracks household
consumption among US sports fans, indicates that
wine purchases have increased to $81.40 per year,
an average dollar increase of about $14.60 per
household. Results also indicate that this increase
in wine spending is slightly stronger among avid
fans, with their purchases increasing by 26.4%.
While imported wine sales are growing among
NASCAR fans (which is great news for Australia),
domestic wine still represents the majority
of their sales, nearly 70%. With about 75 million
NASCAR fans in the US, sport could become the
next big advertising opportunity for the
wine industry.

Qwoff to become Wine’s Web 2.0 Hero
Within three months of its launch the wine
industry’s answer to Facebook has already
attracted over 5,000 members, and continues to
grow at a rapid rate, chasing a target member
base of 50,000 by July 2008.
Qwoff members can rate and review wines
they’ve tried, and recommend wines to each
other, resulting in a site where consumers can
look up a wine they’re interested in, and read
reviews on that wine written by hundreds of
other consumers.
The site was created by Andre Eikmeier, Justin
Dry and Brendan Yell.
“We have collective experience in the wine, media
and web industries and all share a passion for
good wine,” Andre said.
“We were all adamant about
creating a place and a community
for wine lovers that was relaxed and
unpretentious.
“It needed to be fun, we are talking
about wine after all, not banking.”
According to Andre, Qwoff is the first Australian
wine site to enter the new world of social
networking.
“It’s all about two way communication, creating
the opportunity for people with a common
interest to get together and talk about it,” he
says. “It’s no longer just a matter of clicking links
and reading web pages, it’s about interacting with
other people who share a passion.”
“The qwoffers effectively create the content of
the site, it’s really their site.”
Check out Qwoff at www.qwoff.com.au
Billion Water Bottles A Week
In the US last year, consumers slurped one billion
bottles of water a week generating a breathtaking
income of more than US$15 billion out of simple
hydrogen and oxygen. If we assume that means
four bottles on average per person, then it is
likely that Australians are slavishly following their
American cousins and downing at least 80 million
bottles a week of a substance they can get free
anytime from a tap.
One of the fastest growing bottled waters on
earth is Fiji Water – 40 twenty foot containers
sail away to the US everyday and it is about to
eclipse sugar cane as the Pacific Island’s number
one export earner. The profit margin in water is
between 7.5% and 10% with as much as a third of
the cost in transport and distribution, 50% going
to the retailer and only 10% in the actual water
and bottle.
INDUSTRY NEWS
Double Barrel
Export Drive
Wine Australia, the marketing arm of the
Australian wine industry is firing from both
barrels having announced a new program in
the UK-Ireland last month and also a new
push into Asia.
AWBC General Manager Market
Development Paul Henry has launched an
education campaign amongst selected retail
and restaurant chains and their distributors
including O’Donovans Liquor Stores and
Elys Wine Bars in Ireland; George Manners
Gastro Pubs in the UK and Enotria, Liberty
and Negociants UK. Leading Australian
winemakers will visit the stores and
restaurants from November onwards to
conduct training sessions with staff and
consumer tastings. The sales driven program
will see around a dozen principals or staff
visiting Australia next year to learn more
about the industry.
Ireland is a mature market for alcohol
although not so for wine. With one of the
lowest per capita wine consumption rates in
Western Europe there is ample opportunity
for consumers switching from other alcohol
beverages to wine. Factors that will assist
growth include favourable demographics, a
buoyant economy, greater on-trade focus on
food and wine and a growing presence of
major retailers that will make wine
more accessible.
Australia is the number one supplier to the
Irish market, over-performing on all price
points except basic wine.
Meanwhile wine writer and judge Jeremy
Oliver led a wine contingent at Wine Australia
Week in Singapore in late October. A total of
15 wine tastings were held throughout the
week, highlighting the diversity of Australian
wine at trade, consumer and media events.
The events showcased how well Australian
wine combines with Asian cuisine and their
suitability to the local market. This celebration
of Australian wine was timed to coincide with
the Wine for Asia Expo from October 25-27
in Singapore.
SAMUEL SMITH & SON SPECTATOR SPRING TWO

Trainers In Form At Trackside Tasting
Australia’s horses have celebrated their
birthday, it’s the first race of the new
season and David Hayes and Lee
Freedman are suited up trackside at Caulfield.
There’s a bit of celebrating in the fresh air on this
8 degree Melbourne day – Hayes has just won the
gong for most winners at Caulfield and Freedman
at Sandown in 2006-2007. Grinning jockey Craig
Williams has won the prize for the most winning
rides at both, and his smile is disappearing over
his forehead.
But in between their owner commitments and
jockey bum-taps these heroes of the track are
happy to wander up to the Member’s Bar to
assess a line up of thoroughbreds from a
different stable.
It’s a big risk. Bringing together two of Australia’s
THREE SAMUEL SMITH & SON SPECTATOR SPRING
most famous racehorse trainers, shoving a glass
of wine under their nose and asking them what
they think of Samuel Smith & Son’s new releases is
bound to provoke brutally honest answers.
“Shit that smells like petrol,”
Freedman exclaimed about one of
the wines.
“Great long legs,” says Hayes, appreciating the
glass rather than the contents.
It’s all good-natured fun and at the centre is
Samuel Smith & Son’s Victorian Key Account
Manager Rhonda Sexton. The stalwart of 23 years
company service (and a 2002 Signature signatory)
Rhonda has just presented the trophy to the
winner of the 1000 metre Yalumba Masters and
used her inimitable charm to lure the two famous
men of the track to this tasting.
It’s a unique idea – instead of the traditional media
or trade tasting Rhonda has gone outside the
square by asking hero sportsmen with an interest
in wine to give their objective opinion about the
new releases. Not only does it give a truthful
consumer perspective, Rhonda figures it won’t do
these brands any harm rolling around the
palates of some of Australia’s most influential
opinion makers.
First wine up is a 2007 Pewsey Vale Riesling. Both
trainers are confused by the intense citrus nose,
and punt on Sauvignon Blanc. But once it lands
on the palate they know they are in unmistakable
Eden Valley Riesling country. Hayes gets ten points
for calling lemon as a descriptor.

“I don’t drink white wine,” Freedman says, “
Besides, Hayes is a pisshead.”
It’s no surprise then that he doesn’t go for the
Vasse Felix 2006 Classic Dry White but Hayes is
more considered.
“Quite good tropical fruit and I’m getting a bit of
Semillon flavour,” he says, more than chuffed that
he’s picked the variety.
It’s head to head now and both trainers pick up
the loaded apricot in the 2005 Yalumba Viognier
at the same time. Then they each score ten points
when they bet successfully on cool climate Eden
Valley and the race is on.
Hayes shows his regional advantage over
Freedman when he picks the award winning
Peter Lehmann 2001 Semillon. “Great wine, really
enjoyable,” he says swirling and spitting while
Freedman looks confused by the complexity.
However, the Victorian trainer comes into the
straight a nose ahead when we turn to the reds
and he picks the Pirie South 2005 Pinot Noir
first up.
“I’ve just been to London and
knocked over some very good
Burgundies so I’ve really got a
taste for Pinot at the moment,”
Freedman says.
The next wine is a French ring-in, the Perrin
Reserve 2004 Cotes du Rhone and Hayes also
shows his international connections picking up
the berry-laden Grenache nose along with the
peppery Shiraz.
“Great wine, very French,” he exclaims and his
points score jumps a notch. “That’s my favourite.”
“I’d really enjoy that with a nice Schulz
porterhouse or a poussin at Vintners in the
Barossa. As long as Hill Smith is there and
he pays.”
Then Freedman picks his wine of the tasting, the
Jim Barry Cover Drive 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon.
“That’s a fantastic wine, just what I like,” he says.
“Good, dark, full bodied Coonawarra Cabernet.
“I’d enjoy that with a rack of lamb off the pastures
near us on the Mornington Peninsula.
“While I was overseas I also tried some fantastic
Bordeauxs. The trouble is drinking $1000 a bottle
Cheval Blanc ruins your palate for anything else.”
Finally there is a Western Australian Forest Hill
2004 Shiraz from Mount Barker. Hayes likes the
peppery Shiraz profile and enjoys the bottle age
while Freedman appreciates the cool climate
texture and elegance. They both get ten points for
picking Australia’s most famous variety but miss
the WA connection.
The tasting is over and Lee has to rush off to a
family commitment. But first an insight into the
wine drinking habits of horse trainers.
“I open a bottle a couple of nights a week,” he
says. “My wife’s a Champagne drinker but I like
red, particularly Pinots and Coonawarra Cabernet.
I’ve got a lot of self control and I rise early so I
stick to one bottle – but if we have visitors and
the company is boring I’ll have a second one and
go to sleep!”
One would have thought David’s Barossa
upbringing at Lindsay Park would have had red
coursing through his veins from infancy.
SPRING RACING FEATURE
“Actually I was a scotch and coke drinker until I
was 25 years old,” he grins. “One day I went to
see Robert Hill Smith and said: ‘Everyone else is
drinking red wine, you’d better show me how to
taste it properly. “
“Hill Smith told me to sniff, swirl
it around the glass, take a sip,
roll it around your mouth and
swallow.”
“He said the most important thing then is to look
very wise and considered and say, “that wine really
suits my palate.”
“Everyone will at least think you know what you
are doing.”
Hayes and Freedman have crossed the finish
line head to head and only the sniff of a Shiraz
glass separates them on points – but the real
winners in this tasting are the wines which have
gained a new audience at Australia’s most famous
race track.

FIVE SAMUEL SMITH & SON SPECTATOR SPRING
Nine Blokes, Six Days,
One Track
A
few months ago, in the middle of the
Papua New Guinea jungle, dripping with
sweat and fighting pain in every corner of
their bodies, nine South Australian businessmen
contemplated how easy their lives were.
They were feeling the power of the Kokoda
Track, a rite of passage for a growing number of
Australians.
It is more than a gruelling physical challenge – it
is also an emotional journey which forces the
thousands of men and women who walk it every
year to take stock of the sacrifice made by their
forefathers in World War II.
For as hard as the Kokoda Track is now, it doesn’t
compare to the conditions faced by Australian
Diggers as they battled the advancing Japanese
Army, in arguably Australia’s most significant
campaign in the Pacific War.
Greg Pullen, General Manager - Sales for Samuel
Smith & Son, was one of those businessmen,
and he recalls the moment when the hardships
endured by our troops hit home.
“There is nothing easy about the Kokoda Track,
it’s relentless” Greg said. “At one stage on the
first day we stopped for a breather, contemplating
the challenge that lay ahead.
“It soon dawns on you that our mission was
nothing compared to what faced the troops of
World War II.
“We were tourists, with the latest gear, trained
guides and porters, not battle weary soldiers with
bullets whizzing past their ears.”
The trip was organised by John Baker of KWP!
Advertising in Adelaide and included Glenn

Cooper, Coopers Brewery; John Auld, Samuel
Smith & Son; David Hall, Royal Australian
Automobile Association; Phil Mason Australia
Post; and a family team of Tim, Angus and Andrew
Carracher.
Most of the group started training for the trek in
January looking ahead to a June departure. Greg
was the exception, starting his regime in May.
“In hindsight I wasn’t ready,” Greg said. “Six weeks
is not long enough to prepare for the Kokoda
Track.
“I have dodgy knees from playing rugby so when
they went, I really struggled. I had no choice but
to put my head down and my arse up and get
through it with willpower.
“We all made it to the end. We found out that
30% of people that attempt it end up getting air
lifted out or turn back, so for a group with half
the blokes over 50 I think that we did alright.
“There was real camaraderie, it was an amazing
experience.”
Glenn Cooper has a special connection to the
track. His uncle, Colonel Geoff Cooper was
the leader of the Second 27th Battalion which
is etched into the history books as the “Lost
Battalion” of the war.
Surrounded during the night the battalion awoke
to heavy fire. Outnumbered seven to one, Colonel
Cooper and his men had no option but to seek
the refuge of the thick jungle. After missing for a
few days they were given little hope of survival in
the unforgiving terrain and were considered dead.
But Colonel Cooper and his men cut their own
path through the jungle and heroically emerged 13
days later.
“I knew we would come across Brigade Hill at
some stage but I wasn’t prepared for the emotion
that hit me when I realised that this was the spot
where the battle took place,” Glenn said.
“Our guide started to tell the story of the lost
battalion and a wave of emotion came over me.
“I’ve never come across a feeling
anything close to that before and
I wasn’t ashamed for a second
about the tears.”
“The track has a certain power to bring out a
deeper level of empathy in any bloke.”
Greg’s most poignant memory is making it to the
end of the gruelling six-day adventure.
“Arm in arm singing Advance
Australia Fair we crossed the
finishing line, it was an amazing
feeling,” Greg said.
“When we got back to Port Moresby we checked
into a hotel, threw our sweaty stinking clothes in
the bin, put on a clean set of shorts and a t-shirt,
got some beers and ordered a pizza.”
The following day the group took their porters
out for lunch at the local yacht club to thank
them for their effort, work and friendship on the
journey.
“The porters were amazing throughout the
whole trip,” Greg said. “Even though you are only
together for under a week you form a really close
bond.”
THE KOKODA TRAIL FEATURE
Glenn’s porter for the trek was Jessie, an
energetic and charismatic young local.
“There was one time when it was slippery and
wet and we were making our way down a steep
hill with much care using our stocks and treading
carefully,” Glenn remembers. “I turned around and
there was my porter Jessie making his way down
the hill in bare feet, carrying my pack playing a
ukulele.
“It tended to sum up how easy our lives are here
in Australia.
“It puts things in perspective.”
Brendan Buka ran the 96 km trail from Kokoda to
Owers Corner in 17 hours 20 minutes establishing a
new record time.

Sawrey’s Say
I
sincerely trust that this new look, style and
layout of the spring/summer edition of The
Spectator is as refreshing to you as I wanted it
to be. The Spectator is designed to be a point of
discussion, enjoyment and debate between your
customers and yourself. If you don’t want to dwell
on the stern industry update then turn the page
and get onto less cerebral matters. The Spectator
is a Samuel Smith & Son communication to the
trade and yourselves, designed to inform, educate
and sometimes amuse. It is a talking point, a door
opener, a good place to start your negotiations.
Hope you like it.
Rhonda Sexton came up with a very good idea
which you can see has sprung to life as a tasteoff
between two pillars of the racetrack, David
Hayes and Lee Freedman. Timely too, that the
magnificent spring carnival in Melbourne is upon
us with everyone holding their collective breaths
not daring to mention the EI words. As I write,
still no word on the possibility of a start for that
champion horse, Leica Falcon who is trapped
on the New South Wales border at Corowa, a
mere Murray River’s width from Victoria and a
huge chance to win the Melbourne Cup. Hope
the Falcon wins a reprieve, runs and wins. Now
there’s a tip! Anyway, I digress as usual, the tasting
was a hoot and it got me thinking…HOW MANY
OF YOU KNOW A CELEBRITY.
Well, why not organise a place and a time for a
tasting and find yourself and your celeb mate/
mates featured in the next issue. Now there is a
challenge for you. Send details to me (psawrey@
samsmith.com) and I shall begin the selection
process. Could be a lot of fun going forward and it
will get you involved.
The marketing department had a tour of Oxford
Landing the other day and I must say we were
all knocked out by the infectious enthusiasm of
Marty Burnell and Robert “Freddy” Strachan.
The water restrictions have posed some serious
questions but their collective positivity and
professionalism is undiminished. “We must have
been wasting a lot of water over the years
because we seem to be managing very well even
on these scant allocations,” says Marty, “It has
made us really focus on our way of doing business
and I would have to say, on the occasion of our
50th year of growing grapes, the Oxford Landing
vineyard has never looked better.”
Makes you wonder how we would all go if
someone told us to ease the household water
consumption from 100% to 13%. A decree
like that would fatally wound my bride and
that’s a fact.
Bit On The Side
A
large woman, wearing a sleeveless sun
dress, walks into a bar in Dublin. She
raises her right arm, revealing a huge, hairy
armpit as she points to all the patrons sitting at
the bar and yells, “What man here will buy a lady
a drink?” The bar goes silent as the drinkers try
to ignore her but down at the end of the bar,
an owl-eyed drunk slams his hand down on the
bar and bellows, “Give the ballerina a drink!”The
bartender pours the drink and the woman chugs
it down.
She turns once more to all the patrons and points,
again revealing the hugely hairy armpit, she asks,
“What man here will buy a lady a drink?” Once
again the same little drunk slaps his money down
Spectacular
Sudoku
Sudoku doesn’t require any special math
skills or calculations. It is a simple and fun
game of logic, all that’s needed is brains
and concentration.There is really only one rule
to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the
numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in
each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers
can appear in any order and diagonals are not
considered.
The Sudoku solution will be published in the next
edition of Spectator.
We’ve started with an easy one!
Good luck.
8
on the bar and says, “Give the ballerina another
drink!” The bartender approaches the little drunk
and asks, “Tell me Murphy, it’s your business if you
want to buy the lady a drink but tell me, why do
you keep calling her a ballerina?”
Murphy looks deep into the bartender’s eyes and
replies, “Because any woman who can lift her leg
that high has got to be a ballerina!”.