The winemakers in Clare decided they’d like to change and went to their bottle suppliers, only to be told that they didn’t make the bottles we’re accustomed to seeing our Riesling in with a screwcap top (or words to that effect) and it was a case of ordering a special bottle made in France.
At that point a further technicality raised its ugly head. If they wanted such a bottle they were going to have to order a quarter of a million of them....
There must have been an awfully strong temptation to shrug the shoulders say, Guess we’ll have to do something else then, and settle for a different shape.
Thankfully, it didn’t work out that way. After all, if you do that and notice the sales figures aren’t quite what you’d hoped the next move is more than likely to decide that the consumer isn’t quite ready for screwcaps and head back to the vagaries of the Cork Gods. Fortunately, determination to do the right thing by the wine meant they stuck to their guns, something that deserves the average wine lover’s heartfelt thanks.
Grosset probably wasn’t the only one who pushed the matter through to its eventual conclusion, but in a situation where there’s a temptation to throw your hands in the air and give up someone needed to keep the project on the rails and he seems to pick up most of the credit….
So that’s two reasons I was particularly interested in Grosset Wines when we were planning our excursion to Clare in November 2008. Unfortunately we weren’t too far into the planning when I discovered a major problem.
The Grosset cellar door opens in early September each year and stays open until all the stock has been sold, a process that apparently takes five to six weeks. Given the time factors involved (early September plus six weeks ain’t gonna get you into November) I wasn’t very hopeful, but miracles have been known to occur, and we were staying in Auburn, which is also home to Grosset so...
We got there and the establishment was, predictably closed.
But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, as the saying goes. A visit to the winery website to add my address to the email list saw the Spring 2009 Newsletter land in the inbox last week. Predictably, I was on the phone ASAP to order some wine, and tomorrow morning, a week after the order was placed, Hughesy will be scanning the horizon for the little Australia Post delivery van, which will hopefully be dropping a six pack of the two 2009 Rieslings at the Little House of Concrete....