‘Massive demand’ for Orange chardonnay, pinot gris as NSW’s youngest wine region bounces back
Once bitten and twice shy, the up-and-coming winemakers of Orange are doubling down to keep buyers from the UK, Korea and even Italy on the books as the huge Chinese market returns.
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Once bitten and twice shy, the up-and-coming winemakers of Orange are doubling down on new international export markets as Chinese buyers return for their world-class products.
Emerging now from its infancy as a wine region, Orange’s wineries were forced to pivot rapidly when China’s Ministry of Commerce slapped Australian producers with tariffs of up to 218 per cent.
At Ross Hill Winery on the northern slope of Mount Canobolas, exports to China once represented 20 per cent of the business before the tariffs – which were, in effect, a ban on Australian wine – brought sales to a halt.
With restrictions lifted as of March two Chinese buyers are now back on the books, and manager James Robson expects the Chinese market to come back up to 10 per cent of the family business’ turnover this year.
“It’s been really challenging these past few years – we had the worst drought NSW has ever seen, then we had the bushfires and the smoke taint, then a global pandemic and the tariffs from China – but we’re coming out of it, we’re a very resilient bunch,” he said.
Like many of their neighbouring vintners, the Robsons aren’t putting all their eggs in China’s basket, having diversified and established buyers in Germany, England and South Korea during the tariff period.
“What it also made us do is really focus on our DTC – direct to consumer – business, whether that’s customers coming to the cellar door, becoming part of our wine club, or coming to events,” Mr Robson said.
“When we really started selling wine properly in the early the 2000s, the Orange wine region wasn’t really known at all. Now the best restaurants in Sydney and Canberra stock Orange wine, and right up and down the east coast.
“I was in one of the best bottle shops in Sydney the other day, and they said they’ve never seen such massive demand for NSW wines.”
Orange Region Vignerons’ Association president Nick Segger, owner of the 60-acre Nashdale Lane winery ten minutes west of town, said “a lot has really changed” in the area in the decade since he bought the vineyards, with up to 30 cellar doors now open seven days a week.
The ‘cool-climate’ region, ranging in altitude from 600 to 1000 metres above sea level, makes for “world-class” chardonnays, pinots and shiraz, which are now being exported to the UK, southeast Asia, and even to Italy in the case of Nashdale’s pinot gris.
“(China) is one of our most major markets, so having that option back on the table is really exciting,” Mr Segger said.
“A lot of those relationships and communications had continued (during the tariffs), so now there’s a lot of emails flying around, a lot of people getting on places, but it will take time to get back to get back to where it was – if it ever does.”
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