Echo Newspaper - Saturday 22 August  2009

The Swan Valley's Sandalford Wines has been awarded a special award at this year's Hanson Swan Business Awards, held annually by the Swan Chamber of Commerce.

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On behalf of the entire Sandalford Wines team - our Proprietors the Prendiville family,  and of course all the staff and management of our company - I want you to know it is indeed an incredible honour AND certainly a great privilege  to receive this prestigeous inaugural  Hall of Fame Award from the Swan Chamber of Commerce, and I do so with a great deal of gratitude.

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The message was loud and clear. An extraordinary number of first-rate red wines in all price points are waiting for you this winter. That's the outcome of three days of tasting and re-tasting to come up with the top 100 wines in The West Australian's annual Great red Tasting.

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Although Western Australia covers a third of the continent, it houses only 10% of the Australian population and produces less than 5% of the country’s wine. Almost all of the wine regions, located in the extreme south-west of this mostly desert state, gained a reputation that was established by Cabernet Sauvignon.

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Australia's wine industry has been doing it tough in recent years, a situation exacerbated by the economic downturn.

But there are some positive signs emanating from the industry, including this year's vintage results.

Fresh in most people's minds are the collapse of prominent wine companies Palandri, Evans & Tate and Xanadu Wines, all of which are being rebuilt under new ownership.

WA is not alone in experiencing instability. Just last month, Foster's Group appointed agribusiness firm Landmark to handle the sale of 31 of its vineyards, while last year Constellation Wines Australia announced up to 350 redundancies.

The demise of corporate wine groups shows the danger of pursuing aggressive debt-driven growth in an industry that, like all agricultural sectors, is inherently volatile.

Author: Russel Quinn, 7th May 2009

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