Maker of Yellow Tail slips into the red
Usually, mega wineries are supposed to harvest economies of scale as well as grapes. But Casella, the maker of Yellow Tail, is trapped between a strong currency and a hard price point, which has led to their balance sheet spilling red ink.
A WSJ story squarely blames the $31 million shortfall on the strong Australian dollar and competition in the American marketplace. “There is no volume issue, it is all about the exchange rate,” CEO John Casella said. Failure to secure a new loan by January 30 could lead to asset sales.
A Bloomberg story recently reported that bulk exports shipped in giant plastic bladders overtook the volume of bottled wine exported from Australia. While this offers cost savings, it also reduces wine’s carbon footprint.
The strong currency does provide a significant obstacle to Australian estate wines becoming the Next Big Thing.
On January 15th, 2013 at 3:19 pm ,R. Scot Clark wrote:
Dr. Vino: Interesting article on Yellow Tail. I had a friend that tried our WINE RESCUE product on some opened and stale Yellow Tail; I thought I would share the results with you.
Scot Clark
Scot,
Your Wine Improvement gift arrival today – just in time. THANKS.
I had a half bottle of yellow tail Chardonnay setting on the kitchen counter since Thanksgiving. I prefer red to white. The long story short,
I poured a glass and took a sip. It was ready for the kitchen sink. As per instructions, one drop, stirred into the glass, another sip. Amazing.
The wine was “rescued” and I enjoyed ever sip. With your product I am sure I will save a bundle on wine.
On January 15th, 2013 at 6:12 pm ,John Glas wrote:
Or save a few bucks in your case.
I have never understood why it is so hard to drink a bottle of wine over the course of two or three days.
On January 16th, 2013 at 2:01 am ,Weston wrote:
maybe if they stopped adding the sugar they could save some pennies! or adding all that mega purple!
On January 16th, 2013 at 7:04 pm ,R. Scot Clark wrote:
John Glas: Excellent point. Restaurants and wine bars might have 10-20 opened bottles at the end of a shift and the wine needs to be protected; WINE RESCUE was designed for that purpose. It will hold the original aroma and taste for weeks.
Weston: Our WINE RESCUE product used exactly what the wine makers use to solve wine oxidation problems. Ascorbic acid for extracting the oxygen from the wine, sulphites to take out the oxidized alcohol, gelatin and gum Arabic to smooth the tannins and eliminate bitterness. No sugar.
Thanks, Scot