The Auswine Forum

I guess this could be a delicate topic.

I keep hearing that the French are buying or having invested interests in Australian wineries. Are these merely rumours or are they true? If so what wineries are they and i guess this could not just be the French but its the French that i keep hearing about.

I'm not sure it's the French we should be worried about in wine companies, Orlando-Wyndham have been french-owned for a long time, it's the Americans I'd be more worried about eg Constellation Wines (Hardys etc)

What other french interests are you alluding to?

Cape Mentelle and Chandon owned my Moet Hennesey

Well as I said its what i have heard which as anyone knows talk is never concrete. I have heard they now own Mornington and Dromana Estates.

On your last point I disagree with US being a bigger worry because the choice in the marketplace would more likely {infact almost always is} be between Australian and French wine so if France owns our wineries its win win for them as where the US would have to own the French Wineries and the Australian Wineries to win win. I guess either way we lose more than if it were locally owned.

Anonymous wrote:Well as I said its what i have heard which as anyone knows talk is never concrete. I have heard they now own Mornington and Dromana Estates.

Pretty insignificant then.

Anonymous wrote: On your last point I disagree with US being a bigger worry because the choice in the marketplace would more likely {infact almost always is} be between Australian and French wine so if France owns our wineries its win win for them as where the US would have to own the French Wineries and the Australian Wineries to win win. I guess either way we lose more than if it were locally owned.

Depends on your perspective I guess, my concern was the emphasis on market share and shareholder profits to the possible detriment of high quality wines or at least to the price of the high quality wines they make that I used to be able to afford.

If it weren't for the possible impact on growers and employees I wouldn't care too much what happens to the big wine companies, most of what I buy these days is from smaller makers.

Red Bigot wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty insignificant then.

Which is why i was asking. You either know or you dont. Keep the arrogance to yourself

Well, Orlando are pretty big, but at the moment constellation are sizing them up apparently, and of the smaller companies other than chandon and a few other niche players I cant imagine the french being too interested in Oz really, if they are going into another country they tend to head to south america, similar sort of envirnment attitudinally for them to operate in. The european wine companies have a very different mentality to Oz that makes it more difficult for them to operate in Australia, as is the reverse true, at least from what I have seen

cheers

Anonymous wrote:

Red Bigot wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Pretty insignificant then.

Which is why i was asking. You either know or you dont. Keep the arrogance to yourself

I'm really very happy you can admit you are interested in insignificant things, attention to detail is a fine trait. I'm not averse to sharing a bit of arrogance (or sarcasm) with people who post anonymously (a type of arrogance in itself, as is your anonymous and gratuitous advice), but this wasn't meant to be that. The "insignificant" was in reference to Mornington and Dromana Estate, I'll be more careful in the amount of text I cut into a quote for those thin-skinned anonymous posters who often seem to take things with the worst connotation.

Or may be I'll finally take my own advice and just ignore anonymous posts

Nah, it's more fun this way.

Anonymous wrote: On your last point I disagree with US being a bigger worry because the choice in the marketplace would more likely {infact almost always is} be between Australian and French wine .....

The choice in the market place is much broader than that. In the US Italy supplies an enormous amount of wine for example. The US exports little wine at present but that may change. Not sure how that impacts on your concern though

Scrooge wrote:

Anonymous wrote: On your last point I disagree with US being a bigger worry because the choice in the marketplace would more likely {infact almost always is} be between Australian and French wine .....

The choice in the market place is much broader than that. In the US Italy supplies an enormous amount of wine for example. The US exports little wine at present but that may change. Not sure how that impacts on your concern though

Ahh tell us all something we dont know next time!!

Do you know any foreign owned wineries was the Question!!!!!!!

French ownership has to be good (...or at least better than major US or even Australian corporates) Why may you ask?

The French are notoriously bad managers of shareholder capital ... cutting costs, pushing revenue growth and optimising earnings is not a goal of french management (remember it is a quasi socialist country) ... its all about product, brand, status and profile ... which has to be good for us drinkers.

I would never own a french company but will happily consume their product

Anonymous wrote:

Scrooge wrote:

Anonymous wrote: On your last point I disagree with US being a bigger worry because the choice in the marketplace would more likely {infact almost always is} be between Australian and French wine .....

The choice in the market place is much broader than that. In the US Italy supplies an enormous amount of wine for example. The US exports little wine at present but that may change. Not sure how that impacts on your concern though

Ahh tell us all something we dont know next time!!

Do you know any foreign owned wineries was the Question!!!!!!!

Your question seemed to express a concern that French ownership of Australian wineries was a bad thing because the Australian wine industry competes primarily against the French wine industry. I was pointing out that in fact that is an oversimplification. Australia and Italy are the biggest competitors in the US (excepting the US itself of course) but of course you already knew that. I assume you also know that Jacob's Creek has been a French owned brand for years and did more than any other brand to forge a market for Australian wine in the UK.

Adair wrote::roll:

One of your more succinct comments mate.

I understand that both allied and pernod have been eyeing off constellation. These are both cashed up for takeovers and whoever misses out- watch out Fosters!!

I understand that both allied and pernod have been eyeing off constellation. These are both cashed up for takeovers and whoever misses out- watch out Fosters!!