Bigibilla Wine's Peter Bicknell talk about the effect the loss of the Chinese market had sales.
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00:00Hi, I'm Peter Bicknell, you're at Vigabilla Wines in Moonebill, Victoria.
00:05We have 30 acres on the vines. We've been established since
00:081996. Our first vintage was in 2001. We only grow reds at Vigabilla. So we have
00:16Shiraz, we have Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. I planted in 1996,
00:21but I was an electrician by trade. I worked away for the first
00:25or probably 15 years. We have a good relationship with our next door neighbours,
00:30Summerfields. So they made a bit of wine for us, we sold a bit of fruit to them.
00:34In 2016, we took over winemaking on site. And then we opened a cellar door at the end of 2019
00:42and then closed it most of 2020, 2021. But anyway, that's life. And it's amazing how much
00:51ownership people, customers have taken over the cellar door and we've picked up some really good
00:56customers, long term customers. The paved area and the native gardens and that, people just come
01:01out and there's a zone out. You just need to sit there, sit in the chair for hours,
01:06just enjoying a bottle of wine, which is kind of what we designed. And what we hope for,
01:11especially people from the city can come up and it's just 100% different than you do in Melbourne.
01:17And we don't try and compete what Melbourne does, we try to offer something totally different.
01:21Was there much interest before the pandemic in say China?
01:28Oh yes, yeah. So we had quite a good relationship with a few Chinese importers
01:34and we were exporting maybe two or three pallets a month and that died overnight.
01:41It's been a bit disappointing the lack of help we've had in getting that going again,
01:45because even if we weren't exporting, your neighbours are exporting. So the market's a
01:50bit more congested of wines as we all try to survive basically. Because without China,
01:57Australian wine industry suffers.