Bigibilla Wine's Peter Bicknell

Bigibilla Wine's Peter Bicknell talk about the effect the loss of the Chinese market had sales.

Transcript

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.