Bryan Martin, owner of Ravensworth Wines in Canberra, has battled drought, hailstorms, bushfires and COVID-19 in the last six months. Off the back of a devastating year for Canberra vignerons, winemakers around the region are getting creative with plans to supplement their incomes.
Martin has been juggling his day job as a winemaker at Clonakilla, one of Australia’s most highly regarded wineries with the demands of his own wine label, Ravensworth Wines, for the past 20 years. He also wears two other hats - passionate chef and food writer.
His work as a winemaker led to a nomination as Australian winemaker of the year, while he also features as a regular columnist on food, wine and life at Region Media. At the International Riesling Challenge in Canberra in 2012, his Ravensworth Riesling hit the jackpot, beating all comers to win the challenge, an amazing achievement for a small-production local wine among international company.
Despite all his credentials and achievements 2020 has presented many challenges for Martin and the Ravensworth business as a whole. While wine growers are no strangers to extreme weather conditions, the variety of weather events throughout December and January have undoubtedly taken their toll.
The black summer bushfires formed a U shape around the winery, and while the property remained untouched, the fire has left Ravensworth Wines prospects of a 2020 vintage in tatters. The effects of smoke taint on grapes meant Martin was forced to abandon this year’s harvest completely.
Martin had to get creative with plans to supplement his income. He plans to salvage this year’s smoke-damaged grapes for the production of fruit beers.
It’s the question of scale that is another major challenge for this business, which is where a partnership with Nexia’s Canberra office makes an invaluable difference.
Martin uses grapes he grows at his family vineyard five minutes down the road, and fruit he buys from other growers both in the Canberra District and in Hilltops. Producing 5500 cases each year under his own label makes him a fairly large ‘small’ winemaker these days.
“Being a small vineyard, we rely on sourcing fruit from other areas as well as harvesting our own. Which means we don’t have our eggs in one basket, Martin said.
“We work closely with Mark O’Shaughnessy at the Canberra office who has put together a plan that would ultimately see us become fully self-sufficient.
“Our problem is that we won’t be able to measure the loss for another two years or so. The main concern is not a drop in consumer demand but running out of wines to sell.
“That is our biggest problem, the fires, not so much the pandemic. We have sold twice as much stock than we normally do.
“Mark has been able to help us in terms of getting through this period. Insurance does not cover loss from smoke but he identified we were eligible for a low interest loan from the Government which takes a lot of pressure off the business.
We can pay it over a couple of years, which means we can spread out the risk.
“We are still pretty positive about the business and wine industry as a whole.”
As for future wine trends, Martin says there’s a growing market among younger wine drinkers for imaginative, even downright odd wines and reckons the average age of his Ravensworth customers would probably be under 30.
“I just want to have fun with it. I enjoy surprising people.”
Bryan Martin
Owner
Ravensworth Wines
