I come from the land down under - Why I'm taking this course

To (mis)quote the famous song lyric, “I come from the land down under, where beer does flow and men chunder”.

Australia’s image as a beer swilling nation is not without reason. Our former Prime Minister set the world record for drinking a yard of beer while at Oxford and one of our most famous cricketers allegedly drank 52 cans of beer on a flight from Sydney to London in 1989.

However the landscape is changing. Aussies recently hit a 50 year low for alcohol consumption and more and more consumers are substitution wine for beer. Since the 1960s, beer as a percentage of alcohol consumed has dropped from 75% to 41%, while wine has risen from 12% to 38%.

I have been a part of this new Aussie wine culture. There are few things in life more enjoyable than a big bold Shiraz from the Clare Valley or a Chardonnay from the Yarra Valley to start a night. Many Aussies in my generation are part of this shift in tastes. There are increasing numbers of 20 and 30 year olds taking the short drive from Sydney to the Hunter Valley on the weekend to taste the latest Semillon at an intimate (and free!) cellar door.

As discussed in class, Australia has become quite proficient at exporting high quality and affordable wine to the rest of the world. However, we as a nation tend to be quite patriotic when it comes to the wines we drink. “Why drink a foreign wine which costs twice as much and tastes half as good? As a result of this, my understanding of the global wine industry is elementary at best. I am taking this class to better understand the other new world and old world regions in their entirety. Ideally by the end of the course I’d like to better understand the different economics, flavors and trends across the world and be more open to flipping to the international section of the wine list next time I’m out at dinner.