Winebits 810: Aussie wine, Anchor Steam, wine accessories

This week’s wine news: The beginning of the end for cheap Aussie wine, plus hopes for Anchor Steam and the “ultimate” in wine accessories

• Bad, bad news: Felicity Carter, the blog’s European correspondent, writes that the future for cheap wine made Down Under is past grim. It’s a combination of declining demand, Australia’s trade feud with China, and a couple of particularly Aussie developments in the Riverland region, where much of the country’s cheap wine is made. “Under extreme financial pressure, some vineyard owners have either put their properties up for sale—or abandoned them.” The story is well worth reading, especially because there are spooky parallels to California’s Central Valley, which produces so much of similarly-priced wine in the U.S.

• Holding out hope: Anchor Steam, the 127-year-old craft brewer shuttered last week, could be bought by its employees. That’s what its union wants to do, asking Big Beer owner Sapporo USA for “a fair shot at being able to continue to do our jobs, make the beer we love, and keep this historic institution open.” The story in the link also notes that there have been feelers by other companies asking about buying the brewer, and it doesn’t look like Sapporo made much of an effort to sell Anchor before closing it.

• Only $100: The Wine Curmudgeon got a release the other day touting a $100 storage container for boxed wine. Which means the accessory only costs 15 to 20 times as much as the wine (given that most 3-liter boxes work out to the equivalent of $5 to $7 a bottle). This shocked even the WC, who thought he could no longer be shocked by the wine business. Answer me this: If the point of buying a 3-liter box is saving money, why would anyone want to spend $100 to store the box?