I’m not in the habit of regurgitating press releases here at Australian Wine and Drinks Review, but I did see a particularly haughty press release from NSW Wine today that attacks the appointment of Pommery as the ‘Official Champagne Partner’ to the Sydney Opera House.

The NSW Wine press release is titled ‘Sydney Opera House Turns its Back on Struggling NSW Wine Industry’ for maximum inflammatory cut through, with the subtitle that ‘taxpayer-funded venue chooses French Champagne while local grape growers face oversupply crisis’.

Sheesh.

Interestingly, I was invited to the announcement of the Pommery tie-up, so I’m a bit closer to this story than most (I didn’t go to the Opera House, but I got all the info – the promo photo up the top of this post), and I’m fascinated by how it has gone. Effectively, Pommery has entered into a three-year commercial arrangement with the local arm of Vranken-Pommery Monopole to make Pommery the sparkling wine of choice at opera house events, plus the official ‘Event Partner’ to the Utzon Music series, and clearly, NSW Wine see this as discriminating against local wine.

I’m not going to defend Pommery at all here (and if anything, I’m on the NSW wine side of the fence), but I also question what the point of this sort of attack is. Sure, it’s attention-grabbing to be criticising the Opera House, and that’s probably the point, but I see lines like this ‘the partnership represents a missed opportunity to provide vital market access to local producers who are fighting for survival,’ and question whether it’s actually a genuine missed opportunity given that a NSW wine producer isn’t exactly coughing up the dollars to do it (let alone NSW Wine focusing on promoting local sparkling).

Then again, there is a genuine, major issue that deserves attention, cloaked in this straw man argument: NSW venues still don’t support the state’s wine anywhere near enough.

I see approaching 200 local and international wine lists per year (wearing my various WLOTY judges’ hats), and for a state with a strong wine industry, there is a distinct lack of support for local wines. It’s especially apparent when diving into top Adelaide, Melbourne or Perth wine lists where local wines dominate (especially Melbourne, where Vic-centric lists are the norm) and then you come back to Sydney restaurants where it can feel like NSW wine doesn’t exist.

Also, sparkling wine is the worst-case scenario. It can be hard to find an Australian sparkling wine on a local list, let alone anything made within 500kms, which bites extra hard given the bubbly greatness coming out of Tumbarumba, Orange, etc.

Ultimately, NSW Wine’s attack on the Pommery tie-up doesn’t stand up. But beneath the outrage, there is a truth here – that NSW winemakers are losing out with local drinkers.

Time to drink more Hunter Semillon, yeah?