Taste of Australia

Spot news feature for The Memphis Daily News

Sept. 12, 2013

Wine Market owner heads Down Under for symposium 

Wine Market proprietor Scott Smith with a few of his favorite Australian varieties. He’s spending time in Australia learning about the wines from Down Under to be able to help customers with selections.

(Photo: Daily News/Andrew J. Breig)

When asked where good wine is made, even the teetotaler will come up with an answer of France, Italy or California.

But not many, even with years of sniffing corks, tend to think of Australia.

The winegrowers of that country aim to change that, informing the world at large on their long history and fruitful bounty with a four-day symposium to be held in Adelaide, South Australia, beginning Sept. 15.

And local wine retailer Scott Smith, owner of the Wine Market at 4734 Spottswood Ave. in East Memphis (winemarketmemphis.com), aims to bring that knowledge back to Memphis to increase the love for, and sale of, wines from Down Under.

Smith entered a contest sponsored by “The Tasting Panel,” a trade magazine geared toward the beverage industry. He wrote a letter to those putting on the conference, called Savour Australia, explaining how his attendance would help in the dissemination of information to his customers and the United States as a whole.

Touted as Australia’s first global wine forum, it’s designed “to bring wine professionals in from all over the globe and make presentations to them and have conversations with them, to sort of begin to understand the difficulties that Australian wines are having selling in the global marketplace right now,” Smith said.

While China remains a bright spot, he added, the U.S. and Europe have not been as big of consumers as the Australians would like to see. Therefore, the growers have recently begun pooling their resources to get the word out and market themselves collectively to the world.

Having worked for Star Distributors before opening McEwen’s on Monroe with its heralded wine list, Mac Edwards has long celebrated the country’s vintners . . . (read more)