A note to Mondavi, OmniWine

One chooses the low road and one chooses to raise the bar. Lion Nathan announced that they're putting the kibosh on their 'entry' level wines in an effort to re-position themselves in the marketplace.

"Investor relations director Warwick Bryan said the wine writeoff was the result of the continued deterioration of sales of wine worth under A$15 a bottle."

What could be the cause of this? The advent of Yellowtail, or the education of the masses? I'm betting on the latter. Also, maybe something got lost in translation, but this is a curious use of the word 'worth'. My limited knowledge of economics combined with my extensive knowledge of allthing Coen Brothers/Raising Arizona tells me: "Price? A fair price. Not what you say, but what the market will bear."

"Though much of Lion's business was already in the A$15-plus a bottle market, some brands such as Tatachilla and St Hallets had cheaper offerings. They were being affected by weaker sales of cheaper wines in Australia and Britain."

I reckon this is why Tatachilla was being dumped at ridiculous prices by a distributor here in Georgia. Somebody saw the handwriting on the wall. By the way, A$1.00 = about US$0.73. Doing the math that brings the average bottle to around $11.00 American. Isn't this the price range where Australia and New Zealand are handing California its ass? Maybe the many minds at Mondavi have a secret weapon. Or maybe they're complete idiots.

While it should be no secret that I am not a fan of most wine being made in California, there is without question wines of significance being made there. Why not raise the bar across the board (as Lion Nathan appears to be) instead of resorting to the least common denominator i.e. Woodbridge?

Maybe the board would entertain a name change. Something like 'McMondavi'.