Wolf Blass No.1 ウルフブラス その1

Wolf brass is the first Australian wine I have had.

That was in 2006. When I held a home party, my neighbour brought Wolf Blass's Black Label (I am sure it was Cabenet Sauvignon) to us. It was his most favorite wine. My first impression on the wine was very strong flavour and aroma of dark fruits. The colour was nearly black. I had never had such a wine of high intensity of colour, aroma and flavour. It was really delicious. Since then, a red label has been a popular wine at home.

In September this year,  I had a chance to visit Wolf Blass winery as a field trip of the winemaking class (I took a lot of pictures for my study, but to protect their confidential business information, I do not upload the pictures in this blog). Winemaking at the Wolf Blass is operated in large scale and highly automated way, especially in bottling process. It was like a huge factory. It significantly contrasted with a small winery.  I think Woof Blass is a successful example of modern, large scaled winemaking. All the staffs seem highly motivated. Thanks to them, I could understand the practical winemaking process quite well.

Due to the high labour cost, Australia is struggling with Chile,generally. However, Wolf Blass is competing quite well in many export markets with other wine producers from New World. In my personal opinion, Chilean wine is generally higher in cost effectiveness than Australian wine. having said that, Wolf Brass is definitely one of the companies which can compete with strong rivals such as Chilean wine in international markets in the area of commercial wine. For example, they succeeded in the UK market well, where their wine are well displayed in wine shops and supermarkets.


ウルフブラスは私が最初に飲んだオーストラリアワインです。あれは2006年、隣りに住んでいる方が、彼の大のお気に入りというウルフブラスの黒ラベルを我が家でのホームパーティに持ってきてくれました。第一印象は、香りと味の強さが強烈で、色も黒に近いなど、これまで飲んだことがない強力なワインでした。とにかく力強いワインでしたが、大変美味しかったです。それ以来、普及版の赤ラベルは我が家での定番ワインとなりました。

今年9月には、学校の授業でウルフブラスを訪問する機会がありました。そこでのワイン醸造は大規模で、特にボトリング作業は高度に機械化されていました。まるで巨大工場のようで、小規模ワイナリーと対照的でした。従業員の方々は大変モチベーションが高く、彼らのおかげでワイン醸造プロセスをよく理解することができました。なお写真もたくさん撮ったのですが、企業秘密を多く含むことから公開はしません。

オーストラリアは人件費が高いことから、ワインの製造コストが比較的高く、ライバルのチリに対して世界市場で苦戦しています。個人的にもコストパフォーマンスは一般的にチリ産ワインの方がオーストラリア産ワインより良いように思います。とは言うものの、英国市場を見てもわかるように、ウルフブラスは、普及価格帯のワインに関して、世界市場でチリワイン等の強力なライバルとも互角に戦える品質を持つワイナリーの一つと言えると思います。