Thursday, July 16, 2009

Bottling time and the new labels are finally on!

Our 2009 Eden Valley Riesling was bottled on Wednesday July 8th and after a very long wait, with many headaches in between, our revamped labels were printed last Friday so it is all systems go now for our new releases: the 2008 Karra Yerta Eden Valley Riesling and the 2006 Karra Yerta Shiraz Cabernet, and in a month or so, the 2009 Riesling. Already all of the pre-orders have been sent and/or delivered and samples have been sent to some of our regular choices of wine journalists so it will be interesting to hear their thoughts on both the wines and the new look of our products.

Both bottling and labelling wine is an incredibly expensive part of the process of creating your product and there is no room for costly errors so it is always appreciated when you find good businesses to deal with for these very important tasks. In the case of the bottling, we choose Kym Burgemeister - Boutique Bottlers (at Stockwell) as he is simply just so organised and not easily frazzled. Another small family business, Kym is often helped out by his wife Sandra and their children and I know that I can relax once our products are in his hands as they too understand the importance of doing a good job, no matter what size operation they are running.


Our labels on the other hand are produced by a larger company, Barossa Print Masters, who recently had the job of making the labels for Paul Stanley's (of KISS) newly released wine. But in saying that, we deal particularly with one lady from BPM and she is truly a gem: Kym Montgomery.

Kym is an exceptional person to have at your side for any aspect of the business as she is one of the handful of people I have met in the industry who really do go above and beyond to ensure that her clients have the best quality at the best price and as a bonus, she has the knowledge and foresight to completely understand what it is you are trying to create, sometimes even before it is clear in your own head. Simply amazing. As I went to "sign off" for the final time on Friday before the labels were printed, I completely entrusted any last minute decisions to her as I knew she was more than capable of getting me the product I was looking for. I must mention that the boys on the press who made our labels were fabulous also but that was actually the first time I had met them. A great job by all at BPM; thank you sincerely.




It is amazing really to think that even a winery as small as us can have costs of ten thousand dollars a year just on bottling and labelling, let alone wine-making.... Not much profit in it really but again, it does prove that the small guys really are not in it for the money, but for the passion of what we do. So in light of all the Constellation and Fosters press of late, please do consider buying smaller wineries wines (and not only Karra Yerta) as you are supporting the heart and soul of the industry when you support the smaller, family owned businesses, along the whole line from vineyard to labelling and bottling.

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