For Australia’s food and beverage exporters, India is fast becoming a strategic alternative to China. In 2019, winery Scotchman’s Hill teamed with cricketing legend, Dennis Lillee, to launch a new Australian wine label in India and Sri Lanka. Importers were bowled over and deliveries begin in 2020.
Scotchman’s Hill in Victoria is one of Australia’s signature vineyards. Since 1982, the cool, maritime-climate wines have captured the attention of connoisseurs and critics, and the label currently ranks in writer James Halliday’s top 100. Today, the vineyard produces a full range of individualistic wines – red, white, rose and sparkling – across multiple labels from its base on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria.
When veteran wine industry professional, Peter Yeoman, joined the company as chief executive officer in April 2018, the board at Scotchman’s Hill asked for a 100-day plan.
‘Scotchman’s Hill built brand equity in Australia by slow and steady growth, and I wanted to replicate that steady growth pattern in overseas markets,’ says Yeoman. ‘To date we had only made a few moves overseas, but we faced a challenge common to many small companies: we wanted to explore overseas markets, but we had limited resources’.
