Fruit from the vines
What a great way to start a fantastic new year!! It’s superb to have the first day of the new year on a Sunday so as we can blog about what Paradise Rescued did achieve (and did not – oh yes we had to learn a few unhappy things!) in 2011 and share with you our goals for an exciting 2012. As we say in English “do you want the good news or the bad?”. I would love to tell you that there was no bad news but….you don’t build a sustainable business and make great wine without learning a lot of lessons.
The worst news of the year was that our 2011 Cloud9 Cabernet Franc did not achieve the level of quality that we want. Sometimes when you make only a Premium high quality Reserve grade wine, the wine doesn’t achieve that standard. Quality is our value. Although the team was devastated, the decision was not hard. Quality is our value and always will be.
We also learnt that whilst growing grapes and making wine is huge fun, exporting our passion, registering a company in two countries and meeting all the regulatory requirements is a slow and very expensive process which we have not yet fully completed. But we will! The Global Financial Mess part II certainly focussed our minds. Our financial position has been well covered as a result.
We are happy to report a lot more positive achievements:-
- The purchase of Hourcat Centre was completed. This land is now preserved for our community and will become the home of our top quality Merlot based wine of the future. Potentially it is a much better terroir than Hourcat Sud, the home of our very good #Cloud9 Cabernet Franc.
- The conversion of Hourcat Sud to a fully organic based ecosystem and vineyard progressed to plan, despite a very difficult dry season. The difference over two years is extremely evident from our photos.
- The development of the Paradise Rescued brand aligns well with our values of “Quality and Excellence” and has exceeded our expectations in gaining market recognition.
- The recent integration of our blog with our web site, supported by our other social media tools, has been a great success in attracting significant new attention to our brand, wine and business.
Some great news, some not so great – what’s in store for 2012? We see three main objectives for the New Year:-
- To market our wonderful 2010 #Cloud9 Cabernet Franc to its best value in the Australian market. It is a superb hand crafted quality wine and it deserves to be rewarded.
- To produce another high quality 100% varietal #Cloud9 #CabFranc. We have done it once; we will do it again…hopefully better.
- To set the strategy and implement the first steps to rejuvenate Hourcat Centre as the best possible Merlot vineyard for the future.
Regular readers won’t be surprised to know that all three objectives are already under way. I look forward to being in Cardan very soon to help our team move forward.
To everyone, we wish you a happy, healthy, safe, prosperous AND challenging 2012. That’s the only way that you will get the most from it. Forget resolutions, set some goals and write them down now! Maybe we should do that blog next week? Best wishes for 2012.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]