Developing new boutique winery businesses—Lessons from the Australian experience

Abstract

The global wine industry has been growing strongly for many years with entrepreneurs often seeking to establish boutique wineries in new or established wine-producing regions, partly to indulge their passion for wine but also to develop successful, long-term business ventures. Within this context, Australia has successfully grown its wine industry over several decades and is now one of the world’s largest wine exporters. The country is known for its robust mix of large and small wine producers and wine tourism. This paper explores key issues that should be considered by entrepreneurs contemplating new boutique winery ventures to increase their chances of business success. This is done by reviewing the general wine industry in Australia and comparing the situations of five successful smaller wine producers scattered around the country. To carry out the comparisons, the authors reviewed public promotions, customer reviews, and other materials about the case businesses and industry and interviewed proprietors as needed. A representative convenience sample of successful boutique wineries from several major Australian wine regions was chosen for review so that the whole Australian industry was covered. Based on their analysis, the authors firmly believe that boutique winery entrepreneurs must examine all aspects of the business model for their proposed venture and especially their interface with wine tourism to improve their chances for long-term growth and business success. Like most real estate investments, the location of the vineyard is critically important. Then, as well as producing high-quality grapes and wines and developing strong cellar door sales, they should also incorporate food offerings that emphasize pairing their wines with local produce. In addition, they should establish onsite “experience” focused lodging options that showcase local arts and crafts, with “glamping” style accommodations providing a particularly suitable option. These are all matters which should be considered from the very outset when the venture is initially being conceptualized and plans are being formulated for the development of the chosen property. For the sake of clarity, within this study, the term “boutique winery” refers to a wine-making facility with an adjoining vineyard.