About Us - Australian Vintners
Why Aussie wine?
Last year the United Kingdom imported $5billion worth of wine. Only 6% of that came from Australia, with an average cost of only $1.50 a bottle.
And it's even lighter than that; about 90% of Australian wine makers don't export their wine!
As the fantastic book 'How To Drink Australian' puts it "...so everything wine lovers here know and think about Australian wine is based on 10% of what they make". It's then not surprising that people's perception of Australian wines is of meaty chardonnay's or jammy shiraz. But get beneath the surface and Australia produces a truly vast variety of fantastic wines which share nothing in common with the oft perceived stereotypes of yesteryear. The problem has always been how on earth do you get them short of a very long flight!
What do we believe in?
Australian Vintners was born over a bottle of wine between two great mates with one simple goal; to discover and bring the incredible wines Australia has to offer to the UK.
Our wine philosophy is a simple one; To have as much fun as possible, to find amazing value wines, to cut through the snobbery & bullshit that often surrounds wine, and strictly nothing mass-produced.
We don’t focus on margins or volumes, we focus on serious quality wines that we love - wines that, if it all went wrong, we’d have a glorious time drinking at home. We taste everything before we buy it and if we don’t love it, we don’t stock it. We think about what you will eat with it, and even where you will drink it… wine is after all deeply situational.
Our wines come from small batch, family run producers. They put so much love and energy into making their wines and we love telling that exclusive story. They also happen to be enormously talented and successful. Our growers have racked up an incredible array of awards and high scores in the last year alone!
Having worked in industry for years we know how important the service is to our clients so we will always deal with our customers quickly and efficiently and have our wines delivered to your door the next day.
Ben Harvey
Having worked in London for 20 something years and I found myself in 2019 sitting in a tasting room in the Barossa Valley with my future father in law tasting some dazzling wines, the likes of which I just didn’t know Australia produced. Better still it was immediately apparent that I was not alone in the UK having not tasted them. I am blessed to be able to use the incredible history and experience of my Australian family to connect with some really unique and wonderful wine producers. I want to show people the amazing wines that result from this incredible country and the passion of those making wine there.
I want us to become the go to importer for small Australian growers who want to get their wine to the UK, but don’t have the capacity or desire to deal with the big importers or the swathes of paperwork needed to do that. One of our Australian winemakers said to us - "the only thing I would like better than seeing my wine on a wine list in Australia, is seeing it on one in London". This is what we are looking to do!
Paul Bartram
For me the thrill is about finding a wine that tastes great. Sometimes that is an expensive super tuscan. Sometimes it is a first growth bordeaux. And sometimes it's a cheap burgundy you got from Majestic. The best wines to me are those that taste great, but have an occasion to go with it. Having friends over for a Sunday roast or enjoying a glass of rose in the sun with a BBQ. Wine is about experiences and not just consumption.
For me, Australian vintners is about all of that. It's about uncovering wines that you can't find elsewhere. It's about showcasing wines from Australia that aren't just chardonnays, (although I am sure we'll have some of those) or robust Shiraz but Italian or Spanish varietals that grow so brilliantly in Australia. It's discovering wines that are expressive, not too expensive, that you can share with others and say "I bought this from those great guys at AV."