Mark Anthony Group, the distributor of Wolf Blass Yellow Label.Supplied
Popular Australian winery Wolf Blass shipped its first order to Canada in September 1983. Bottles of ripe, plush and flavourful Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon quickly found an audience with Canadian wine lovers and continue to be a staple on liquor store shelves across the country even as the winery faces an uncertain future.
As Wolf Blass Yellow Label found an audience, founder Wolfgang Franz Otto Blass explained how consumers might not have known the wine was produced from cabernet sauvignon grapes or made in Australia. They just knew that they liked the red wine with the yellow label.
The Yellow Label helped Wolf Blass, which entered the Canadian market in 1983, to stand out among consumers who were not familiar with the Australian wine.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
Yellow Label was featured among a range with different coloured labels – Blass, an avid horse racing fan, says the move was inspired by the brightly coloured racing silks worn by jockeys. A decade ago, consumers in Ontario could select from 20 different Blass wines that were available.
The shiraz label was brown, merlot sported green and black was assigned to the winery’s cherished flagship blend, Wolf Blass Black Label Cabernet Shiraz Malbec, one of Australia’s most celebrated and collected red wines since its launch in 1973. (Another collectable and cellar-worthy red would come in 1998, with the debut of Platinum Label Shiraz.)
But those colourful labels don’t offer the halo effect they once did. Treasury Wine Brands, which has owned Wolf Blass since 1996, announced last week an intention to sell the brand with other affordable labels, including Blossom Hill, Lindeman’s and Yellowglen, to focus on its premium portfolio. An estimated 75 per cent of Treasury’s profit is derived from the Penfolds business and the company’s luxury wine portfolio in the United States.
Why Australian shiraz is ripe for a comeback
A month ago, another groundbreaking Down Under brand, Jacob’s Creek, was sold to Australia’s Accolade Wines in a deal that included Stoneleigh from New Zealand and Campo Viejo from Spain. This time it was Pernod Ricard looking to step away from affordable wine labels.
Lindeman’s, Jacob’s Creek and Wolf Blass were instrumental in introducing Australian wines to export markets like Canada. Their sale reflects an industry hoping to reinvent itself, but it’s hard to imagine a future for Australian wine without these admired names attached. Wolfgang Blass’ oft-quoted recipe for success, “quality, character, consistency,” still sounds like a winner.