Golden Goose Sale glut

Posted by golden gooseits on May 27th, 2019

Churchgoers a saviour in time of wine Golden Goose Sale glut

With major oversupply issues in the wine industry, one enterprising company has taken the novel approach of selling directly to devotees of the Catholic church.

The sweet liquor sipped by many congregations, past and present, may well have originated outside the doors of an Anglo-gothic church set among the vineyards of Sevenhill Cellars in the Clare Valley, not far north of Adelaide.

Back in the 19th century, priests who arrived in Australia began the country's first Jesuit order and one of the earliest colonial wineries.

They had brought European altar wine but knew it would run out, so planting some vines to produce local sacramental wine became a priority.

Brother John May, who is now 80, was the winemaker at Sevenhill for more than half his life.

"When I first came here, if we saw a visitor a week we'd knock off and have a yarn," he said.

"Now we see around 30,000-40,000 people per annum."

When Brother John stood down as chief winemaker in 2003, he was the last of the Jesuit winemakers at Sevenhill and was replaced by a young, non-Catholic woman, Liz Heidenreich, who brought her European experience to Australian winemaking.Altar wineWhile originally established as a supplier of religious wines, a big part of Sevenhill's output is now marketed to the wider population.

But general manager Neville Rowe, who is also a non-Jesuit, says altar wine remains a priority.

"Altar wine is the most important part of what we do at Sevenhill. It's about a third of our production," he said.

Demand has dictated that Sevenhill make three types of altar wine, with the traditional sweet red by far the most popular.

The wine is sold to many denominations of the Christian church in Australia, as well as overseas.

All the profits, including from sales of commercial wines, are ploughed back into the Jesuits' charitable and teaching works.

But even as a not-for-profit organisation, the company https://www.goldengooseshoesit.com/ has been trying some novel ways to boost the bottom line in a difficult time for the wine industry generally.

"Marketing our wine directly to people, friends of the Jesuits," Mr Rowe explained.

"We're directly marketing through a Jesuit enterprise in Los Angeles to Jesuits across the states and we're hoping they'll see us as being probably the only Jesuit winery in the world as far as we know and as a supplier of choice."

Watch Prue Adams' full report on the ABC's Landline program on Sunday at noon