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The Pooley Anniversary Podcast

pooley_anniversary.mp3

In this podcast we discover the joys of recording audio under a flight path and near a construction site. Despite this, we start by reminding Matt he still owes us a dozen bottles, we ask Matt how the business is going, Matt tells us about his brush with death and says lovely things about his grandmother Margaret,  we learn how to mothball a vineyard, we hear about his impending trip to Tuscany where he will be under the direction of his sister Anna. To finish we ask Matt our new personal questions.

Matt Pooley - Time to revisit the start of it all.

Matt Pooley. A little over twelve months ago Matt Pooley had the dubious pleasure of being part of our first winepunter conversation. We thought it would be a good idea to celebrate our first anniversary by going back to him to see how he and all the other good folk at Pooley Wines were travelling (we couldn't afford a present you see - Ed).

Wanting to start on a positive note we asked Matt to name a highlight from the last year. He mentioned that the business was progressing well overall. "We've got (our) cellar club which we are really concentrating on ... it's our best client base and that's really growing strongly at the moment". 

While he is also pleased with how well Pooley wines are selling in Sydney at the moment, it is the customer feedback that gives him confidence about the future. "It's great to hear people saying we really love your pinots ... we came down to Tassie and we just had to come and see you ... that's just fantastic ... it means that you are really getting through to your customers ... that's our main drive ... to develop a profitable family run wine business and we are starting to get the runs on the board".

Talking about the wine business led us to discuss the impact of the "Global Financial Crisis" on Pooleys and the wine industry generally. Despite the doom and gloom Matt still sees a great future for the Tasmanian wine industry. He points out that the volume of wine from the mainland has been reduced and that "the big players are buying more fruit" from Tassie now. He expects this trend to increase in the short term as many mainland vineyards are mothballed over the next 12 months.

Asked whether the year had contained any low lights, Matt pointed out that he doesn't dwell on the negatives. Although he did go on to express some concern regarding his grandmother's health. Margaret is 94 years old and is facing the issues that come with having led such a long and full life. The love Matt has for Margaret comes through loud and clear as he discusses his worries. 

We told Matt that we believed Margaret would make the most of any situation even if she were to end up in a nursing home. In fact we speculated that Margaret would set up a Pooley cellar door within a week of arriving at the home. "We'll have to have a constant supply to her ... we would get a lot more cellar customers" he quipped.

The Cellar Door.

Matt and his sister Anna are about to travel to the Gabbiano vineyard in Tuscany for a couple of months. "You're talking about a lovely historic castle built back in 1124 ... think of Belmont being built in 1832 I mean from a cultural and historic point of view it's going to be fantastic". He and Anna will be working on a vintage under Anna's boyfriend's (Justin Bubb) direction.  

Matt laughed when we expressed some doubt that Justin will really be in charge. "I don't know, that's for them to sort out! " "They are a good team so I am sure they will put their heads together".  So having established that Anna is unlikely to be bossed around by Justin, we asked Matt if he would fare any better with Anna. "Under the circumstances when I am a long way from home I don't think (so) ... but when I am on my turf I am on my turf!"

Potential Pooley Family Reserve?.

Along with the fun, Matt is expecting to increase his knowledge of viticulture. He wants to understand more about Italian vineyard management and winemaking traditions. He believes that some of their techniques might be applicable to Tasmania. "There are winemaking operations that perhaps they do that we don't over here that can perhaps add a little complexity to (our) wine". "It's every winemakers passion to do a vintage in the southern hemisphere and then shoot up to the northern hemisphere and then come back".

To finish we informed Matt that he wasn't the only one who had been busy over the last 12 months. He was overjoyed to find out that we had two new personal questions (actually he groaned and tried to run - Ed).  

Matt hasn't found his best wine experience yet but he does have a most memorable one. "We have a luncheon at Frogmore Creek after vintage ... we look at everyone's wines ...we're chatting about the wines ... you're frank and up front ... love that, don't quite like this ...that to me is really down to earth, it's great grounding, there's a lot everyone can learn from it ... it's very very special".  

His worst wine experience occurred at the Pooley warehouse in Cambridge and involved Matt dislodging a barrel, thankfully empty, from a great height. The barrel then proceeded to bounce off the top of the forklift cage and smash on the ground. "Totally annihilated the barrel ... it got turned in to flower pots".

Our favourite personal question is the one where we ask people to fill in the missing word. For example, 'Matt Pooley failed former ....... was seen in public today for the first time since his latest scandal'. Matt's response to this was "cyclist". "Drug cheat cyclist" we asked. "No clean" he quickly responded. "You know what that say about cyclists, they have heads full of shit and legs full of muscles! ... I do cycle so ..."

Well on that piece of Pooley wisdom we say farewell. 

We hope that Matt and his family have a good time in Italy but fear not punters, we are organising to talk to Matt on his return to find out how it all went.  

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