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The Dave and Tim Podcast
springvale_conversation_part1.mp3 (16.5 mb  24:03 minutes)	In this part of our conversation, we hear about the history of the Spring Vale property, how the Lyne family got into wine and for no reason we discuss the merits of cattle over sheep. We discover that the Lynes are involved in drugs - legal ones anyway. We then go on to find out how wine stacks up against other agricultural businesses. Specifically we were interested in why wine can be a 'brand' but other products are 'commodities' as well as whether wine is as cyclical as other agricultural products. To finish we hear about what it is like dealing with wholesalers and restaurants when you are trying to sell your wine.
springvale_conversation_part2.mp3 (16.5 mb  18:05 minutes)	In this part of the conversation we hear about the perfect purchase for your Rudd $900 loan, we hear about the 'lipstick factor', we find out what Tim and Dave have learnt from being in the wine industry, we grab some tissues for a 'heart warming' story of love, travel, correspondence education and Greensborough.  To finish we explore with Dave the dynamics of marrying into a family that has such a history in wine and how this plays out on a daily basis.

Dave Cush and Tim Lyne - 'Oceans Two' of Tassie winemaking.

Those of you who have been following our conversations since this site started will know that while we love our Tassie wine we are equally fascinated by the business of viticulture and winemaking.  Lets face it, there are easier ways to make a living than being involved in an industry that combines the risks of agriculture with the fickleness of consumer tastes in alcohol. The question of why people are attracted to the wine industry will almost certainly not be answered by us but it is a lot of fun trying to find out.

Going and speaking to Tim Lyne and Dave Cush at Spring Vale gave us the opportunity to indulge both our love of good wine and our interest in the business. In particular it gave us an opportunity to understand how grapes fit into the wider world of agricultural products. Spring Vale doesn't just produce fine wine, they have cattle and other crops. We thought this different perspective was worth pursuing so it was off to talk to the Lyne family whose reputation would be in the hands of Tim Lyne and David Cush. 

Having spoken to Dave at the last Taste and discovering that he has a very laid back sense of humour we had high expectations as we hopped into the winepunters all wheel drive and headed to the east coast.  As it turned out the conversation was a bit of a tag team effort with Tim and Dave having to attend to the cellar door customers as well as talk to us, but it still turned out to be a very interesting conversation.

The Lyne family has quite a history both in Tasmania and in agriculture. While the family has been in Tassie since the 1820s the branch we are interested in purchased the Spring Vale property in 1875 and have owned it ever since. Most of that time the emphasis has been on raising sheep which is why Tim's father Rod was "a gun with the shears". Rod made the move into cattle which has been a profitable diversification. 

For reasons that make no sense we then discussed the relative merits of sheep versus cattle. In case you are interested Dave and Tim think cattle are much easier to manage. Dave pointed out that calving is the only time that cattle need particular attention, especially for those cows having their first calf. Strangely Rod always seems to take holidays during the one part of the year that his cattle need attention (probably just a coincidence - Ed). Interestingly we recently read that cattle cause less erosion in paddocks because they don't eat the pasture to bare earth. So there you have it farming punters, run cattle not sheep (for more sensible agricultural advice maybe go somewhere else - Ed).  

Dave looks after punters.

Tim mentioned that Rod also showed his ability to time the market by diversifying into viticulture just before the wool market had one of it's regular collapses. Dave suggested that this search for new income had more to do with Rod wanting to send all his kids to board at private school (tough but fair - Ed).  Maybe letting a school help to turn your kids into useful human beings isn't as far fetched as it sounds. As Dave points out since all of Rod's children now work in the business he gets "cheap wages ..... for the level of skill!".

If you are going to discuss the business of viticulture and winemaking you have to ask about what was the business case for making the move into this type of business. In the case of Spring Vale all of the early support and impetus came from Geoff Bull (Freycinet vineyard) who set up the early plantings and made the first Spring Vale vintages. Since then Tim says they have much more idea of their markets and what is required to establish and expand their brand. Spring Vale got a real boost in the 1990s when a sommelier (Curtis) in Melbourne began to promote their label. This was so successful that at this time Spring Vale was far more well known in Melbourne than in Tasmania. In fact it wasn't until 1998 that enough Spring Vale wine was being made so that it could be sold outside their cellar door in Tasmania.

What's on offer at Spring Vale.

Spring Vale pinot was the break through wine that allowed the other varieties to capture a market on that big island to our north. Not only did Curtis help build the Spring Vale business he also advised Rod to plant pinot gris and gewurztraminer. As Dave said "this was in 1994 which was way ahead of this popularity boom. He got it half right - pinot gris is hugely popular". While the gewurztraminer is more difficult to sell it has "been great for branding" and allowed them to promote their other aromatic varieties.

Dave and Tim agreed that what sets grapes apart from other agricultural commodities like wool and poppies is that grapes can be made into wine which gives you the ability to  turn grapes from a commodity to a product. Dave stated that he sees what they do with their grapes as simply farming that adds value. Their main focus now is to expand their operations so that the impact of the high fixed costs associated with winemaking can be reduced. We also wanted to know if viticulture and winemaking was as cyclical as other agricultural products. Tim responded that he wasn't sure if they had been in the business long enough or at a level that would enable him to answer. 

What is clear to Tim is that supply interruption or variability has a big impact on their ability to manage the Spring Vale label as a brand.  This is particularly true for a boutique producer "people don't understand that we are a small producer ... they treat us as a Fosters". Dave and Tim get frustrated with Tasmanian restaurateurs who don't want to take a variety in years when supply is limited whereas restaurateurs from the big island to our north see this situation as an opportunity to obtain a scarcity premium.

To finish off this part of our conversation Dave and Tim took us through how the wholesalers deal both with them and with the retailers/ restaurants. What interested us the most was to hear how dependant a wine producer is on the wholesalers reps and their knowledge of what wine works best for the menu at a particular restaurant. Dave told us "waiting for our appointment the rep would tell me what wines we would take into the restaurant and at first I would say lets show them the whole range and they would say no because they won't take them" In addition to knowledgeable reps wholesalers also use their marketing and promotional fund to try and interest restaurants and retailers in particular wine labels. 

Any wine producer wants to have their wine in as many of the right restaurants as possible. As Tim says "If you have got it on the pour in a restaurant that's the best place for brand building".

The second part - it's all about the family

This part of the conversation is more a Dave show than the Tim and Dave show we have already come to love because Tim had to leave periodically to take care of quite a reasonable number of punters that turned up at the Spring Vale cellar door. We started by checking the effectiveness of Spring Vale marketing by seeing if people come into the cellar door having tried their wines in restaurants. Happily we can report that this does in fact happen. Tim mentioned that because Spring Vale wines are sold through expensive restaurants, when they come into the cellar door punters are very pleased how cheap it is to purchase a dozen of their favourite wines.

Turn at the flag.

Since the global financial crisis is so topical at the moment we thought we should see if Spring Vale was being affected. Tim believes that Spring Vale wine is neither a luxury item nor a price leader and as such hadn't seen a real impact so far. Dave attributed this to the 'lipstick indicator' which holds that during bad times people spend less on the big items but more on cheaper items like lipstick. Tim agreed saying "we haven't got the $100 bottle of wine".  They also suggested using the recent Rudd $900 cash splash to "make an investment in your wine drinking future" by buying "two neat cases of (Spring Vale) pinot".

bottles and half bottles.

To finish off the business related questions we wanted to know what, if anything, had particularly struck them about the wine industry. Tim mentioned that the wine industry is very competitive as well as being difficult due to the high fixed costs associated with the production of wine. This has meant that he has had to curb his impatience and be more realistic about how quickly Spring Vale can increase the amount of wine it sells. 

Dave mentioned that while he is impressed with how rewarding it is making wine he suspects that it isn't necessarily the wine industry itself. He said that the most rewarding aspect of winemaking for him is the fact that he is working  in a family business. "You know everyone is trying their hardest which you just can't get from even your best employee".

Spring Vale is located about 10 min drive north of Swansea, which is a fantastic little town some 2 hours from Hobart, on the East Coast of Tasmania. So Tim and Dave live in what Tasmanians regard as 'the sticks' and we wanted to know what it is like to be in that situation. Dave finds it pretty easy since he is a homebody and only leaves the property under sufferance. "I would rather sit on my deck playing guitar and hanging out with my kids". 

Tim on the other hand is slightly less impressed. "You can't run to the shops after 7pm, there are no gyms or swimming pools although we do have the beach". More importantly Tim believes that if Spring Vale were located in an area like the Coal River Valley they would sell twice as much wine through their cellar door as well as being able to recruit the vineyard staff that they need. 

It's about the history.

While Tim was off earning money for the business we asked Dave how he got into the wine business. We expected a rather straight forward answer but what we got was a 'heart warming' story of a lad disillusioned by a private education in Ipswich - "its a hole" - and bored by a law degree who stumbles into a wine degree and meets the love of his life. "Unfortunately all the mushy movies are right" (where are my tissues? - Ed). We won't go into all the details but do yourself a favour and have a listen.

To finish we wondered what it is like to become part of a family run business since the pitfalls of this type of situation is standard fodder in every television soap opera aired since the 1970's. It would be nice to see how real people handle the ups and downs of mixing family with business. Dave mentioned that it was difficult at first. This was caused partly by the fact that while he was qualified to manage a vineyard he came out of his degree as a 'spaz' who didn't really know what to do. Rod Lyne on the other hand was a self taught and extremely capable viticulturalist. Dave being a smart man realised very quickly to shut up and learn. As a result Rod and he have established a great working relationship which transferred smoothly to Tim when he returned to work in the business.

The 06 pinot.

Spring Vale's motto is "A family passion" and this part of our conversation helped us to understand what this motto means in a practical way.  By the way, Tim owes us a dozen bottles of wine because his mobile went off during the conversation and since we know he comes from a highly moral and law abiding family we expect that he will be sending us the wine very soon. In the next update we present a tasting of the current vintage on offer at Spring Vale.

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