Winemaking runs in Inca Lee’s blood. Her farther once helmed the Australian Wine Research Institute before heading to the United States to work for wine brand Gallo.

But Lee’s career could’ve been entirely different. She tells InDaily that she was heading down the medical and pharmaceutical path before jumping ship to a master’s degree in viticulture.

This led to a vibrant career in the wine industry, during which she touched on many areas of the sector including as a viticulturalist for Orlando Wyndham Group, a communications manager for Pernod Ricard and the boss of Vinehealth Australia.

Her latest challenge is to support the entire state’s wine industry as CEO of the South Australian Wine Industry Association. She was appointed in June, taking over from Brian Smedley who held the role for more than 15 years.

Her appointment comes at an inflection point for SA wine, which was hard hit by the loss of the Chinese export market. Challenges abound for the sector; a red wine glut, incoming EU regulatory burdens and a dwindling wine grape crush.

But there’s myriad opportunities too according to Lee, who remains optimistic about the future of the state’s sector and hopes to be receptive to the many winemakers that call SA home.

InDaily: As the new CEO of SA Wine Industry Association, what are your priorities?

My absolute first priority is getting out there and talking to our members. The trials of the industry are well documented, and it’s important for me to get on the ground and get out to the region and talk to members. I want to understand how SAWIA can actually help them and what their priorities are in terms of policy agendas that we need to advocate for on their behalf. Communication with members is really important and that will drive the organisation – it’s absolutely imperative.

I think the other jointly combined factor is about maintaining a relationship with government and being able to articulate what’s important to the industry, the timeline of when that might be important, the urgency and the impact of some of their reform agenda. We work with the Department of Environment, with the Department of Trade, with PIRSA (Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia), so it’s imperative that’s all working seamlessly together. But first, it’s about our members, understanding their needs and collating that and prioritising working with my executive committee to progress initiatives or whatever we need to do to support members.

What are the biggest challenges for the industry at the moment?

Coming out of this vintage, as you know we’ve had a drop in our crush, and that was in part because we came into this vintage with high inventory levels – in particular Shiraz and Cabernet. That is well documented, and it is well documented the contribution of the loss of the Chinese market. But wine businesses are facing the same pressures as other businesses as well. Inflationary pressures; we’ve seen up to a 10 per cent increase in some parts of our supply chain of costs that wine businesses are facing. We’ve got problems with housing the workforce, so they are issues that a lot of businesses in South Australia and across Australia are facing. I think there are natural business challenges, but there’s also industry specific ones. Diversification of export markets is key.

We’ve also seen a lot talked about the Chinese market and we’ve seen good progress in terms of that at a political level. The government hosted a delegation from Yantai recently and that was the first delegation since COVID, so that was a really important step. They came to talk about investment opportunities, particularly the wine industry that they have over in Yantai and also here in South Australia. That was quite a breakthrough. Also, the news that the Premier announced he was heading to China in September to talk about strengthening relationships and trade, and that includes representatives from the wine industry.

Another challenge is how to we structure our industry going forward, there’s a lot of discussions in the industry about that. Individual businesses are having to deal with it and grapple with that right now. Some are addressing what assets they maintain in terms of vineyards and winery infrastructure, so it’s a process that the industry needs to go through in the next six to 12 months.

So we’re in a transitory phase for the industry right now?

It’s a time of reflection. We’ve just gone through a pretty tough vintage with inventory levels high, but we also did have disease pressure. We had a very cool, wet spring. Growers had to be very vigilant about protecting the crops from disease pressure. But the fruit that we’ve come to at the end of the day, there’s been great reports of quality. Different varieties in different regions have their strengths. So I think the industry has good foundations, but it needs to reassess and that’s a structural assessment of the infrastructure and the assets that are needed going forward.

It’s also about looking at our export markets. Australian winemakers have been great about getting into market – promoting wines, going to events, going to retailers and so forth. We just need to jump on those opportunities now and get back into market and promote our wine, but diversity as well.

Growers are grappling with climate change. What sort of pressures are there and how is SAWIA helping growers come to terms with the reality of climate change? 

You will have heard the word ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) bandied around a lot, so Wine Australia is doing a lot of work to set up a framework for the wine industry. SAWIA and other organisations will be working hand-in-hand with Wine Australia to understand how we can practically support winemakers and growers meet environmental regulations and compliance.

For the grape growers, it’s about what variety are you growing in what region and how will that adapt and how will that be supported going into the future?

You mentioned the diversification of exports earlier. Where should winemakers be looking to market their wines?

It depends on your individual brand, and it’s up to individual wine businesses to understand the different wine markets. We’ve started to see some great intelligence coming out around wine markets in terms of helping wine businesses. We’re hoping to work with the Department of Trade and Investment more in that space as well.

Do you think that being part of a major multinational company is the only way for wine businesses to survive these days, or is there still room for smaller players?

I wouldn’t say that. I think diversity is something that we are so proud of – the diversity of styles that we can choose from…we have 18 different regions across South Australia. Everyone plays their role and everyone plays their part in that industry.

On the unfortunate aspect of people having to leave grapes rotting, especially in the reds space, have reds have their day in South Australia?

I don’t think so, I think it’s about a balance around demand and supply going forward. I don’t think they’ve had their day at all. Coming back to the different styles or different price points – they are the backbone of some of the great Australian wine styles.

What are you excited about in the South Australian wine industry and what gets you out of bed every morning? 

I think that the creativity and the thinking of our winemakers and grape growers is exceptional – that’s what gets me out of bed every day to strive to support them. My role is to support them at SAWIA. I think that this is an incredible industry full of people with character, style and curiosity for what they do. That drives me.

I have a science background, and I think that’s becoming more and more important as we face climate change and face different challenges of how we grow grapes and make wines that consumers enjoy.

What wines do you like drinking?

To me it’s all about food as well. A great Riesling with seafood or a blend of red varieties, love a good GSM. But for me there can’t be a favourite, I just think that we’re blessed with a diversity of styles. The fact that I can sit here and say a Riesling or a GSM is just incredible. We’re pretty damn lucky – there’s so many brands but each of those brands add something to a variety, they’ve all got their own style. You can’t pick a favourite, but for me it’s more about food and wine together.

South Australia is known for being a bit of a techie state – we love our wine but we also love our science and our technology. What are some exciting things that growers are doing or that you’re really excited about in the wine space with technology?

The education of our viticulturists is so important, and we’ve got the great ability to do that. I want to see that culture of how they’re educated and innovate throughout their career. I firmly believe in the education of our sector and the ongoing development of our sector in terms of skills and capability.

Could there be more support from the government for growers in SA?

I think we need to keep bringing to the attention to the government the difficulties that we face as an industry, and I think that they need to be aware of that when they’re making policy decisions and legislative agendas. Support can come in many ways as well – it doesn’t just mean dollar handouts – but as an industry we need to keep pressing the challenges that we face as an industry.

What do you think about the rise of NOLO?

It has a role. There are changing consumer preferences. We have to be mindful of their tastes and their preferences.

We recently saw the wine crush report – the figures probably didn’t surprise you.

It just confirmed the nuances and the realities that have been and that we’ve seen, and what winemakers and grape growers have told us on the ground.

We look forward to the next vintage and setting the vineyards up well and setting those to the right quality specs for the next vintage.

Some regions were significantly impacted, like the Limestone Coast and McLaren Vale. Riverland was down overall, and I think the Riverland tells another story when you take it down to the varietal level. When you look at Cabernet versus Shiraz versus Chardonnay, Cabernet was significantly down, around 40 per cent on its five-year average in terms of tons of crushed Shiraz. Not so much Chardonnay.

But yes, it certainly reflected the sentiment on the ground and being out and about during vintage what we saw as well.