Taking "shed wine" Stateside

Met with wine supremo Justin about how he is quietly revolutionising our buying.

Next week he's off to California to meet up with Nick our California Buyer to look into setting up something like 'Red Heads' in California.

We helped set up Red Heads Australia in 2002... I think. A shed winery for frustrated young winemakers to drop in and get creative.

Had its up and downs. Was a truly crazy place. But eventually it worked. Grew and expanded. The more successful winemakers were able to build their own shed wineries...though Red Heads - that's the New Red Heads (just down the road from the Old site and a much better class of shed) - remains the centre of their wine lives.

Icing on the cake is that on to it we were also able to graft a small buying team. (They have a separate quieter shed). We call them 'Source Australia' and they have so improved the deals we get - big reductions due to better contacts - 'winemaker to winemaker' - that we have coped with the A$ currency problem. Haven't had to put up prices. And we've found stuff we'd never have found before.

So the idea is to do similar in California. Worth a try.

So maybe soon customers will be able to go round the world and drop in on their friendly Laithwaites cellars.