Australia's wine workforce would benefit from an injection of youth, according to industry peak body Wine Australia. Three young, aspirational producers share the joys of building their own labels, and the barriers to entry for first-generation growers.Wine Australia says it's working to connect more under 35-year-olds within the industry, in a bid to reduce attrition rates.
The 26-year-olds made the move from the Gold Coast to the rolling hills of McLaren Vale more than two years ago, making the dream a reality. 'We met a lot of people that had started their own labels, and it just felt very accessible to us,' Ms Flynn said.'It was exciting to see come to a dinner party and be like 'this is our bottle' and we said that would be so cool if that was us one day,' he said.'Once you reach out to a grape grower … you do the pick yourself, and have access to rows of grapes,' Ms Flynn said. Friends and family flew in from all parts of Australia to help the couple pick their grapes, and with that their wine label was born.According to Wine Australia, Australia is the fifth-largest wine producer in the world and last year produced more than 900 million tonnes of wine.But the industry is facing a dilemma: an ageing workforce.'I think the journey that I've been on, and you can see it in the wines, it's been like a journey of exploration and learning,' Mr Andree said.'The industry's heaps bigger than it was then, and there's plenty more opportunity for young people,' Mr Andree said.'It's been a crowded market for purchasing fruit in the past couple of years, so it's kind of whatever we can get … making styles from whatever fruit sort of pops up.''I've never had the chance to put fruit that I've grown under this label, but that's sort of the ultimate goal,' he said.Ms Flynn, Mr Stenner and Mr Andree are the target demographic for Wine Australia, who want to see more young Australians enter the industr