Growers buy out $1 wine

UPDATE: A WINE grape grower group has bought up stocks of an imported wine selling for just $1 in two-litre bottles.

The Wine Grapes Marketing Board on Wednesday bought the last 237 bottles of the Argentinian wine from the Billabong Bottle Shop in the Riverina town of Griffith.

Chief executive officer Brian Simpson said the board decided to buy the wine to "get it out of the industry" in response to angry complaints from local wine grape growers.

The Weekly Times this week revealed the Argentinian wine was being sold in two-litre plastic containers in the shop for just $1.

Wine grape grower and board chairman Bruno Brombal said the sale of imported wine for that price sent all the wrong signals to the local industry.

"We have seen wine at $2 for a (750ml) bottle before, but when you are talking about $1 for a two-litre bottle, we're just disgusted," Mr Brombal said.

"It just sends a signal to growers that there's not much hope for them when imported wine is being sold that cheaply."

Before the the board decided to buy the last remaining bottles of the wine, Mr Simpson said it was being dumped on the market at a time when oversupply was sending local growers to the wall.

He said the board also intended to have the wine tested to ensure it met Australian standards for minimum chemical residue limits.

"We believe the product is being dumped into our market at a time when Australian growers are suffering," he said.

"The Billabong Bottle Shop has been a big supporter of local brands over the years and now they have this product, which I think is pretty disappointing," he said on Tuesday.

The licensee of the Billabong Bottle Shop, Mimi Salvitti, said the wine was just a "once-off", which she did not expect to continue stocking after her current supply ran out.

"If you come into our shop, 85 per cent of all the wine we sell is local," Ms Salvitti said.

She said small, independent bottle shops like hers "always need some sort of special to combat Woolworths and Coles because they are always doing crazy prices with wine".

The Grape Expectations "Medium Dry White" is bottled in Australia for Melbourne company Packaged Bev.

A spokesman for the company was unavailable for comment.

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New low: the Argentinian wine on display at Griffith this week.

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