John Casella on Yellowtail, Lehmann and how to build a global brand

The wine industry has learnt to listen when John Casella makes rare public pronouncements, which he did to The Buyer on a recent visit to London. A quarter of a century after launching Yellow Tail in his home town of Griffith, New South Wales, and astonishing observers with its first year sales figures of 12 million bottles in the United States, the 67-year old sage of Australian wine shows no sign of wanting to step back from overseeing his hugely successful portfolio. Rather, he is full of ideas how to counter the global decline in consumption of wine and maintain his brands’ market share. Geoffrey Dean reports.