If I was told I could choose any job in the wine business tomorrow, I would be hard-pushed to tell you what I would want to do. Who would want to be in sales? Competition is currently so fierce that a friend of mine described his job as being “about as much fun as skinning rabbits”.

Being a winemaker is not a bundle of laughs either. UK buyers want the wine but with the Pound performing so poorly against the Euro and increased duty, they want it at the lowest possible price.

And, even when a deal can be done, importers then want to change the label, the bottle and possibly even the producer’s choice of closure.

I have always rather fancied working for one of the generic bodies: Wines of Argentina, InterBeaujolais and the like. I am not bad at whipping up a bit of enthusiasm for wines that I like and there is no end to the fun in bringing something new to the marketplace.

Still, I was not envious when Wine Australia announced the name of their new Regional Director for UK/Ireland/Europe. Lisa McGovern has quite a job ahead of her.

On the up side, Australian wines have an impressive track record in the UK and a receptive and enthusiastic audience. We all know just how good the wines can be. More of a challenge is the position that the Australian wine industry finds itself in.

Severe drought has created real problems. The 2008 vintage was an estimated 50 per cent down on a normal year. Ongoing water shortages and the more recent bush fires mean that figures for 2009 could be down a further 22 per cent on last year.

If that was not enough, the price of Australian grapes dropped substantially with the surplus of cheap fruit that was previously pushed on to the market.

With growers facing tough challenges at home, it cannot be encouraging to meet with the news that British wine tastes are changing and the demand for lighter wines is on the up.

It is not that Australia does not make these wines; it does and many of them are quite brilliant. It is just that they are not at the forefront of our minds.

Wine Australia is working hard on its Regional Heroes campaign; showing the diversity and range that is available, and this awareness will be key to their long-term success.

In the meantime, I am toasting Ms McGovern’s appointment with a glass of Ozzie Shiraz. Famous for their velvety black fruits, liquorice and spice, Australian winemakers have quite the knack with a variety that they first viewed as very much the poor relation to Cabernet Sauvignon.

In fact it was as recently as the late 1980s that the government was actually paying people to pull out their Shiraz grapes and plant something else instead. It is as well that some stood firm and left their vines alone.

From these old vines, magnificent wines were made and, over time, Shiraz came back into favour. Shiraz is once again widely planted in Australia and its popularity entirely justified.

Click here for The Oxford Times Wine Club offers.