THE budget-busting Yellowtail wine company which skyrocketed to fame and fortune with its $10 kangaroo-logo, “critter” wines in the 2000s has released a set of audacious high-end premium drops.

The Casella family company that’s sold more than a billion bottles worldwide of its high-turnover mass-market Yellowtail range, has just launched two super-premium reds, Casella 1919 Shiraz and Casella 1919 Cabernet Sauvignon, both selling for 10 times the usual Yellowtail price.

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The new top-shelf set has been in the making for at least eight years, released as 2006 vintage wines into independent bottle shops — until now they were stored in hidden corners of the family’s Riverina winery, used only as gifts by Yellowtail boss John Casella.

But the wines were considered so good the company decided to showcase them in its quest to create a premium range under the Casella umbrella.

“Our strategy is always focused on the consumer — and there is a trend towards premiumisation,” John Casella says.

“It’s clear consumers are trading up.”

Premium priced wines show strong growth in total market share according to Nielsen figures: 11 per cent growth above $15 in Australia to the end of 2013 and 22 per cent growth at more than $15 in the US to the end of June this year.

But success in the premium sector is a major challenge when coming from a value-end starting point, according to wine marketing strategist Angie Bradbury, from food and wine industry comms company Dig+Fish.

“It’s a reverse strategy,” Ms Bradbury says.

“Most luxury brands start high and then create a ground floor for consumers to access the brand, but going the other way is very difficult,” Ms Bradbury says.

“As a stand-alone brand without any Yellowtail references, there may be more of a chance for the new wine, but Casella then doesn’t gain any benefit from the success of Yellowtail, and in some ways it might be even be a hindrance from a winemaking and credibility sense.”

While the scale of the Casella 1919 brand is small in comparison to the flagship Yellowtail, John Casella says it’s still a very important direction for the family owned winery.

The release recognises there are two sub-markets in the wine industry — affordable, everyday wines and fine wines — and the company’s aim is to make the best quality wine possible at every price point, Mr Casella says.

The new Casella 1919 wines have been created as a “halo” brand for an expanding range of products in the family’s drinks portfolio as it aims to trade out of a $30 million loss posted in the 2011-2012 financial year.

Tough trading conditions in its major US export market and a high Aussie dollar cruelled Yellowtail’s profit margins of its budget-end, commodity style wine, but a move into the beer, cider, further Yellowtail products and summer-style flavoured wine spritzers has seen the company’s fortunes turn around in the past 12 months.

Casella has formed a beer portfolio joint venture with Coca-Cola Amatil featuring brands ARVO as well as Pressman’s Ciders, with plans for a craft beer range to be launched in December.

It also has launched a Yellowtail Sangria here and in the US and extended its successful bubbles range to Moscato, as well as introduced a summery range of spritz sauvignon blancs, Bondi Rd, including flavoured versions.

“Our focus is to grow the Yellowtail brand by attracting new customers and creating new products and drinking occasions for our existing customers,” John Casella says.

The company has seen double digit growth in key export markets such as the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong and China with an increase of 55,000 cases of Yellowtail cases sold globally to the year ending June 2014, Mr Casella says.

The company is expected to return to profit by the end of this financial year.