Tamburlaine Organic Wines chooses Crafted ERP to achieve visibility and cohesion throughout its operations

As one of the homegrown leaders in organic and biodynamic winemaking, Tamburlaine has built its brand and market differentiation over decades of smart risk-taking and measured expansion.

In addition to adding several varietals and wine styles to its production over the years, the company acquired a second winery in the Orange region in 2020 to complement its original facility in the Hunter Valley and manage increased fruit production from the Central Highlands of NSW. Tamburlaine has been an organic pioneer in Australia, driving a quality focus on dry Verdelho in the Hunter region and exposing opportunities with new varieties like Malbec in the Orange region. In winemaking, Tamburlaine has led on crossflow filtration, flotation of juices, adoption of vegan fining inputs, and environmental management of gray water.

The company continues to invest in R&D in both viticulture and winemaking to create sustainability and efficiencies in its production. The result is a carbon-neutral wine company which caters to consumers of quality contemporary organic wine, made with only vegetable-based fining agents. Tamburlaine also offers low sulphur, no added sulphur, and low/no alcohol wine options.

The Status Quo Wasn’t Working

Finding adequate planning and reporting tools to run the entire operation – including cellar doors and online marketing – is a complex undertaking. Prior to implementing Crafted ERP in late 2022, Tamburlaine had used various programs and platforms to manage its day-to-day business. “Status quo involved excessive staff time to export and import intercompany transactions, validate data, chase down errors, and cobble the system together with the all-important retail and e-commerce aspects of the business,” said Mark Davidson, Tamburlaine managing director and head of grape & wine production.

Management of Bottling & Packaging

Tamburlaine’s interest in investing in an end to-end business management solution reached a tipping point when it acquired the winery in Orange, which had its own packaging operation. For the first time, Tamburlaine could manage its bottling and packaging internally – as well as offer local producers a contract packaging option. But it needed a comprehensive software and supply chain management solution to do so.

Vertical Integration Needs Transparent Data

Any vertically integrated wine producer understands the intricacies of the supply chain management involved,” Mark explained. “We need excellent stock control and transparent data from grape to glass. The final bottle of wine is a culmination of many QA steps and checks. Small errors can be very expensive. We put the finished product in the bottle knowing that it complies with all aspects of label integrity. To attempt to manage this without the best fully integrated software available makes a difficult job much harder.”

Growing the Business

“Tamburlaine had been looking for the right integrated wine industry software solution to grow the business for many years,” he continued. “I have been amazed that an industry as big as the alcohol beverage industry has lived without a comprehensive integrated software for so long. A lot of Australian wine producers use software that may be OK for winemaking but for nothing else.”

Enter Crafted ERP. An American solution built specifically for winemakers atop Oracle NetSuite, the fastest growing cloud enterprise business software in the world.

Selection Criteria

Given Tamburlaine’s leadership position and organic and biodynamic certification statuses, data validity and auditability were at the top of the organization’s software priority list. “When you talk about organic certification, it is a legal process and it must be auditable, traceable and easy to report on,” Mark explained. “Some markets require green credentials to underpin entry eligibility. Consumers, regulators and investors demand transparency throughout the supply chain, which can be particularly onerous on staff to manage.

“What we’ve seen with Crafted is that it not only provides the integration we need, but that it also helps us manage workload. It provides guidance and authorization sequences; it will reduce a lot of unnecessary clerical work and help us make better use of our time. Ultimately, we can envision staff working smarter not harder despite our business growth.”

Enterprise software is not the right fit for every winemaker, but it does suit a wide variety of business types, as Nathan Ryan, Tamburlaine general manager of finance, explained: “Crafted would be of particular benefit at an organization with an external sales system, or one working across multiple companies or multiple sites. For instance, I’ve talked with a lot of winemakers who need to access of-the-moment production data from offices in Sydney or somewhere else afield – there would be real benefit in those cases.”

For winemakers who are purchasing grapes, making wine, and selling wholesale or from a cellar door, enterprise software is definitely still of use – particularly for those who do it at scale. Smaller producers, as in those who make less than 25,000 cases of wine per year and/or who only sell from a cellar door, would likely still find the efficiencies, modernity and usability helpful, but might have a harder time grasping the full value of the system.

Next Steps

As Tamburlaine dives into the capabilities and opportunities Crafted brings to bear for its business, the company is excited to see the quantifiable improvements and efficiencies that will be in place in 2023 and beyond. If overhauling the processes and systems of the company wasn’t enough, it also has its sights on becoming 100% organic within the next few years.

As for further expansion? Mark tells us, “We’d love to go kick ass in America.” We’d love to have you, Tamburlaine.