A snapshot of wine business, research and marketing content gleaned from local and international wine media sources. Emailed Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. Click here to subscribe, for advertising inquiries, click to download our media kit.

Announcements and Suppliers

6/02/2012: MaloBacti MLF = MAXIMUM SECURITY MALO’s
MaloBacti MLF cultures represent a new generation of freeze-dried MLF starter cultures of Oenococcus oeni with unique properties. Our MLF strains are not only selected for their efficient degradation of malic acid, but primarily to provide winemakers with different tools to manage the desired flavour profile of their wine.

6/02/2012: Don’t risk your vintage!
Have you checked your membrane to make sure it will survive the next vintage? CE Bartlett offer replacement membranes to suit all makes of air bag wine presses. We also offer membrane repairs, so why not repair your old membrane to use as a back up.

30/01/2012: ANCHOR® The Leading New World Wine yeast brand and Vintessential: Australian National Distributor
Vintessential Laboratories is looking forward to vintage 2012 as the newly appointed national distributor of ANCHOR® winemaking products. All winemaking products are available for prompt delivery throughout Australia via the shopping cart on the updated website: www.vintessential.com.au

30/01/2012: Riesling alert
The 2012 Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting to be held on February 6th and 7th in Sydney is an event not to be missed by anyone with an interest in the alluring grape variety.

23/01/2012: Chr. Hansen presents Viniflora® FrootZen™
Chr. Hansen presents Viniflora® FrootZen™. The first frozen direct inoculation Pichia kluyverii yeast boosts tropical fruit flavours in white wines from Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling or Chardonnay.

23/01/2012: New Zealand winemakers must use Mauriferm Plus
The New Zealand Winegrowers International Winemaking Guide 6th edition has had a profound impact on the usage of fermentation aids in the country. If a New Zealand winery intends to export it’s wine to the EU any fermentation aids used must adhere to the new standards similar to those of the OIV. This change rules out many of the industries staples but produces an opportunity for higher quality and more effective fermentation aids like Mauriferm Plus.

Australian Wine Industry News

7/02/2012: Wine: Prosecco's the fizz of summer
The French have ruled the world of bubbles for far too long. If you move your radar just a touch, you'll come across plenty of other options, from both Australia and other European regions. Italy's offerings, both imported and now also from varieties grown here and imitated styles, come both dry and sweet and they're among the trendiest fun drinks of the new year. The Italian fizz of the moment is prosecco, which is exported from Italy's north and northeast and also has found a vibrant home here, most prominently in Victoria's King Valley but now growing also in the Adelaide Hills, writes News Limited's national wine writer Tony Love.

7/02/2012: Signs of comeback for vineyards
A spate of vineyard sales is kindling hopes that the slide in land ­values has finally been halted after four years of accelerating misery for Australia's grapegrowers. In November Casella Wines, which produces the Yellow Tail label, snapped up two Langhorne Creek properties, spanning 360 hectares, for $6.2 million after the only listed landowner in the sector, Cheviot ­Kirribily Vineyard Property Group, was forced into liquidation, The Australian Financial Review reports.

7/02/2012: Barossa haven for the senses
A wine company's effort to convince a national committee to host a symposium here in the Barossa Valley has paid off. Orlando Wines now welcomes 30 professionals and students as part of the 6th annual New Zealand/Australian Sensory Symposium, held at the Jacob's Creek Visitor's Centre on February 8 and 9. According to Orlando Wines, the symposium targets sensory professionals who are looking for new ideas and knowledge to use in their research or work environment and would like opportunities to discuss current sensory issues with others working in the field, reports the Barossa Herald.

7/02/2012: Sydney Royal Wine Show kicks off
Judging for the prestigious 2012 Macquarie Group Sydney Royal Wine Show kicked off yesterday at Sydney’s Olympic Park. More than 2240 wines were submitted to this year’s show, representing almost all of Australia’s wine regions. There are 37 trophies and numerous gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs covering a range of classes across varietal wines, fortified wines and brandy, reports The Shout.

7/02/2012: Penfolds: one of Australia's most-desired brands
Iconic Australian brand Penfolds dominated the Australian secondary wine market last year - securing 70 places in the top 100. Auction house Langton's said top Grange wines and a host of experimental wines form the 1950s and 1960s took 70 spots on the top 100 leaderboard of 2011, attracting top dollar from buyers. Eight Penfolds wines were named by Langtons as the top 20 most desired brands, including Penfolds Grange, Bin 707, Bin 28, Bin 407, Bin 128 and Bin 389, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

6/02/2012: Seppelt has been an iconic wine brand for 150 years
Despite being an iconic Australian wine brand for more than 150 years, Seppelt's crown has somewhat slipped in recent years, with its stablemate Penfold's clearly the power player in the Treasury Wine Estates group. But the good news is that Seppelt, with talented technicians Emma Wood and Jo Marsh strutting their stuff, has not missed a beat when it comes to the quality and diversity of its wines, reports The Sunday Telegraph.

6/02/2012: Director shines light on Aus wine evolution
With a history dating back to the 1800s, the Australian wine industry has sailed a tide of highs and lows, particularly over the past 40 years. Capturing the story of Australian wine, and its cycle of boom and bust, is a new documentary film which is set to screen in Australia and the UK in June this year. The film is directed by Stephen Oliver who for the past three months has travelled far to interview some of the most influential wine personalities and, indeed, the people who grow and turn the grapes into wine.

6/02/2012: Australian wine scholarships awarded
Wine Australia has awarded nine graduates of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust with scholarships to travel to Australia and undertake a study tour of Australia’s wine industry. The graduates - who come from London, Europe, Asia Pacific, the US, Canada, Ireland, China, Korea, India and for the first time Australia - were awarded their scholarships in London, on Monday 24 January.

6/02/2012: Pinot Noir tipped for the top
“Pinot Noir is the next wine fashion” declared Ross Brown, of Brown Brothers, speaking at the closing session of the 9th International Cool Climate Symposium in Hobart, Tasmania. In terms of trending fashions driven by technical changes and consumer tastes, the grape variety ticks all the boxes, he said. Suggesting that wine fashions go in approximately 15 year cycles, Brown argued argued that after Cabernet Sauvignon in the ‘70s, Chardonnay in the early ‘80s and Sauvignon Blanc in the late ‘90s, now is the time for another red cycle, reports The Drinks Business.

3/02/2012: Jackson Family Wines buys historic Australian vineyard
The Hickinbotham Vineyard at Clarendon, the source of some of Australia’s finest Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon, now has an American owner. Jackson Family Wines has announced its purchase of the 445-acre McLaren Vale property. The sale comprises 207 planted acres on rolling hillsides, some steep and wooded, and two architecturally significant homes. Although no purchase price was announced, industry sources estimate it was more than $10 million, reports Wine Spectator.

3/02/2012: Accolades flow for local wines
Accolades continue to pour in at Belgrave Park Winery. Three of the Cobargo vineyard’s tipples took home medals from the recent 2012 South Coast Wine Show in Ulladulla, where they competed against the best wineries from the Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven and South Coast. The awards were for Belgrave Park’s “Hair of the Dog”-labelled Merlot (silver medal), white Shiraz (silver) and Viognier (bronze), all grown and made at the Cobargo property, reports Bega District News.

3/02/2012: Public invited to taste winning wines of Sydney International Wine Comp
The public is being invited to taste the winning wines of the 2012 Sydney International Wine Competition over a six-course dinner in Sydney next month. Trophy winning wines will be announced at a degustation banquet from noon to 4pm at the Shangri La Hotel on Saturday 25 February. Now in its 31st year, the Sydney International Wine Competition is the only Australian wine show where wines are judged alongside appropriately weighted food.

3/02/2012: Backpackers flock to Hunter Valley for grape picking season
The annual grape picking harvest is traditionally a busy time for local backpacker accommodation providers. The Hunter Valley YHA in Nulkaba and Bottlebrush Backpackers in Cessnock were both at full capacity last Friday, as was the Wine Country Caravan Park at Nulkaba, with backpackers keen to make a bit of cash on their travels. Most are European, with England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain among the nations represented, reports the Cessnock Advertiser.

2/02/2012: Top taster nose a good drop
Wine royalty joined 300 wine lovers on the Hobart waterfront yesterday to talk about the growing cool climate wine industry worldwide and where it is headed. Leading UK wine expert, and wine adviser to the Queen, Jancis Robinson, yesterday welcomed delegates with a short talk about the cool climate wine regions of the world, reports The Mercury. "I am not here to pontificate about Australia's cooler climate wines," she told delegates. "But one of my hugest pleasures in the past few years has been trying the new wines from cooler parts of Tasmania and Victoria."

2/02/2012: Scientist sees potential for grape industry to diversify
A former Department of Agriculture and CSIRO food research scientist believes he can help local grapegrowers to expand amid tough times in the wine industry. Mudgee man Kevin Scott said the region’s grapegrowers should consider shifting from wine to table grapes. He is not calling for all winegrapes to be grafted but rather an experiment that may offer a positive alternative, reports the Mudgee Guardian.

2/02/2012: Hunter Valley wine boss tips bumper harvest
Local winemakers are expecting a bumper harvest due to the unusually wet December and cool January weather. Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association president Andrew Margan said conditions were perfect when picking started on January 18, and although it has delayed picking at some sites, last week’s rain did not provide too much cause for concern, reports the Cessnock Advertiser. “It has been going really well with the fruit showing a lovely flavour,” Mr. Margan said.

2/02/2012: Good news on vine for winemaker
Every harvest is important to the team at Ballandean Estate Wines, but there is a lot more than usual riding on the 2012 vintage. Last December fire ripped through the storage shed at the historic winery, ruining more than $1.5 million worth of stock. At the beginning of this week the team at Ballandean started harvesting the next vintage of grapes which Leeanne Puglisi- Gangemi hopes can restore stocks at her family's winery, reports The Chronicle.

2/02/2012: Variable prices tipped for winegrape harvest
Winegrape growers in north-west Victoria are expecting to harvest some of the best quality fruit in years over the next few weeks. Murray Valley Winegrowers' Dennis Mills says fruit has ripened quickly due to favourable weather conditions and the harvest is likely to reach full swing this week. However, Mr Mills says yields and prices do vary, with some crops producing 20 to 30 per cent less fruit than expected, reports ABC News.

2/02/2012: GST best measure for viticulturists
GST (growing season temperature) may be the climatic index of choice for viticulturists. Pioneering cool climate viticulturist Dr Andrew Pirie, of Tamar Ridge, revitalised GST as a single measure offering a refined definition of cool climate at the opening session of the 8th International Cool Climate Symposium in Tasmania. Pirie tested some of the current climate indices by trialling how successful they are in Tasmania, no easy task in a complex viticultural environment, reports The Drinks Business.

1/02/2012: Wine Australia axes wine export panel
Wine Australia has axed its controversial export approval panel with immediate effect, replacing it with a permanent company audit regime. The changes are the result of a consultation by Wine Australia (formerly the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation), the Government statutory authority responsible for wine export compliance and regulation, a statement released yesterday says. Exporters will no longer have to submit their wines for approval but they will be licensed and will be subject to audit, and must provide wine for comprehensive testing as required, reports Decanter.

1/02/2012: Wine industry unfazed by smoke threat
The Western Australian wine industry says it is not too concerned about smoke taint from fires over recent days in the south-west. Some grape crops are nearing the harvesting stage slightly earlier than usual because of warm weather accelerating the ripening process. It is a high risk time for smoke taint of grapes. Wine Industry Association of Western Australia general manager Aymee Mastaglia says windy weather would have been a saving grace for grape crops, reports ABC News.

1/02/2012: Inaugural Trevor Drayton scholarship
Carrington Place owner/chef Scott Webster loves to open doors for young people in the food and beverage industry. To do it in the name of his good mate, winemaker Trevor Drayton, is the icing on the cake. The inaugural Trevor Drayton Food and Beverage Scholarship is open to food or beverage employees in the Hunter Region who have been working in the industry for five years or less. The winner will have the opportunity to work with internationally acclaimed chefs and winemakers and undertake work experience at Webster’s Osia Restaurant, in Singapore, reports the Newcastle Herald.

1/02/2012: Barossa’s new regional tourism manager
The need to continually promote the area as a premiere tourist destination has meant Barossa Tourism has a new team leader. The role of Regional Tourism Manager of the Barossa has been filled by former Herald journalist and writer for Wine Business Magazine Nathan Gogoll, who began work on Monday. Mr Gogoll explained the Regional Development Australia Barossa administered the role, while Tourism Barossa led the initiative, reports the Barossa Herald.

1/02/2012: Clare winery cuts hair to raise $30K for children with cancer
The owners of Clare winery Skillogalee will say goodbye to their hair next week in an effort to raise $30,000 for children living with cancer. In an event inspired by the heroic battle of four-year-old nephew and grandson, Kai, Nicola Palmer will cut off her 12-year-old dreadlocks, while her father Dave Palmer will shave his head for the cause. The money raised will go towards vital machinery for kids at Brookman Ward at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation.

1/02/2012: Australian Shiraz ripe for revolution
Australian Shiraz is set to emulate the “more mineral, more structured” path taken by its Chardonnay, believes Wakefield chief winemaker Adam Eggins. Referring to the image makeover currently taking place in the UK for the country’s modern styles of Chardonnay, Eggins predicted: “The future of Australian red is like the future for its whites," reports The Drinks Business. Eggins suggested: “Some of us believe that Shiraz in Australian has become too big and rich.”

31/01/2012: Winery revamp sparks public consultation calls
The Mayor of the Light Regional Council says the developers behind a proposed revitalisation of the Seppeltsfield Winery need to have official community consultation before council approves anything. The Seppeltsfield Estate Trust need council permission to amend the zoning of its land in the Barossa to cater for the redevelopment. Bill O'Brien says it is in support of the project but the trust need to present a more detailed concept plan, reports ABC News.

31/01/2012: Glass half full for old-timer
To celebrate Seppelt's 160th birthday, departing senior winemaker Emma Wood went in search of some of the great old Sepps wines of yesteryear. She scoured the museum stocks at Great Western but, sadly, not many oldies were to be found. Successive owners have not only battered and bruised the name of Seppelt during the past 30 years, but left little witness to the wealth of its wine history, writes Jeni Port in The Age.

31/01/2012: Dark days turn noir
Mount Gambier is best known for its Blue Lake and as home of the 19th-century poet Adam Lindsay Gordon. It's less known for its wine. Situated in a rather remote spot on the Princes Highway half-way between Melbourne and Adelaide, it's also our most recent geographical indication. Mount Gambier will probably be the last GI for some time: authorities have put the cost of wine regions applying for a new GI up to $27,500.Timing is everything, and Mount Gambier's late beginning as a wine region has held back its development, writes Huon Hooke in the Sydney Morning Herald.

31/01/2012: Golden bubbly a cork popper
When David Atkinson told the Perth Mint he could put gold flakes in wine he had no idea what he was getting himself into. "We said 'yes' and at that stage I had no idea how to do it," said the Swan Valley winemaker who has since spent 10 years perfecting the art of making gold-infused wine. While gold-infused sake exists in Japan and liquers made with gold flakes are available in Germany, David Atkinson believes Janebrook is the only winery in the world that makes sparkling wine with that golden sparkle, reports ABC Rural.

31/01/2012: Australians see silver lining in import surge
The surge in foreign imports to Australia should be welcomed not feared, Australian wine professionals say. A combination of a strong Australian dollar and aggressive discounting by Australian supermarkets has led to a drop in the price of European wines, and a surge in imports. Professionals at the Australia Day tastings in London yesterday did not agree the situation is wholly pessimistic, however, reports Decanter.

31/01/2012: Australia: Chardonnay shines
Excellent examples of Australian Chardonnay are silencing former critics. But the UK market is proving difficult to convince. The trials and tribulations of Australia’s recent fortunes in the UK wine market have been thoroughly picked over. Criticism gained momentum that the country’s brands had lost their soul to price mechanics, failed to engage a maturing wine consumer, were slow to tackle oversupply problems or lacked direction from Wine Australia, reports The Drinks Business.

30/01/2012: Hunter wine sales in decline
New research shows how much damage the high Australian dollar is doing to the country's wine exports while rival producers forge ahead. The Newcastle Herald reports Rabobank's 2011 Wine Quarterly report said global wine exports were growing unless the wine was from Australia or South Africa. Italian exports are up almost 13 per cent in volume and nearly 13.5 per cent in value and the French are enjoying a 3.8 per cent volume growth and by nearly 15 per cent in value.

30/01/2012: South-West bushfires contained but not yet controlled
Firefighters in WA's South-West are enduring a testing day, with two blazes contained but not yet controlled and still posing a potential threat to homes and lives. Residents in towns near Busselton and also on Mann Road, Nillup are under a watch-and-act advice from the Fire and Emergency Services Authority. The area is one of WA's best known wine producing spots with Sandalford, Cullens Wines and Evans & Tate all nearby, WA Today reports.

30/01/2012: d'Arenberg winery's milestone worth toasting
One of South Australia's most-loved wineries is preparing to celebrate reaching triple figures. But if you think that marks the time to slow down and smell the roses for its dynamo father and son proprietors, then forget it, writes Tony Love in the weekend's Advertiser.

30/01/2012: Industry facing skill set shortage
The wine industry is facing a worrying shortage of high quality national account managers, according to Paul Schaafsma, general manager for UK and Europe at Australian Vintage. Schaafsma has called on the industry to work together to introduce an accredited training program to help nurture young talent in order to reverse the decline. Speaking to the drinks business at last week's A+ Australia tasting in London, Schaafsma said: “One of the main challenges in recruiting national account managers at the moment is that there is not a lot of talent out there".

30/01/2012: Wine experts drop in
Some of the world's leading wine writers and many of the best known winemakers from around Australia and New Zealand are about to land in Tasmania. In a sign of the state's growing reputation as a quality wine region, Tasmania has been chosen to host the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium from tomorrow until Saturday. About 200 delegates from interstate and overseas have signed up for the event, which will focus on the latest technology and research relating to growing grapes and making wine.

27/01/2012: Local leaders share in Australia Day gongs
Leaders in the food and wine industry have been among those to get the highest honours in South Australia's north and west region in today's Australia Day honours list. Barossa Valley food identity Maggie Beer has been appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia - for services to the tourism and the hospitality industry and the promotion of Australian produce and cuisine. Also being honoured with an AM is John Bastian from the Clare Valley, for community service and service to business, reports ABC West Coast SA.

27/01/2012: Selling a fine-wine story to US
When Wine Australia invites you to go ''Around Australia in 80 Sips'' it is a hard offer to knock back. From the time you have wound your way from Margaret River reds to Yarra Valley whites amid the smell of hot meat pies you can easily forget that you are actually at an events space on New York's 42nd Street. There is a reason why this event is being held here. Producers are keen to get Americans excited about the regional subtleties of Australian wines, writes Mathew Murphy in the Sydney Morning Herald.

27/01/2012: WorkSafe probes wine spill
Treasury Wine Estates says no workers were at risk when a door on a wine tank failed at its Karadoc winery near Mildura. About 250,000 litres of wine poured from the bin when the door blew out about 10:30pm (AEDT) on Monday night. The wine was captured in the winery's on-site effluent system, reports ABC News.

27/01/2012: No buyer for Gulgong grower’s winegrapes
As Mudgee wine region begins its annual harvest over the coming weeks one Gulgong grapegrower may not even pick a berry. For the first time in 16 years Ian McMaster has “lucked out” and not found a buyer for his grapes. He believes on the verge of an otherwise promising 2012 vintage that about 175 tonnes of premium grapes will not make it to wineries here or abroad, reports the Mudgee Guardian.

27/01/2012: Cool climate wines could grow Aussie volumes
Cooler-climate wines could be the answer to Australia's problems of shrinking off-trade volumes and under-representation on restaurant lists. The category saw take-home volume sales drop 2.7% in the year to September 2011, while value sales remained static at £1.1 billion, according to a recent Wilson Drinks Report commissioned by Wine Australia. In the on-trade, the country only has a 9% share of red listings and 7% share of white on wine lists. But the future is bright if it gets its cool-climate offering right, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

25/01/2012: Celebrate Australia Day with a local drop
Australians are being encouraged to celebrate tomorrow’s national day by topping up their glasses with Australian wine. New research by Wine Australia shows that Australians drank on average 24.5 litres of wine in 2010 compared with 22 litres in 2000 – an 11 per cent increase. In a bid to encourage further consumption growth, Wine Australia is encouraging Australians to be patriotic about the wine they drink on Australia Day.

25/01/2012: Milestone vintage at Brokenwood winery
As the 2012 winegrape harvest gathers momentum this week, a special milestone is being reached at Brokenwood winery – Iain Riggs’s 30th Hunter vintage. It is special because Iain Leslie Riggs, just ‘‘Riggsie’’ to his legion of wine industry friends, has had an inspirational impact on Brokenwood and the Hunter, national and international wine scene. He is an ideas man with the extraordinary ability to implement his ideas, reports the Newcastle Herald.

25/01/2012: Casella finds high dollar unpalatable
Australia's biggest wine exporter, Casella Wines, is looking at ways to raise prices across its highly successful Yellow Tail label as the high local dollar eats into its profit in its largest market, the United States. Recent accounts lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show revenue at Casella, Australia's largest family-owned winery, fell 13 per cent in the 2011 financial year to $344.1 million as the high dollar hurt margins, The Australian Financial Review reports.

25/01/2012: Great grapes
The Coonawarra wine region is set for a good vintage this year thanks to excellent weather conditions for grapegrowing. Coonawarra Grapegrowers Association president Dan Newson said the drier conditions in the region this year had grapegrowers hopeful of a good vintage, reports the Stock Journal.

25/01/2012: Barossa wines in state spotlight
Dozens of Barossa and Eden Valley wines plus a few Barossa beers will be on show for thousands of visitors to appreciate next month. They feature in the second Cellar Door Wine Festival, which runs from February 24 to 26 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The festival allows visitors to explore 12 iconic wines regions and enjoy tastings from more than 150 wineries. This year 33 wineries from this region and one Barossa brewing company will be on show, reports the Barossa & Light Herald.

25/01/2012: d’Arenberg “Dadd” sparkling wine released
McLaren Vale producer d’Arenberg has released a limited edition sparkling wine called Dadd. The label carries the signature d’Arenberg red sash, which bears a striking resemblance to a Champagne house with a similarly familial name. As reported by The Drinks Business last May, chief winemaker Chester Osborn revealed the project has been one hundred years in the making.

24/01/2012: Tassie home to cool vino
Cool climate grapes may be the only grapes that grow in Tasmania but the state is about to reap the benefits. For the first time, and only the second time in Australia, the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium will be held in Hobart next week. The Symposium, held every two to three years, was last held in Seattle, US, where Tasmania made its formal bid to host the 2012 event, reports The Mercury.

24/01/2012: Lords of all they purvey
Lunch with a couple of winemakers can be gruelling. This couple seems keen and an 11.45am start, with French bubbles at the bar, makes me wary. We sit down at one of Melbourne's fashionable eateries. As we know, the way to get a drink at a modern restaurant is to negotiate with a sommelier. Just how we managed 20 years ago, I don't know, but the sommelier on this day certainly looks the goods. The line between an experienced sommelier and a professional wine snob is one that can make or break your meal, writes Ralph Kyte-Powell in the Sydney Morning Herald.

24/01/2012: Francis roars into role as wine ambassador
Golden Harvest Wines is celebrating the Year of the Dragon by releasing a commemorative wine. Businessman and former Adelaide City Council lord mayoral candidate Francis Wong has been brought on board as an ambassador for the wine, which was launched at a Chinese New Year banquet at Ming's Palace on Gouger St yesterday, reports Adelaide Now.

24/01/2012: Matthew Jukes named Honorary Australian of the Year
Wine writer Matthew Jukes has joined luminaries such as Sir David Attenborough and Alan Whicker in being named Honorary Australian of the Year. The award was announced on Sunday night at the Australia Day Foundation Dinner at Australia House, reports Decanter. The Daily Mail columnist and Decanter contributor was given the award not only for his ‘long-term passion for, and on-going commitment to, the Australian wine industry’, the Australia Day Foundation said, but also for his contribution to charity.

24/01/2012: Coffee tops wine on palate
When Will Priestley talks about characteristics of dark cherry and fresh lime, the virtues of the mid-palate and the benefits of soft water one could be forgiven for thinking they were talking to a sommelier. But the coffee shop owner is one of a growing numbers of baristas with such a passion for coffee that they have helped push the beverage above wine as one of the most popular drinks in the country. The humble brew now follows only water as Australia's most consumed beverage, reports The Mercury.

24/01/2012: To serve and protect
Here's my Australia Day honours list recognising the special contribution of our wines and the people behind them. And while we're throwing half a lamb on the barbie on Thursday, why not load the fridge with Riesling and stock up on some local Shiraz? Nothing encapsulates Australia Day more succinctly than charcoal, meat and a glass of hot red. Jeni Port honours Australian vignerons going above and beyond the call of duty, in Epicure, Sydney Morning Herald.

24/01/2012: Hunter gas plans to go public
Gas explorer AGL's Hunter Gas Project will be be under public scrutiny today when the company reveals is latest exploration plans. AGL proposes two-dimensional seismic exploration in sections of two large licence areas extending from Raymond Terrace and Lake Macquarie to Merriwa in the Upper Hunter. The chosen sites are concentrated between Cessnock, Broke and Singleton and around Scone, reports the Newcastle Herald.

23/01/2012: All signs point to a good harvest ... for now
The prospect of a good harvest was enough to entice Bill Crowe out the door and into the gale blowing through the Four Winds Vineyard yesterday. The 20ha vineyard at Murrumbateman took a battering last year when wet weather destroyed 30 per cent of the vintage for the region's wine growers. Despite recent conditions, ranging from 35-degree heat to a mid-summer frost, Mr Crowe said his second year on the job was shaping up to be a success, reports The Canberra Times.

23/01/2012: Australia wine export at decade low
Australia’s wine lovers are embracing European bottles as never before, exacerbating a decline in the local industry already suffering from plummeting exports. With the Australian dollar at record levels against the euro, imported wine has rarely been more affordable. Prices for some labels have dropped by 30 percent. The shift is harder on local wine producers, reports Bloomberg.

23/01/2012: Wine worth $32m hanging on vines
They might look like ordinary grapes, but this Swan Valley Chardonnay bunch are worth about $25a kilogram. That's according to a new study looking at how much the region's grape industry is worth to WA. In the past year, the valley's wine businesses have turned over more than $90 million, according to estimates by the region's winemakers' association, reports Perth Now.

23/01/2012: Bottle jobs go as beer, wine sales fall
A drop in beer and wine sales across Australia has cost 70 Melbourne workers their jobs at a glass bottle manufacturer. O-I Australia will shed the positions as it closes one of three furnaces at its Spotswood factory in March, with the job losses to occur by June. Australian Workers Union Victorian secretary Cesar Melhem said the Spotswood factory employed 320 people and the jobs to go included 50 glass manufacturing workers, with the rest coming from trade and engineering positions, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

23/01/2012: Raising the profile of Tempranillo
Louisa Rose is convinced that if Tem­pranillo had been brought to Australia in the 1820s instead of Shiraz, the coun­try would now be a sea of Tempranillo. The chief winemaker for Yalumba and Hill Smith Family Vineyards likes to paint a picture of a “parallel universe” in which the father of the Australian wine industry, James Busby, brought out cuttings of Tem­pranillo from Spain instead of Shiraz from France. And she ponders what the industry might have been like today if winemaking pioneers John Macarthur and George Wyn­dham had planted Tempranillo instead of Shiraz, reports Hospitality Magazine.

20/01/2012: SA upbeat about vintage
South Australian winemakers are expecting some cracking wines this vintage after a tough few years. South Australian Agriculture Minister Gail Gago told Nine News last night there was renewed optimism in the Riverland region as vintage gets under way.

20/01/2012: Classic wine for a classic sale as Inglis partners with Yalumba
Australia’s leading bloodstock auction house, Inglis, has announced a partnership with Yalumba, Australia’s oldest family-owned winery. Both champions in their respective fields, they will now combine to create a formidable partnership allowing Inglis clients to sample the great wine portfolio of Yalumba at the coming sales in NSW and Victoria.

20/01/2012: Accolade buys Shanghai distribution company
Accolade wines is bolstering its presence in the Chinese market with the purchase of a majority stake in a Shanghai-based wine distribution business. Shanghai CWC Wine Trading Company already distributes Accolade’s products – which include California’s Echo Falls, Australia’s Banrock Station, Hardys and Leasingham, and Kumala, Fish Hoek and Flagstone in South Africa – and this move will allow Accolade to ‘extend our presence in the market’, CEO Troy Christensen told Decanter.

20/01/2012: Orica's explosive plans for vineyard in upper Hunter Valley
Accident prone Orica plans to store 2000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, the explosives chemical at the centre of several leaks from its Newcastle factory, on the site of a Hunter Valley winery. Orica is negotiating to buy the former Rosemount Estate winery near Denman in the upper Hunter Valley and has lodged development plans with Muswellbrook Council to build an ammonium nitrate storage facility, reports The Daily Telegraph.

20/01/2012: End of the road for well known family winery
An Upper Hunter horse stud is not saying what it plans to do with a vineyard it is acquiring from the Tyrrell's wine dynasty. After more than two decades of winemaking, Tyrrell's Glenbawn winery will close its doors after this vintage. Owner Bruce Tyrrell told ABC Newcastle the winery is being sold to the nearby Segenhoe Horse stud, after it made a substantial offer that he could not refuse.

19/01/2012: Wine industry leader named as local Australia Day ambassador
Wellington is set to welcome one of the wine industry’s most well-known figures, Brian McGuigan, as part of its Australia Day celebrations this year. Mr McGuigan has been named as the 2012 ambassador for Wellington which has thrilled local Australia Day committee chairman Kevin Mason, reports the Wellington Times. “Mr McGuigan has been at the forefront of the Australian wine industry for more than 35 years,” Mr Mason said.

19/01/2012: Wine tourism recovers from global downturn
Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism says there are positive signs in the latest visitor numbers that international tourists are returning to the region. Over the Christmas-New Year period accommodation occupancy in the Hunter Valley was up by 17 per cent. Overall occupancy levels for 2011 increased by 10 per cent compared to the year before, while wine sales were also up by more than four per cent, reports ABC Newcastle.

19/01/2012: Chinese backing for Ferngrove
A $10 million investment from a Chinese backer has paid big dividends for WA winemaker Ferngrove. From a near-standing start 12 months ago, China now accounts for about 60 per cent of Ferngrove's sales and the company's logo adorns 12 retail outlets built especially to sell its product in 12 provinces across the country. After taking 20 per cent of Ferngrove in March, diversified manufacturing and food company Pegasus - owned by Chinese businessman Xingfa Ma - now owns 72.5 per cent and has launched a $3.8 million buyback to mop up remaining shareholders' stock, reports the West Australian.

19/01/2012: Winegrape growers seething
Riverina and Murray Valley winegrape growers have slammed the NSW Government's response to an industry inquiry. The NSW Government refused to make a decision on all 10 recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry into the winegrape market and prices. The delayed response by the NSW Coalition - which took eight months to consider the report - means Riverina winegrape growers no longer have terms of payment protection from their statutory authority, reports Weekly Times Now.

19/01/2012: Grapegrowers look to lift profits
Winegrape growers in South Australia's Riverland are hopeful of higher profits this season, as the first growers start harvest. Last year, the region's growers experienced the lowest average prices in more than two decades and wet weather saw thousands of tonnes of grapes rejected by wineries because of disease. Loxton grower Brett Proud says prices have risen slightly this year and the weather has been more favourable, reports ABC News.

18/01/2012: Winemaker laments chemical plant plan for former landmark winery
An Upper Hunter winemaker says the possible transformation of the old Rosemount Estate winery in Denman into an ammonium storage facility would be "a sad day" for the wine industry. Chemical giant, Orica has lodged a development application stating its intention to store up to 2,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate at the site. Upper Hunter Winemakers Association Treasurer Brett Keeping says there is a sense of nostalgia attached to the former landmark winery, reports ABC Newcastle.

18/01/2012: Entries open for 2012 Australian Highlands Wine Show
Wineries have until February 13 to enter the Australian Highlands Wine Show – Australia’s only wine competition exclusively for wines made from grapes grown at high altitudes. The inaugural wine show will be held from 1-2 March in Bowral in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales. The show aims to highlight the expressive nature, balance, subtlety and longevity often exhibited in wines grown in the cooler climates of Australia based on their higher altitude.

18/01/2012: Grape crops suffer
Lower yields will typify winegrape harvests across southeast Australia this year. But fruit quality is expected to be good and the lower yields could drive up grape prices, according to Murray Valley Winegrapes chief executive Mark McKenzie. Harvesting started in the Murray Valley last week and many more areas are expected to commence in the next fortnight, reports Weekly Times Now.

18/01/2012: Near perfect pickings for new vintage
The annual grape harvest will be in full swing tomorrow across most Hunter Valley vineyards, with growers focusing on quality rather than quantity. Picking will get under way in the morning at Margan Family Wines with operator Andrew Margan expecting a good 2012 vintage as a result of near perfect growing conditions, reports the Newcastle Herald.

International Wine Industry News

7/02/2012: Hong Kong 'great opportunity' for Hawke's Bay wines (NZ)
The elimination of duty on wine into Hong Kong is developing a whole new wine drinking consumer group that presents a great opportunity for Hawke's Bay wineries, according to Debra Meiburg, Master of Wine and long-time Hong Kong resident. Ms Meiburg, who was in Hawke's Bay last week to meet winemakers, says there is a rapidly growing mid-market of consumers who can now purchase wine at affordable prices through supermarkets, reports Voxy News.

7/02/2012: The 2012 Central Pinot Noir celebration (NZ)
The 2012 Central Otago Pinot celebration in Queenstown, New Zealand, from Thursday 26 to Saturday 28 January 2012, attracted nearly 200 passionate pinotphiles from the UK, US, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Winemakers, winery owners, Masters of Wine, wine educators, wine writers and marketers were shown retrospective snapshots of ‘older’ Pinot Noirs and younger tastings of Burgundy, Pinot Noir and even, to ensured we kicked off in true southern style, Riesling – from Central and from the world, writes NZ wine writer Joelle Thomson.

7/02/2012: “Hitler wine” case dropped (Austria)
Austrian officials have dropped an investigation launched after a man was found to be selling wine and schnapps with Adolf Hitler on the label. They said there was no proof that the labels break a law against glorifying the Nazi era. State prosecution official Heinz Rusch said the investigation has come to a halt because of lack of proof that the man contravened that specific law. The legal probe was launched last year after complaints that a website posting showed bottles with portraits of Hitler and the swastika, reports Decanter.

7/02/2012: Villa Maria vintage update - two weeks behind (NZ)
Alastair Maling MW, Villa Maria group winemaker, is hoping for a drier February, and forecasts that yields will be down in Marlborough. The region has had a cooler spring and beginning of summer than usual, with growing degree days 10% behind the long term average for the same time period. As well as being cooler there has been low levels of sunshine and regular rainfall through December which has resulted in an extended flowering period across all varieties, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

7/02/2012: Consumer wine trends: overall consumption up (US)
Overall table wine consumption is up in 2011, with over 291 million cases consumed, according to the Wine Market Council’s annual consumer tracking study on the U.S. wine market. But there are signs that the Millennial generation—the generation between the ages of 18 and 35—is not turning out to be the homogenous group as the industry had hoped for, reports Wine Business.

7/02/2012: Government alcohol ad 'scaremongering' (UK)
New UK government guidelines warning that drinking two large glasses of wine a day triples the risk of mouth cancer are 'scaremongering’' an influential alcohol lobby group claims. A TV advert launched yesterday claims that regularly drinking around two large glasses of wine a day triple the risk of developing mouth cancer and double the risk of developing high blood pressure. But a spokesperson for Alcohol In Moderation, a group which promotes responsible drinking, told Decanter the government’s approach was alarmist and its definitions too loose.

7/02/2012: Camel Valley seeks PDO status (UK)
Camel Valley Vineyards is aiming to become the UK’s first single grower with Protected Designation of Origin status. The Cornwall-based winery has applied through DEFRA to the EU for PDO recognition of a small area of vineyard land called Darnibole. Owner Bob Lindo is hoping that the vineyard’s ancient slate sub-soil and steep south facing slope will quality for the status, which is defined as being “open to products produced, processed and prepared within a specific geographical area, and with features and characteristics attributable to that area," reports The Drinks Business.

7/02/2012: Bomb squad destroys WWII wine cache (UK)
A cache of pre-World War II wine found in a suburban garden was destroyed by the British army bomb squad, a reader recounts in this month's issue of Decanter magazine. Decanter subscriber Tim Woodall describes how he found a metal cylinder ‘rather like a model airship’ while digging in his garden in Saffron Walden, Suffolk. Alerted to danger by the ‘uncanny’ howling of his dog, and thinking it might be an unexploded World War II mortar, he ‘stepped away from the flower bed’ and called the police. A bomb disposal unit duly arrived, and a controlled explosion was set off. This revealed a bomb shelter, a common feature of war-time gardens in Britain.

6/02/2012: Intern gets taste of industry (NZ)
Chilean man Carlos Rojas Stiven is the guinea pig for Forrest Estate Winery's internship programme aimed at encouraging graduates into the Marlborough viticulture industry. Mr Rojas Stiven visited New Zealand with his wife about three years ago and enjoyed it so much they decided to stay. Although coming from Santiago and a population of about seven million, Mr Stiven is adjusting to his new lifestyle as there were many similarities between Chile and New Zealand, reports The Marlborough Express.

6/02/2012: Couple 'sabotaged' by council reaction (NZ)
The owners of an earthquake-hit Sumner wine shop say they felt "sabotaged" by the Christchurch City Council while trying to open a temporary bar in the area. Village Grape owners Wayne and Debbie Hardaker opened a container store in the suburb after their original shop was badly damaged in last February's quake. The couple decided to apply for an on-licence to operate a wine garden and were granted a temporary accommodation permit to open their business, reports Business Day.

6/02/2012: Two glasses of wine a day 'triples mouth cancer risk' (UK)
Regularly drinking two large glasses of wine or two strong pints of beer a day triples the risk of developing mouth cancer, a government campaign will warn. Television adverts will aim to show that drinking just over the recommended daily limit for alcohol increases the risk of serious health problems. NHS recommendations are that men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day, while women should not regularly drink more than two to three, reports The Guardian.

6/02/2012: Despite problems of matching, India's wine industry booming (India)
Standing in front of a wine tasting class of restaurant managers, wine importers and producers, Cavaliere Subhash Arora declares: "People in India waste too much time in matching wines to food." The crowd looks up and stares at him curiously. Matching wines with food is why many of them are there. But most understand the frustration of trying to match wines with the spices in traditional Indian dishes. Whether or not people have found a way to match up wine and Indian food has not stopped the wine industry from booming, reports The Economic Times.

6/02/2012: De Villaine keeps DRC within collectors’ reach (France)
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s owner has stressed the importance of controlling distribution to keep prices at sustainable levels.Speaking to The Drinks Business at Corney & Barrow’s trade tasting Aubert de Villaine said that it was the tight control he keeps on distribution of DRC that allowed him to set prices that, while high, kept the wine within the reach of collectors.He admitted that DRC was in no way cheap but stressed that the prices would always be set by the estate.

6/02/2012: Report: Wine industry contributes $747M to state economy (US)
A newly released economic impact study shows that Virginia’s burgeoning wine industry contributes $747 million annually to Virginia’s economy, an increase of 106 percent over the figures from the last economic impact study conducted in 2005. All major economic drivers examined in the comprehensive study showed significant double-digit percentage growth, reports Augusta Free Press.

6/02/2012: New Institute of Viticulture and Oenology to make SA more competitive (South Africa)
The South African wine and table grape industries and Stellenbosch University, in a joint venture, have established an Institute of Viticulture and Oenology (IVO) to enhance the international competitiveness of the country's wine and table grape sectors. To be housed in Stellenbosch University’s Department of Viticulture and Oenology, IVO is intended to promote world-class teaching, research and technology development, focusing on projects that will strengthen the relevance and quality of the country’s offerings on international markets, reports South African Wine.

3/02/2012: Australian sells out of NZ wine venture (NZ)
Philosophical differences have caused the Australian part-owner of Martinborough's Te Kairanga and several other New Zealand wineries to pull out of the venture. Wineinc, owned by Australian Bruce Clugston, has sold its 5.12 per cent share in FFW Holdings NZ to majority shareholder Foley Family Wines. Foley now wholly owns the New Zealand firm. The Overseas Investment Office approved the sale last month, reports Business Day.

3/02/2012: Tough job picking best local drops (NZ)
It sounds like a wine lover's dream day. To taste about 80 of Hawke's Bay's finest wines all in a sniff and a sip in under eight hours. But for the judges of the bi-annual Regional Wine Selection it is demanding and at the end of the day vital in providing a selection geared to be tasted by visitors from all over the world. And besides, while the three judges for this year's leading line-up got to savour the rich aromas and taste the many varied flavours they did not allow those drops to go any further than the taste buds in their mouths, reports Hawke's Bay Today.

3/02/2012: Good turn out for festival season (NZ)
The community was the big winner with three festivals held at venues around the Tasman district last Sunday. An estimated 2000 people attended the annual Brightwater Wine and Food Festival at Grey's Vineyard, about 4000 were at the Sarau Festival in Upper Moutere and more than 600 people attended the Summer Food Fare in Collingwood. The region's finest wines and beers, a mouthwatering range of food stalls and cooking demonstrations and top class music all contributed to a great day out at all three venues, reports Nelson Mail.

3/02/2012: UK to host next International Climate Change Symposium (UK)
The UK's status as a serious producer of cool-climate sparkling wines has been further cemented by the announcement that the ninth International Cool Climate Symposium will take place in the UK.The four-yearly conference, which is being held this week in Tasmania, will be a joint effort between Sussex's Plumpton College, the Institute of Masters of Wine, University of Brighton, the trade organisation English Wine Producers, and the UK Vineyards Association, reports Decanter.

3/02/2012: Ladybird contamination on the rise (US)
Ladybird taint is thought to be on the rise and cool climate regions are particularly vulnerable as climate warming allows these species to migrate into previously unpalatable regions. While ladybirds (coccinellidae) are a common natural predator for aphids and mealybugs, with some insects being introduced from Asia at the beginning of the 1900s for this purpose, when they accidentally get in with the grapes at harvest they produce IPMP (2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine), a powerful compound that taints the resulting wine, reports The Drinks Business.

3/02/2012: Tesco lighter wine sales up (US)
Customers' growing concerns about the effects of alcohol on health boosted lighter wine sales at Tesco by 100,000 bottles last year. The supermarket revamped its lighter wine section in September 2011, and has seen the category's sales rise by 3.4% in the year to the end of December. The lighter wine sector rose by 60% in value and 50% by volume nationwide, as First Cape's Cafe collection, the first major brand to launch a lighter style range, rose 152% by value, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

3/02/2012: Red wine chemical could drive new treatments (UK)
It has long been known that resveratrol, a chemical found naturally in plant products including red wine, can prolong the lifespan and mimic the effects of a low-calorie diet. But it was previously unclear exactly how resveratrol causes the boost of energy in our cells that provide this health benefit. Now a team of researchers has shown it works by tricking the cell into thinking it is deprived of energy, causing it to increase production of energy-producing proteins, reports The Telegraph.

3/02/2012: Chinese wine investors worry as rare vintages drop in value (China)
Tipsy Chinese investors drunk on the legend of Lafite wine have been rudely shocked by the cold economic fact that what goes up can come down. Helping to push the prices of branded wine up by an average of 30 percent in each of the past several years, Chinese investors in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Beijing were dismayed to find that their cherished investments lost as much as 40 percent of their value within a few months. Wine merchants in Shanghai and Hong Kong attributed the setback to the global economic slump. Despite the sharp reverse, investors have largely remained sanguine, reports China Daily.

3/02/2012: Wine producers campaign for truth in labelling (US)
Napa Valley wine producers will go a long way to protect their good name, all the way to Thailand if necessary. That is the latest country that has awarded Geographic Indication status to Napa wine, which means they have agreed not to allow sales of wine labelled "Napa" if the grapes inside are not from that California region. The agreement, reached late last year, is part of a campaign for truth-in-wine-labeling laws supported by a loose-knit cohort of wine regions around the world, reports Associated Press.

2/02/2012: The gamble of maintaining a cellar (NZ)
I approached the bottle with trepidation, because it wasn't a pretty sight. On one side of the slightly scuffed label was a brownish-red stain – the cork from another bottle elsewhere in the cellar had obviously "given up the ghost". On the capsule was the catalogue number 642. I was about to open a bottle of Wither Hills Marlborough 1997 chardonnay and to be honest, didn't hold out much hope for its drinkability. The problem with cellaring wine is that we all become hoarders and hate breaking into our stashes. Sometimes, an extra year or two can be a year or two too long, reports The Marlborough Express.

2/02/2012: Hawke's Bay Harvest Festival canned for 2012 (NZ)
The 15-year-old Harvest Hawke's Bay Food and Wine Festival has been dropped from the tourist calendar leaving the province without a major event showcasing its produce this summer. Hawke's Bay Tourism is meeting today with food and wine groups to begin talking about a new event which could be held next summer season, before the end of 2012, reports The New Zealand Herald.

2/02/2012: Malbec and Moscato impress in US
American wine drinkers are developing a thirst for both Malbec and Moscato, according to the latest figures from market analyst Nielsen. For the 52 weeks ending 7 January, US sales of Malbec were up 32.6%, while Moscato sales were up a staggering 73%. As reported last month by The Drinks Business, name checks in songs by prominent hip-hop artists like Kanye West, Drake and Waka Flocka Flame has lead to an unprecedented drive in Moscato sales the US, with Moscato now the fastest growing grape variety in the country.

2/02/2012: Fine dining goes hi-tech as restaurants embrace iPad wine lists (UK)
The UK's fine dining restaurants are rapidly turning their wine lists electronic, with the Vineyard at Stockcross the latest to embrace the iPad. The trend that started at the beginning of the century with Aureole in Las Vegas, the contents of whose four-storey, stainless-steel-and-glass wine tower that diners browse via an ‘ewinebook’, has now gone global, Brian St Pierre writes in the latest issue of Decanter.

2/02/2012: Changing weather impacts vintages, say top winemakers
Winemakers around the world are noticing huge vintage variation thanks to changing weather patterns. Boris Champy, joint director of Maison Louis Latour in Burgundy, said that analysis of the growing season for the past 70 years showed harvests had advanced by 10 days thanks to global warming, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit. Champy added that 2011’s harvest was two months ahead of schedule, but said: “I don’t think it’s a good or bad thing, we just want it to happen naturally”.

2/02/2012: DP chief debunks acidity “myth” (France)
Dom Pérignon cellar master Richard Geoffroy described the connection between acidity and age-worthiness in wine as a “myth” during a tasting of the Champagne house’s new release from the notoriously warm 2003 vintage, reports The Drinks Business. Commenting on the decision by many of his peers not to release a vintage in 2003, Geoffroy remarked: “For too many Champenois this one character alone, low acidity, was enough to write off the vintage.” However, he continued: “There is no relationship [between acidity and ageing potential] within a given bracket.”

1/02/2012: A look at the label can be revealing (NZ)
Whatever the price of a bottle of wine and the degree to which this influences the buyer, the label still plays an extraordinarily important role in its purchase. The label also provides the buyer with the other information that he or she wants and needs to know about the wine. Why the need, then, for a second or back label on the reverse side of the bottle? It is there to provide a warning to people who are allergic to certain foods, or are vegans and do not eat these foods, that traces could be present in the wine. The puzzling bit is how you get traces of fish, dairy products or eggs, the usual culprits, in wine, writes Warren Barton in The Southland Times.

1/02/2012: Breakthrough in New Zealand wine production (NZ)
Climate, soil and geography have long been recognised playing an important role in shaping the character of a region's wines and whose interplay is at the heart of the French concept of terroir. However, a breakthrough by New Zealand scientists now suggests that an area's yeasts could play their part in regional differences as well, with the discovery that communities and strains of wine yeasts vary from region to region. In the light of these findings, winemakers wanting to make wines most expressive of a specific place might want to dispense with generic yeasts from a packet and let nature take control of their ferments, writes Jo Burzynsca in The New Zealand Herald.

1/02/2012: Swiss couple buy winery (NZ)
A high-powered Swiss couple are the new owners of Kina Beach Vineyard and have plans to expand its profile and production. Achim Bauer, a partner in accountancy giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London, and Karin Schoch, a human resources manager in Zurich, paid just over $2 million for the six-hectare vineyard and accommodation business started by Dave Birt and Pam Robert in 1997, reports the Nelson Mail.

1/02/2012: Rolland turns wine into water (South Africa)
World-renowned winemaker and consultant Michel Rolland has partnered with international charity Wine to Water on a South African wine that will help provide thousands of Ethiopians access to clean water. Bonne Nouvelle 2003, a Cabernet, Merlot and Pinotage blend from Stellenbosch, fittingly means “good news” in French. US$20 from every bottle sold will go directly to Wine To Water to dig deep bore wells in the Dale region of Southern Ethiopia, where six out of 10 people lack access to clean water. The project’s initial goal is to raise US$40,000, reports The Drinks Business.

1/02/2012: Rolland turns wine into water (South Africa)
World-renowned winemaker and consultant Michel Rolland has partnered with international charity Wine to Water on a South African wine that will help provide thousands of Ethiopians access to clean water. Bonne Nouvelle 2003, a Cabernet, Merlot and Pinotage blend from Stellenbosch, fittingly means “good news” in French. US$20 from every bottle sold will go directly to Wine To Water to dig deep bore wells in the Dale region of Southern Ethiopia, where six out of 10 people lack access to clean water. The project’s initial goal is to raise US$40,000, reports The Drinks Business.

1/02/2012: Chapoutier pours scorn on natural winemakers (France)
Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines. Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking – that is, using no sulphur dioxide to stabilise the wines – is a con. ‘It is a connerie. It is rubbish. It’s like making vinegar, bad vinegar. How can anyone allow toxic yeasts to develop so that these inhabit the wine?’

1/02/2012: Chardonnay marks 100th birthday of growth in U.S.
Chardonnay, the world's most popular white wine, dates back centuries, but it owes much of its history in the United States to a winemaker who planted the grape in California 100 years ago. Ernest Wente, of the family-owned Wente Vineyards east of San Francisco, brought cuttings from Montpelier, France in 1912 and planted them in California. Now, although worldwide there are 34 clones of Chardonnay, most of the Chardonnay produced in California is from the Wente clone, reports Reuters.

31/01/2012: Riesling deserves this attention (NZ)
As we continue our wait for summer to ramp up the action and deliver the weather we deserve, there's New Zealand's first "Summer of Riesling" to inspire sunny thoughts. The Summer of Riesling is a worldwide movement encouraging the consumption, discussion and enjoyment of Riesling. This summer the movement arrived in New Zealand along with its New York founder, Paul Grieco. Grieco owns the Terroir Wine Bar in the East Village and it's there this idea first took flight. It was a single-minded attempt to get guests to try this noble grape, reports The Marlborough Express.

31/01/2012: Brancott Estate unveils 'world's most curious bottle' (NZ)
In a first for a New Zealand wine brand, Brancott Estate has launched a new smartphone application which brings together the world of wine and entertainment in 14 unique consumer experiences. The launch of the new application (app) follows the release of a contemporary new look for Brancott Estate. The distinctive and innovative packaging was launched across the entire range and the design is unique and focuses on celebrating the heritage of Brancott Vineyard, where the original Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc vines were planted, reports Voxy News.

31/01/2012: UK shows no sign of Sauvignon fatigue (UK)
British consumers aren’t tiring of New World Sauvignon, according to David Cox, head of UK and Europe for the New Zealand Winegrowers.“I don’t think there is Sauvignon fatigue,” he told The Drinks Business at the country’s annual UK tasting last week, despite the event’s focus on Grüner Veltliner and Pinot Noir, as well as Bordeaux blends, Chardonnay and Riesling.

31/01/2012: Bordeaux 2011: Calls for price drop after 'arrogant' 2010s (France)
Bordeaux was 'arrogant' in its pricing last year, the managing director of Chateau Lafite has told Decanter as merchants call on Bordeaux to come down in price on the 2011s. After two acclaimed vintages, it is generally accepted 2011 is going to be fine but not stellar – and merchants in Europe and the US, who for the last two years have accepted high prices, are once again calling for restraint.

31/01/2012: Australian Vintage to launch 5.5% abv Vinni (UK)
Australian Vintage is entering the lower-alcohol market with the launch of 5.5% abv Vinni, targeting 18 to 25 year-olds. Vinni, a sparkling wine based product whose packaging resembles a cider, will retail at around £3 and is scheduled to hit supermarket shelves by the summer, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit. “We’re taking a different spin on how to approach the 5.5% abv category - we want to do it in a way that still delivers flavour,” said Paul Shaafsma, UK and European general manager for AV.

31/01/2012: Winery tasting room woes (US)
Demand from wineries has inspired 3-year-old WISE Academy to offer a new service—mystery shopping. The educational group (the acronym stands for Wine Industry Sales Education) decided to offer the service as an outgrowth of one of its most popular programs, a course for potential or current tasting room personnel, reports Wines & Vines.

30/01/2012: Waitaki wine praised (NZ)
In the tiny wine-producing region of the Waitaki Valley, there is no place for anything but excellence and "that's a wonderful challenge", Jim Jerram told Otago Daily Times. It might only be a drop in the glass in terms of size but the area is "punching above its weight" in terms of what it is producing and the exposure it is getting, Dr Jerram, who is chairman of the Waitaki Valley Wine Growers Association, said.

30/01/2012: Kingsland to introduce new world wines through new division (UK)
Kingsland Wines and Spirits has announced the launch of a new division called Legacy Wines, through which it will plans to focus on the Impulse, On-Trade and European export sectors. The division will initially focus entirely on wines from South Africa, New Zealand, USA, Chile, and Australia, with products being introduced in the UK over the next few weeks.

30/01/2012: The future of the wine bottling will be dominated by bag-in-box filling (Germany)
In economically slow times, consumers respond with frugality and examine a coin twice before spending it. The same is true for wine, as a glance at the statistics shows, reports Beverage Manager newsite. In Germany, for example, 2010 sales dropped by only 0.7 percent whereas spending on wine decreased by 2.7 percent.

30/01/2012: To stay afloat, Spanish winemakers export abroad
The European debt crisis has made it more difficult for Spaniards to buy wine. So, vintners in Spain's Rioja region are looking to sell their wine in more international markets. Winemakers are shipping their goods to Germany, the U.S. -- and even China, which has a rapidly expanding wine market, reports North Country Radio.

30/01/2012: BRAT now available online (NZ)
A new tool is set to help the wine industry more accurately train staff to make visual estimates about the severity of bunch rot among the vines. The Bunch Rot Assessment Trainer or BRAT is a Visual Estimation Tool (VET) developed by scientists at Plant & Food Research and now online at www.bunchrot.co.nz "Visual estimates are an important function in the vineyard" says BRAT developer Gareth Hill "Vineyard staff are routinely making estimates about parameters such as bunch exposure, bunch compactness and leaf colour; parameters that would be difficult or costly to do by other methods".

30/01/2012: Look to Asia and USA for wine growth (South Africa)
The European markets have matured and their economies will not recover within the next decade; however the USA and Asia hold promise for the SA wine industry, which is facing its toughest time yet. Africa also has potential for growth. This was the message from various presenters at the seventh Nedbank VinPro Information Day in Somerset West, where 530 delegates from the wine industry value-chain were clearly looking for answers, reports WineNews.

30/01/2012: New guide to South Africa's wineland treasure
A comprehensive new booklet on South Africa's most famous indigenous variety, Pinotage, offers wine enthusiasts a look into the many facets of the grape that is internationally labelled a vinous treasure. South Africa’s Pinotage Wine Guide – 1995-2011, published by the Pinotage Association and its headline sponsor Absa, offers a succinct insight into Pinotage’s unique history, the special treatment the grape requires in the vineyard and the cellar, as well as a guide to the top Pinotage producers with all relevant maps and contact details.

27/01/2012: Pernod Ricard suffers $99m hit on asset sales (NZ)
French liquor company Pernod Ricard has taken a $99.1 million loss on the sale of assets by its New Zealand business while a dispute with the Inland Revenue Department sits in its accounts as a potential $87.4 million future loss. A $105.4 million loss in the year to June 30, 2011, reported by Millstream Equities, the holding company for its wholly owned local unit, does not include contingent liabilities of $87.4 million and $58.2 million for interest deductions on convertible notes or an alternative alleged avoidance of non-residential withholding tax it disputes with the IRD, reports the New Zealand Herald.

27/01/2012: Food, wine and fun assured (NZ)
Organisers of the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival next month say ticket sales look set to match last year's event when nearly 8000 people attended. General manager Marcus Pickens expects a surge in sales over the coming weeks ahead of the festival on February 11, reports The Marlborough Express. New attractions, like the Chef's Table with well-known celebrity chefs, would encourage past punters to revisit the annual showpiece at Brancott Estate Vineyard, he said.

27/01/2012: Kiwis take on Grüner Veltliner (NZ)
Kiwi winemakers are experimenting with Grüner Veltliner – which they believe could be the next big thing from New Zealand. Nine examples were shown at a masterclass at the New Zealand Wine annual trade tasting, reports Off Licence News. Saint Clair winemaker Matt Thomson, who led the class with Yealands Estate’s Tamra Washington, said: “We find this really exciting. There is no preconception about how it should be made.

27/01/2012: High wine prices key to New Zealand’s strategy (NZ)
The high price of New Zealand wines is key to developing consumer confidence in the consistent quality of the country’s exports, according to JF Hillebrand’s New Zealand branch manager Olivier Daull.The average price of a bottle of wine from New Zealand in the UK comfortably outstrips any other country, but Daull said this is all part of the country’s strategy, reports The Drinks Business.

27/01/2012: Burgundy climats edge closer to UNESCO listing (France)
The campaign for Burgundy's Cote d'Or Climats to join the UNESCO world heritage list has moved closer to its goal. Last week the Ministry of Ecology and Culture agreed to officially propose its inclusion in the July 2013 listing. The term climat is specific to Burgundy, and relates to a named plot of vines most usually dating back centuries, with one of the oldest being Clos de Bèze, which can trace its origins to 640AD, reports Decanter.

27/01/2012: Chilean wine industry certifies first 14 wineries under Wines of Chile's new Sustainability Code
Following the launch of Wines of Chile's Sustainability Code in early 2011, the first 14 wineries received this recognition after a rigorous assessment and inspection process. Wineries were certified on the first of three chapters of the code, which evaluates vineyard management processes and standards. The second and third chapters, which relate to the winery itself and social responsibility respectively, will be certified in 2012, reports Market Watch.

27/01/2012: Call for collaboration in duty fraud fight (UK)
The Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) has urged the drinks industry to work alongside HM Revenue & Customs in an effort to eradicate alcohol duty fraud in the UK.Responding to a National Audit Office (NAO) report that claimed HMRC had made “no tangible progress” on the issue of preventing diversion fraud, the FWD said the problem was the responsibility of the entire industry, reports The Drinks Business.

27/01/2012: Headed into a shortage of supply (US)
Backed by excess inventory and deep discounting, 2011 was called a “dream market” for wine consumers at the annual State of the Industry address at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. However, with winery inventories now in balance and several years of limited vineyard development, the wine industry is predicted to be headed into a shortage of supply, reports Wine Business.

25/01/2012: Wine Miles - Back on the road again (NZ)
Last week an article appeared in Harpers Wine and Spirits outlining how wines from the Rueda region in Spain were poised to take market share away from New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the UK. The original press release was distributed by a UK agent, Clink Wines, who have a number of brands from the Rueda region on their books. The release itself was scathing towards Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Both are contentious points. But these were not the points that rankled us. The one that got us more than a little grumpy was the claim that these wines have a lower carbon footprint than New Zealand wines, blogs Roger Kerrison at Aura Sustainability.

25/01/2012: Sustainable Winegrowing programme or bust? (NZ)
Over 95 per cent of New Zealand's vineyard area is part of the industry’s sustainable-winegrowing push. But Terry Dunleavy, a former executive officer of the Wine Institute, has reservations. “We’ve conned ourselves into a preoccupation with sustainability on the environmental front rather than sustainability on the economic front," Dunleavy said. Wineries are at odds over whether to back the industry’s Sustainable Winegrowing programme, writes Michael Cooper in the NZ Listener.

25/01/2012: Starbucks expanding beer, wine sales this year (US)
Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O), which sells the coffee that helps many Americans get wound up for their day, is offering more of their customers a way to wind down. The world's biggest coffee chain plans to sell beer and wine in as many as 12 cafes in Atlanta and Southern California by the end of the year, as it expands beyond its well-known coffee, reports Reuters.

25/01/2012: Roederer becomes Champagne’s biggest in biodynamics (France)
Louis Roederer now operates the largest combined organic and biodynamic estate in Champagne following the purchase of 14 hectares of Leclerc Briant vineyards. Roederer already has 26ha of vineyards farmed under biodynamic and organic viticultural practices following a trial which began in 2000, according to Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, chief winemaker at the Champagne house. This existing area is managed half under a biodynamic regime and half under an organic approach, reports The Drinks Business.

24/01/2012: Disaster averted as wind machines kick in (NZ)
Wind machines were working in the Waihopai Valley on Sunday night, as the temperature dropped to almost zero. Stu Powell of Climate Consulting said in some areas temperatures were the coldest recorded for January for many years, reports The Marlborough Express. If frosts had struck, the cold would have stripped vines of their leaves, leaving bare canes unable to push sugar into grapes. That would have been a major disaster for the wine industry, Mr Powell said. "It would be like kicking a power point out of the wall. Everything stops."

24/01/2012: A winning formula (NZ)
It was one thing to have a science degree ... It was quite another to apply that science to winemaking. Tired of life in the city? Christine Kernohan was when she bought a small vineyard in the back blocks of Carterton in 1996. The balmy summer evenings, renovated Victorian homestead, and the quiet little lake it overlooked, all promised what seemed like a slower pace of life to Christine and her husband, David. Today they admit they got more than they bargained for when they bought Gladstone Vineyard, reports the Waikato Times.

24/01/2012: 'Tired' vineyards being replanted (US)
Joe Ghisletta replanted 13 1/2 acres of Merlot with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vines last year in the Carneros district at the request of a winery that had offered a long-term contract. Older vines like the Merlot, pulled last spring, produce less fruit as they age, making them less economical, reports the Napa Valley Register. “The vines, like us, get tired,” Ghisletta said with a laugh. Many Napa Valley grapegrowers are deciding to replant vineyards at the moment, but the trend will continue for a while, Jennifer Kopp Putnam, executive director of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, said Friday.

24/01/2012: Chinese businessman given life sentence for smuggling (China)
A Chinese man has been given a life sentence for illegally importing millions of dollars of fine wine into China. Sun Xitai was convicted of forging invoices and import contracts to evade import duties on 70,000 bottles worth CNY45m (US$7.13m) between January 2004 and December 2009, the Beijing Times reported. Sun altered the name, details and price of high-end wines imported from France, Britain and Hong Kong, stating they were cheap alcohol, the court said.

24/01/2012: Natural wines “not for the masses” (UK)
One of the UK’s top natural wine importers has spoken out about the natural wine movement, comparing the wines to the works of Karl Marx. “Natural wines require a critical approach. They’re a bit like the works of Karl Marx; not intended for the masses,” Giuseppe Mascoli of Aubert & Mascoli told The Drinks Business. “Marx was writing for a specific audience with a sufficient level of knowledge to understand and appreciate his work. The same can be said for natural wines,” he added.

24/01/2012: New movie lifts lid on Master Sommeliers (UK)
A new film about to be released shines a spotlight on the gruelling world of the Master Sommelier qualification – an exam less than 200 people have ever passed. Somm tells the stories of Brian McClintic, Dustin Wilson, Ian Cauble and DLynn Proctor as they prepare for the entrance exam for the Court of Master Sommeliers. Describing themselves variously as ‘the new rockstars’, ‘prophets’, ‘egomaniacs’, and ‘sickly gifted’, the four Americans go through ‘thousands and thousands of hours’ of wine tasting, wine theory and practice, reports Decanter.

23/01/2012: Your Business: Swim-school owner follows dream to set up vineyard (NZ)
Transitioning from your main business to another which can be enjoyed into retirement is something many small business owners dream of. Ross Millar, owner of the Ross Millar Swim School, is planning to do just that with his new family business, Millars Vineyard at Mangawhai. That may seem like a bit of stretch, but Millar grew up in West Auckland with vineyards all around, reports The New Zealand Herald.

23/01/2012: Disease big threat now (NZ)
While the heavy rains and flooding in Nelson that destroyed homes and land just before Christmas was headline news, the impact on the winegrape growing sector has yet to be fully determined. Rainfall statistics reveal some of the heaviest downpours in parts of the region since records began. And while it probably made many winegrowers' hearts sink just a little, the effects on the 2012 vintage are still only at best estimates at this stage, reports the Nelson Mail.

23/01/2012: London Olympics to generate £300m for wine trade, says study (UK)
London's hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars stand to make an extra £300m from the Olympics - but there are major challenges to overcome as well, new research suggests. Wine distributor Bibendum reckons that food and drink spend in the capital’s on-trade will soar to £1.24bn during 2012, up from an estimated figure of £917m in 2011. However, the research, undertaken with the Local Data Company, also illustrates the potential disruption that this summer’s Olympic Games will cause, reports Decanter.

23/01/2012: Croatian wine looks to crack global market (Croatia)
Croatian wine has “risen phoenix-like from the ashes” and is set to make a big impact on the international wine market, according to one of the country’s top producers. “The quality of Croatian wine has improved dramatically over the past few years and we’re witnessing the rebirth of the country’s wine tradition at the moment,” Mladen Rozanic of Istria-based winery Roxanich told The Drinks Business. “We’ve got a big wine culture that people don’t know about, but they’re starting to catch on,” Rozanic added, predicting a bright future for Croatian wine in the international market.

23/01/2012: Australian Vintage recruits Sainsbury's Julian Dyer (UK)
Australian Vintage is beefing up its off-trade team with the recruitment of Sainsbury’s senior wine buyer, Julian Dyer. Dyer, who has worked for the supermarket for 16 years, takes up the post of senior business manager at AV on March 5. Earlier last week, Harpers reported that Clem Yates MW, former winemaker at Sainsbury’s, had left to become director of sourcing and supply at Off Piste Wines. Dyer will focus on the multiples, and work closely on the Sainsbury’s account, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

20/01/2012: David Lawrason’s take on Vintages: Jan. 21
There are many interesting wines on this release, certainly more than in the previous batch on January 7th. Some of them are grouped in the “Australian Open” feature in Vintages magazine, writes David Lawrason in The National Post.

20/01/2012: The top of the Wine List (South Africa)
Four of South Africa’s leading winemakers talk about the art of producing iconic wines that stand out on the global shelf – in an intensely competitive era of global wine brands, iconic wines, signature varieties, biodiversity, regional wine identity and innovative winemaking.

20/01/2012: Japanese buy vineyard (NZ)
Overseas interest in Marlborough's wine industry accounted for four out of five applications to buy land approved by the Overseas Investment Office for the region last year. Japanese company The Folium Vineyard (TFV) was allowed to buy 8.42 hectares in Brancott Rd for $2.24 million in March 2011. The vineyard was formerly owned by Fromm & Partner., reports Marlborough Express.

20/01/2012: Grape genes mapped to track down best Chardonnay (Canada)
Buying a bad bottle of Chardonnay laced with bitter tannins may soon be a thing of the past if Hennie van Vuuren has his way. The Montreal Gazette reports in what is believed to be the first project of its kind, van Vuuren and the Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia will map the genes of 15 known clones of the Chardonnay grape vine in an effort to identify which ones are best for planting.

20/01/2012: Hundreds attend annual wine industry event in Santa Rosa (US)
How did rap music make more people drink moscato? Should grape growers plant more vineyards with cabernet sauvignon or merlot? And how is the North Coast wine industry going to deal with the state's new frost regulations? All were topics of discussion today at the 21st annual Dollars and $ense Seminar, organized by the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, reports the Press Democrat.

20/01/2012: Warm winter threatens northern U.S. ice wine industry
An unusually warm winter is dampening prospects for the eastern American ice wine industry, with fewer frozen grapes being harvested and less of the dessert wine being made, raising prospects for higher prices for consumers. Reuters reports during a long-overdue cold snap in an otherwise balmy winter, growers raced to pick tons of frozen grapes in a single night on January 3, about a month later than the usual harvest.

20/01/2012: Bulk-wine inventory hits 12-year low (US)
The tightest inventory of top varieties of wine available for purchase in bulk in a dozen years and a dwindling supply of those winegrapes could extend the rise in pricing for those fine-wine components into this year. The North Bay Business Journal reports wineries are hard-pressed to pass those cost increases to consumers who are continuing to look for discounts, according to experts at a major local wine industry seminar.

20/01/2012: Wine maestro drops in to compare notes (NZ)
The year that was and is no longer could not have ended on a better note – a surprise visit on New Year's Eve from my good friend Michael Cooper whose kindly countenance once again graces the back of one of New Zealand's most gifted Christmas books, writes Warren Barton in The Southland Times. That book is the 20th anniversary edition of his Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines, which these days requires him to taste more than 10 bottles of wine every day, seven days a week for 365 days of the year just to keep up.

19/01/2012: Up-and-coming superstars in the wine industry (NZ)
Forget celebrity chefs - in restaurants across the world it's sommeliers who are fast becoming the new superstars. Not so in New Zealand's establishments yet. Although a growing assemblage of clued-up young hospitality professionals, increasingly backed by international qualifications, means this could be set to change. More restaurants are employing a sommelier, or, more likely in NZ, at least having a specific member of staff available to answer wine questions, reports The New Zealand Herald.

19/01/2012: Rueda whites rival New Zealand
Rueda is poised to take market share away from New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, according to predictions by Clink Wines. The region "has more to offer than any white wines from the New World", believes Clink's owner and director Catherine Monahan, and is capable of producing "Europe's best, bright, fresh, intense and reductively-made whites - Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc", reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

19/01/2012: N.J. opens to direct wine shipping (US)
Gov. Chris Christie earlier this week signed legislation that finally resolves the issue of direct-to-consumer wine shipping in New Jersey. The new law revises previous statutes that governed the sale and distribution of wine by New Jersey wineries and creates a new out-of-state winery license in New Jersey for wineries licensed in other states, reports Wines & Vines.

19/01/2012: Spotlight on Zinfandel (US)
Zinfandel will seize the limelight at the California Wine Annual Tasting 2012 with a masterclass led by some of the state’s most recognised specialists in this variety.Taking place from 11.30am-12.30pm on Monday 27 February at The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London, the event will feature a tasting of 10 of California’s top examples of Zinfandel from seven different AVAs. These have been selected to highlight the balance, site specificity, age-ability and distinctive characteristics of California’s signature grape, reports The Drinks Business.

19/01/2012: Croser: Cabernet a cornerstone for Chile’s future (Chile)
Australian winemaker and consultant Brian Croser has spoken out in praise of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, calling it “a cornerstone for the future of Chilean wine.” Speaking at the inaugural South American Wine Workshop in London, organised by Santa Rita Estates, Croser said Chilean Cabernet was even more distinctive than Napa Cabernet, reports The Drinks Business.

19/01/2012: Wine's hidden beauty: the ultimate pleasure of aged wine
The greatest, most pleasurable aspect of wine tends to be hidden from most consumers. You can buy wine from the store, purchase a glass or bottle at a restaurant, or attend a tasting at most wine stores or consumer tasting events and be totally oblivious of the phenomenon that is the holy grail for fine wine lovers. That is the incredible, often jaw-droppingly complex aromas, flavors and sublime beauty of a great wine that has been aged to maturity, writes Richard Jennings in The Huffington Post.

18/01/2012: Scientists prove regional variations in yeast (NZ)
Scientists in New Zealand have proved for the first time that wine yeasts vary from region to region. The research, conducted by Velimir Gayevskiy and Dr Matthew Goddard of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, detected distinct differences between indigenous yeast strains in different regions. The study, which has been published in the Journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology, investigated yeasts present on Chardonnay and Syrah grapes, and their spontaneous ferments, in vineyards in three distinct wine regions in New Zealand, reports Decanter.

18/01/2012: Wine series filming (NZ)
Makers of a documentary series showcasing New Zealand and its wine industry are set to hit Queenstown next month to film two episodes. Supported by Tourism New Zealand, The WINERAM Experience web series travels the country to show off its wine, culture and adventure activities. The aim of the series is to change the way the wine industry is perceived by young people and producer Colin West believes Queenstown's adventure atmosphere is the perfect place to do this, reports Otago Daily Times.

18/01/2012: Carmenere deserves promotion to Premiership of grape varieties, says Atkin (Chile)
Carmenere, the indigenous Chilean grape variety, can now claim to have gained promotion to the so-called "Premiership" of first class wine varieties, according to wine critic and broadcaster, Tim Atkin MW. Speaking at wine producer Santa Rita Estates first South American Wine Workshop at London's Altitude venue in Millbank Tower yesterday, Atkin said after that a chequered history, advances in the Chilean wine industry, which he likened to Carmenere getting a new manager, had now elevated Caremenere to Premiership status, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

18/01/2012: Photographer turns camera to stars of Burgundy (UK)
London will host a high profile photographic exhibition of leading winemakers from Burgundy and Champagne in April. A series of 21 portraits have been taken by Colin Hampden-White over the course of last year following the photographer’s success with The Greatest Winemakers, a show which comprised 20 pictures of Bordeaux’s top vintners. Like Colin’s previous exhibition, held in December 2010, the upcoming one in springtime this year will be held at Rebecca Hossack gallery on Fitzroy Square, reports The Drinks Business.

18/01/2012: Provenance of wine '100% guaranteed' on new platform (France)
A Bordeaux wine merchant is guaranteeing the provenance of every wine it sells via its new online trading platform. Bordeaux Wine Bank is based in Bordeaux and organises provenance-guaranteed auctions with Sotheby’s. It launches its trading platform this week. The Bordeaux Wine Bank Exchange (BWB-EX) will offer only 100% provenance-guaranteed wines, with certificates of origin, delivered in tamper-proof cases, reports Decanter.

18/01/2012: Oregon Pinot puzzles UK trade (US)
Oregon Pinot Noir has revealed itself as particularly subject to misconceptions and an uncertain image among the UK trade. Two wines from the state featured in yesterday’s Stonier International Pinot Noir Tasting (SIPNOT), the second London version of the event. In a tasting which above all offered a reminder of the subjective element to wine criticism, the event also flagged up widespread uncertainty within the trade about what to expect from Oregon Pinot Noir, reports The Drinks Business.

18/01/2012: Global wine consumption set to increase by 2 billion bottles
Nearly 2 billion more bottles of wine will be consumed in the world between 2010 and 2015, reports Western Farm Press. In 2010, total world wine consumption reached 2.640 billion 9-litre cases, equivalent to 31.68 billion bottles, a 4.5 percent increase compared to 2006, according to research commissioned by VINEXPO from International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR). The VINEXPO/IWSR study forecasts an increase in the consumption growth rate of 6.17 percent between 2010 and 2015, reaching 2.844 billion cases, an increase of 2.04 billion bottles, by the end of the period.

Research Findings

What's On in Australia

What's On Overseas