The few wine companies owned by New Zealanders need to retain the status quo to benefit the country’s economy, culture, and reputation overseas, says Villa Maria Estate owner and managing director Sir George Fistonich. In an industry dominated by foreign ownership, Sir George is one of the New Zealanders who owns a wine company. He said it was important that the remaining few wine companies that were New Zealand-owned remained so, as other foreign-owned companies weren’t as passionate about promoting the wines or the country, reports The Marlborough Express.

Australians are obsessed by wine varieties. Our labels elevate grape varieties to hero worship, while often the region mostly shrinks to lesser importance and the style of wine to the obscurity of the back sticker, if at all. Even the most recognised blends emphasise fruit components more than region or producer. This isn’t the case in traditional European wines, which tend to emphasis the maker before the actual grapes crammed inside the bottle, writes News Limited national wine writer Tony Love.

Oh bliss, I thought as I registered for the 6th Frankland Estate International Riesling Tasting in Sydney at the beginning of this month. Two days of non-stop Rieslings, many of which I would never get to taste ever again. Frankland Estate’s Judi Cullam started this biennial event in 2000, and last year, joined with Chateau Ste Michelle, Dr Loosen and Robert Weil Estate to form the ”Riesling Coalition”, which will host Riesling events. Trish Burgess reports on a celebration of the quality and diversity of the world’s finest, in the Sydney Morning Herald.

A new trade agreement will remove the duty on U.S. wines exported to Korea, a growing market for California vintners.The agreement, announced this week by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, will take effect March 15. Korea’s import duty on U.S. wine is currently 15 percent, reports Press Democrat.

Moet Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of France’s LVMH luxury group, says it will make red wine in China where a taste for the better things in life has boomed along with the economy. AAP reported Moet Hennessy said it had joined forces with VATS, a Chinese wine firm, to develop a vineyard of 30 hectares in Yunnan province, southeastern China.

The colour we admire in a white wine tends to be finely nuanced – especially when we’re talking young whites. There’s everything from virtually colourless to straw, straw yellow, straw gold, straw with a pink or green tinge – so many permutations, and we haven’t arrived at pale gold yet.
Deborah Walton-Derry and Peter Morice write in Marlborough Express this points to the obvious – white wines aren’t white, although a very young wine may be colourless. Pale green, pale copper or even amber are the colours associated with “white” wine.

New Zealand is on track to outperform world trade growth as increasing demand from Asia and Latin America fuels agricultural exports, say economists for the HSBC bank. New Zealand’s trade will grow at an annualised rate of 5.9% over the next five years, outperforming forecast world trade growth of 3.8% annually, according to the latest HSBC Global Connections report.

Greg Gallagher is known for sparkling, but he came to Canberra for Shiraz, Chris Shanahan writes in Sydney Morning Herald.These days, Canberra and Shiraz is a no-brainer for aspiring vignerons. It’s our most successful grape variety thanks, initially, to Clonakilla, but now thoroughly bedded down across the district. But when Greg and Libby Gallagher planted Shiraz at Murrumbateman in 1995, Canberra’s reputation for fine wine was a fraction of what it is now – and Shiraz had barely emerged as a contender for top spot.

Ray Beckwith can toast the preserving effects of alcohol when he celebrates his 100th birthday today.
Working at South Australian winemaker Penfolds in 1936, Dr Beckwith, a scientist whose innovations laid the foundations of the Australian wine industry, hit upon the idea of using pH — a measure of acidity — as a means of preventing the microbial spoilage that had until then ruined 30 per cent of its annual production, writes Blair Speedy, in The Australian.

THE Orange wine region’s participation in Wine Australia’s Regional Heroes Foundation Partnership (RHFP) program has benefited all ORVA members and the region as a whole, ORVA president David Crawley says. Mr Crawley said Orange had hosted a number of international trade ambassadors under the program and would host a delegation of Chinese visitors next week.