Italy will be attending this year’s LIWF, returning with one of the largest stands. Many of the consorzio from key regions have signed up for the show and will take their place alongside other key national generics, reports The Drinks Business. A statement released today announced: “Brintex has confirmed that Italy will have a strong presence at this years’ show. Sicily, Friuli, UVIVE (Veneto), Lombardia and ICE – the national Italian pavilion – are all on board for 2012, as well as major producers such as Zonin and Fratelli Martini.

Tesco’s fine wine revamp has paid off – the retailer has seen sales jump 50% in the past year. The fine wine range was overhauled by Laura Jewell MW after identifying that customers were increasingly trading up on wine. The facelift was carried out in June 2011, both in store and online. Although fine wine sales have increased by 50% in the past 12 months, Tesco was unable to provide supporting figures, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

Legacy Wines, the recently launched impulse, export and on-trade division of Manchester-based Kingsland Wines & Spirits has added New Zealand brand Shorn to its portfolio. The addition follows the launch the South African range, The Gathering, which launched in January. Legacy’s contemporary New Zealand brand ‘Shorn’ currently offers a Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (rrp £7.99) from the Marlborough region, and plans to expand the range throughout the year, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

Legacy Wines, the recently launched impulse, export and on-trade division of Manchester-based Kingsland Wines & Spirits has added New Zealand brand Shorn to its portfolio. The addition follows the launch the South African range, The Gathering, which launched in January. Legacy’s contemporary New Zealand brand ‘Shorn’ currently offers a Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (rrp £7.99) from the Marlborough region, and plans to expand the range throughout the year, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

When John Geber stumbled upon one of Australia’s oldest wineries on a morning bike ride in 1998, he saw a giant Bavarian-style chateau in shambles. All the windows were broken, there were gaping holes in the roof and pigeon droppings were everywhere. He found out the property, in the Barossa Valley in southeastern Australia, was for sale. Realizing it was a national treasure laid to waste, he bought Chateau Tanunda the very next day. He spent the next decade pumping millions of dollars into restoring the long, rectangular brick building and reviving its 220-acre vineyard, home to more than 100-year-old Shiraz and Grenache vines, reports Market Watch.

Given that I’d been long-seduced by its Sauvignon Semillons, was crazy about its Cabernet blends, and had been excited by what I’d been hearing about its culinary scene, it was amazingly only last year that I finally made it over to Margaret River. And when I finally arrived in Western Australia there were surprises in store, writes Jo Burzynsca in The New Zealand Herald.

Trevor Mast, longtime winemaker at Australia’s Mount Langi Ghiran winery and a legend in the Victorian wine industry, died of pneumonia on 8 March, following a five-year battle with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He was 63. Mast established Mount Langi Ghiran as a benchmark of cool-climate Australian Shiraz over 20 years, nurturing old vines in a dramatic, granitic site in the shadow of the mountain of the same name in Victoria’s Grampians region. The wine is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most distinctive single-vineyard wines, writes Tyson Stelzer in Wine Spectator.

As I write in the opening days of autumn, a potentially great Canberra vintage hangs in the balance – threatened by a massive band of rain moving across south-eastern Australia. If it hangs around too long, mildew and Botrytis could threaten the crop; if too much rain falls, berries might split, increasing disease risks and reducing yields. Should mild, clear weather follow the big wet, however, the district may yet produce some of its best wines ever, several producers say. By the time you read this, we’ll have some idea of the outcome, writes Chris Shanahan in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Maxxium Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s largest and most prolific wine and spirits distributors founded in 1999, is changing its name as of 1 April to become Edrington Hong Kong Limited. The company will work in conjunction with the Edrington Group, the major private group in the Scottish whisky industry, reports The Drinks Business.

London wine merchant Bibendum has revealed a list of wines that will be served at the London Olympics this summer. Along with classics such as a 2008 Meursault Cuvee Charles Maxime Domaine Latour-Giraud and 2006 Brunello di Montalcino Castello Banfi, corporate guests will be served 2010 Best’s Dolcetto, a 2006 Quinta do Seival Castas Portuguesas from Brazil and a 2009 Quinta do Vallado Tinto from Portugal. In a nod to the host nation, the 2008 Hush Heath Balfour Brut Rosé will be on offer. The 2006 Balfour Brut won Silver at the Decanter World Wine Awards last year. This is the only English wine in the list of 18 wines so far announced, reports Decanter.