The Ritzling. It may be a hard name to swallow for some, given it really is just a cutesy rebranding of Riesling, but it’s a beautiful drop. Launched in 2009 by award-winning winemaker Chris Archer, of Archer McRae Beverages, the Ritzling was bred out of Archer’s frustration with the wine industry, specifically its marketing constraints. The Ritzling, targeted at females aged 25-55 and young metro males, comes in a bottle resplendent with images of a semi-gothic lion’s head, a butterfly and a peacock, reports Auckland Now.

Getting serious wine buffs to agree on which is the greater red wine style, Bordeaux or Burgundy, is akin to getting a roomful of economists to agree on anything. Bordeaux is the classic blend involving Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Petit Verdot and Malbec. It can be all of the above, sometimes with a dash of Carmenere, or it can be a combination of just a few such as St Emilion wines, which often rely on Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Burgundy, by contrast, is a single varietal: Pinot Noir, writes John Hawkesby in The New Zealand Herald.

Winegrape varieties could soon be developed with a much higher tolerance to the harsh Australian conditions. Plant scientist Matthew Gilliham, from the University of Adelaide, was awarded $22,000 by the Grape Wine Research and Development Corporation to map the genetic make-up of a key grapevine rootstock. Viticulturists use rootstocks of grapevine plants to impart favourable characteristics in their winegrape varieties, reports ABC Rural.

Coonawarra grapegrowers say close to ideal conditions over the past season should lead to a good Cabernet vintage. Growers will this week begin to harvest red varieties after the sparkling and white harvest began last month. The president of the Coonawarra Grape Growers Association, Daniel Newson, says good weather has allowed the grapes to ripen slowly, reports ABC News.

When it comes to wine, vintage is everything. Distant years are spoken of with great fondness, while some decades earn hushed reverence with wine lovers. That might be logical when it comes to the content of bottles, but what about the people working on those precious liquid? Without fresh faces the viticulture industry will be dead on the vine. It’s lucky then that there are people like Sam Bowman jumping into the wine world boots and all, reports ABC Central Victoria.

The Riverina’s massive 280,000 tonne winegrape harvest is deteriorating by the day in flood water. Riverina Winegrape Growers chairman Bruno Brombal expects losses to total up to 30,000 tonnes in the region. Mr Brombal said many grape varieties were infected with Botrytis, rendering them useless for wine making. He said growers in the Yenda district, near Griffith, had lost entire crops in the midst of harvest, reports Weekly Times Now.

If you happen to be one of those travellers who chooses an airline on the basis of the quality of its wine list then you might be surprised to hear that Aussie budget carrier Jetstar is a pretty good bet. At the annual Cellars in the Sky competition, run by Business Traveller magazine, Jetstar came equal first – with Delta Air Lines – in best business class white with its New Zealand Waipara Hills Sauvignon Blanc. It also took second place for best on-board business class cellar, reports The New Zealand Herald.

American billionaire Bill Foley has thrown his clout behind New Zealand, pushing to increase his winemaking business here 16-fold. Mr Foley, the chairman of two Fortune 500 companies, told The New Zealand Herald he saw an opportunity to build up exports from wineries around the country. He would push New Zealand wines on his global distribution channels and expand production from 60,000 cases a year to a million, he said.

Yealands Estate wines are offering customers the chance to submit their best green ideas and be in to win cash and other great prizes. Using a unique code from specially marked bottles of wine from the Yealands Estate portfolio, shoppers can submit their ideas online, with one lucky winner receiving $10,000. A second prize will be offered for the most creative green idea submitted. The winner, judged by Peter Yealands, will receive an exclusive trip for two to the winery including a tasting and sustainability tour with the Yealands Estate team, reports Voxy News.

A study shows that only 5 per cent of Australians are able to identify safe drinking levels, reports the Weekend Sydney Morning Herald. Winemakers understand why some people like the idea of health warnings on alcohol containers. It’s simple, consistent, gets the message onto the product itself and is easy for policy makers to implement and monitor. The problem is that warning labels don’t change drinking habits. Instead they impose unnecessary restrictions and costs on producers and take a simplistic approach to dealing with a complex problem, writes Stephen Strachan of Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.