IT all began with Russell and Dennis, two school-teacher mates who shared a taste for a good drop of red but whose financial resources didn’t match their vinous aspirations. So in 1992 the pair teamed up to make a barrel of their own Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which was bottled, proudly labelled Rusden and consumed with great gusto. Russell Gehling and Dennis Canute followed up in 1994 with a home-made Rusden Shiraz, which earned considerable local appreciation and was nicknamed “Black Guts” and “alcoholic Ribena”.

Two of the Yarra Valley’s most distinguished wineries, Coldstream Hills and Toolangi, are joining forces to celebrate two varieties the region is famous for: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. ChardonnayPinot15 will be held between 11 and 12 July at the RACV Healesville Country Club with a range of activities for both producers and consumers. According to Garry Hounsell, Toolangi Vineyards owner, ChardonnayPinot15 is the ultimate event for lovers of Burgundy-style wines. “It’s not every day that you get to indulge in a selection of the finest expressions of Chardonnay and Pinot noir from Australia, France, New Zealand and the USA, whilst being tutored by a panel of esteemed wine critics.

SYDNEY: California’s longest and sharpest drought on record has its increasingly desperate water stewards looking for solutions in Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent. The struggle to survive with little water is a constant thread in the history of Australia, whose people now view drought as an inevitable feature of the land poet Dorothea Mackellar dubbed “a sunburnt country.”

Lucrative deals have been struck between the South Australian Government and China during a trade mission overseas but details cannot yet be divulged, Premier Jay Weatherill said. Using wine as his prime example, Weatherill said: “Across China, on average, they consume a litre per person per year, whereas in Australia it’s more than 20 litres. If China’s (consumption) was to grow to 15 litres as they project, there’s massive opportunities there.”

The Cresswell Jackson New Zealand Wine Trust has awarded funding for two University of Otago projects, both designed to benefit the country’s wine industry. The first was awarded to Associate Professor David J Burritt of the Department of Botany to undertake research concerning the process of extracting phenolics during the winemaking process. Professor Burritt said, “The wine industry is incredibly important to the New Zealand economy.”

MORE than 200 wines from 50 wineries across Australia have been entered in this year’s Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland Wine Show and Mediterranean Challenge. The annual show will be held at the Clive Berghofer Events Centre at the Toowoomba Showgrounds this weekend. Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland chief executive officer Damon Phillips said there was a huge range of wines available for tasting. “We have been running the show for 16 years now and we are the first wine show on the calendar,” Phillips said.

Cider Australia, the national industry body representing more than 60 cider producers and suppliers, has joined the alcohol taxation debate, saying cider should be taxed in the same manner as wine.
The body’s position is that cider is a fruit wine and that the industry mirrors that of grape wine from fruit growing, production and manufacturing through to sales and distribution.

Mitchell Taylor, the managing director and winemaker at Taylors Wines has said that a move to volumetric tax “would be a disaster for the industry”. Following Neil McGuigan’s letter to the Australian Financial Review last week, Taylor has written to the same newspaper calling for a quick decision by the federal government regarding wine taxation. Taylor wrote: “The wine industry is united in its approach to freeze the amount of tax we pay as we are currently the highest-taxed wine-producing country in the World.”

Mitchell Taylor, the managing director and winemaker at Taylors Wines has said that a move to volumetric tax “would be a disaster for the industry”. Following Neil McGuigan’s letter to the Australian Financial Review last week, Taylor has written to the same newspaper calling for a quick decision by the federal government regarding wine taxation. Taylor wrote: “The wine industry is united in its approach to freeze the amount of tax we pay as we are currently the highest-taxed wine-producing country in the World.”

TASMANIA’S wine industry has a positive outlook with growing international interest in local vineyards. Lake Barrington Vineyard manager and White Rock Vineyard owner Phil Dolan said there was a lot of potential for the Tasmanian wine industry to grow, but it needed to match the market. This echoes what Wine Tasmania CEO Sheralee Davies told the ABC on Wednesday. Davies said the expansion needed to match the growth in domestic and export demand to remain sustainable.