Cape Town – The Distell Group has had to recall tens of thousands of bottles of wine after a hiccup at one of their bottling plants left small fragments of glass in some wine bottles. Several different brands of wine were recalled from the UK, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Liberia. Distell said the tiny glass fragments had come to light when one of its agents in Japan had carried out quality assurance tests on the South African wine.
We are decades away from seeing commercially planted genetically engineered (GE) grapevines, but the research has already begun. All major grape-growing countries in the world are studying grape genomics and engineering, including Australia, Italy, Germany, USA and South Africa, with research mostly focused on disease resistance. When the pathogenic apocalypse descends on the world’s grapevines, scientists will be ready to fight back.
France could be about to loosen its strict control over the advertising of alcohol with wine industry chiefs once again complaining they are being shackled as they try to promote the country’s most famous product. Alcohol helped spark an almighty row in France on Monday with the government and its health minister on one side and wine industry chiefs on the other. What caused the rumpus is France’s tight controls over advertising of alcohol, which were brought in back in 1991 as part of a bid to cut a worrying rise in alcohol consumption – especially among young people.
New Zealand’s primary sector export revenues will probably drop 8 percent to $35.2 billion this year, due to a substantial decline for dairy and forestry products although the outlook for the next four years is rosier. The Ministry for Primary Industries’ latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries shows revenue for dairy, the traditional heavyweight in the primary sector accounting for 40 percent of total export revenue, is expected to decrease 22 percent to $14.2 billion in the year ending June 30, 2015.
South Australian wine producers are seizing opportunities to boost their wine sales in the Shandong province, as part of the recently signed China Australia Free Trade Agreement. Barossa-based winery Seppeltsfield said last week that it has secured a 1.5-million-litre annual exports deal with the Shandong-based Nanshan group, as one of the several business agreements signed during an official visit of South Australian Premier’s delegation to the Shandong province, China.
Tyrrell’s Wines has unveiled one of Australia’s first commercial solar power purchase projects as part of a string of environmentally-friendly measures that the winery has introduced. The 1350 solar panels were installed by Sunlease (a Solgen Group company) after Tyrrell’s had the dream five years ago to reduce energy production per dozen by 20 per cent. They didn’t know where to start or if the economic investment would be worth it, so approached Solgen three years ago to get the ball rolling.
NORTHDOWN is home to the first commercial winery on the North-West Coast after Ghost Rock officially opened its $1 million venture yesterday. Hundred Acres is a winery and food interpretation centre that will allow the Northdown vineyard to grow, pick, make and bottle its own wines on-site. The food interpretation centre has been equipped to host food and cooking workshops that will be matched with the vineyard’s world-class wines.
Pernod Ricard, maker of wine including Jacob’s Creek and Wyndham Estate, has filed court action against the Environment and Heritage Department. It wants the Environment, Resources and Development Court to overturn the department’s refusal to allocate extra River Murray irrigation water to its South-East vineyards over winter. The department denied the allocation application, saying it was filed two days after the deadline, but Pernod Ricard claims it can prove otherwise.
Faults were found among almost half of the 1,815 Swiss wine producers inspected in 2014, with 854 showing minor irregularities and 36 major shortcomings. “In particular the companies committing major errors blended wines illegally,” said Philippe Hunziker, head of the Swiss Wine Trade Inspection on Thursday. Improper labelling was also noted in the report of the wine inspectors and cantonal chemists. “All the irregularities were the result of human error or administrative negligence,” said Patrick Edder, a chemist in canton Geneva, adding that small as well as large cellars were involved.
The Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers association have launched their new branding campaign after acknowledging the regions third stellar vintage in a row. They said their new look is about telling the Hawke’s Bay story, which will provide them with a great platform to build on. Plans for a new central brand were approved last year and will rovide an umbrella brand that all Hawke’s Bay wineries can come under. It’s new branding will feature what designers considered to be the heart the industry – the rivers.