New Zealand brewers want to further capitalise on their booming beer exports by accessing a tax break currently only accessible to Australian brewers. By excluding NZ brewers, Australia’s Brewery Refund Scheme that was introduced in 2012 may be in breach of the current free trade agreement between the countries. The NZ brewers say the success of their winemaking counterparts after they were given access to the Australian Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate gives an indication of the scope for growth.

Australian restaurants have some of the best wine lists in the world, after winning big at the annual World’s Best Wine Lists Awards. Organised by the UK-based magazine The World of Fine Wine, the awards give out one-, two- and three-star rankings to restaurant wine lists. Australia won big, with 249 restaurants picking up awards, second only to the United States, which has 312 restaurants making the grade.

Wine exporters from across the region have raised a toast to the Chinese free trade deal which they hope will grow the Australian brand in the major market. Shaw Vineyard Estate owner Graeme Shaw, of Murrumbateman, said the greatest benefit of the progressive elimination of trade tariffs would likely be promotional opportunities. The free trade agreement, signed by Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday, was expected to remove the 14 per cent tariff on Australian bottled wine, and 20 per cent slug on bulk wine, across four years once in effect.

A team of University of Adelaide students won the inaugural Tech eChallenge award for a new software system aimed at saving the wine industry millions of dollars each year – and their work could also be applied to global food production. The team, called Seer Insights, developed the GrapeBrain software system, which they hope will improve the efficiency of production in viticulture.

During Woolworths Limited’s trading update this week, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Grant O’Brien announced that he would be retiring later this year. The decision comes after the company revealed continued declines in Q4’15 sales. Specifically, Woolworths’ Food and Liquor business reported declines in May and June, mirroring those recorded in Q3’15. While seeking a replacement for Mr. O’Brien, the company has therefore also announced that it will be cutting up to 1,200 jobs to reduce costs.

A Hunter vigneron has hit out at the country’s peak wine industry body, accusing it of failing to fairly promote and market Hunter wines. Ballabourneen Wine Company has lodged a submission with a senate inquiry into the Australian wine industry. It says the Australian Grape and Wine Authority is not providing value for money or due recognition to the Hunter Valley as one of the country’s prestige wine regions.

In case you thought the threat to the Riverland region from volumetric tax had abated, think again. While preparing this report another ‘story’ appeared in the press alleging the supposedly unfair nature of the current tax system. On the anti-alcohol website ‘The Conversation’ there is a report calling for the end of cheap wine casks. Once again, this story cherry-picks evidence to suit the cause. It quotes the cost of alcohol damage to society as “upwards of $15billion per year”; a figure from a 2008 paper that has since been discredited.

The American wine market, already the world’s biggest, still has “phenomenal” potential for growth if handled with care, US wine professionals said this week at the world’s leading wine fair, Vinexpo. “We are a young thirsty nation,” one expert said, referring to the 370 million cases of wine guzzled in 2014 — 25 percent of them imported — as well as the steady growth in wine consumption in the past two decades, which is expected to see an 11 percent hike between 2014 and 2018.

Diageo shares spiked following a rumor that LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton would move to buy the company’s 34 percent stake in Moet Hennessy. LVMH, the world’s largest luxury good provider, sold a portion of its Moet Hennessy wine and spirits unit to Diageo, the world’s biggest spirits groups, in the 1990s. There had been sporadic chatter over the past six years that LVMH would sell off even more of Moet Hennessy, giving Diageo majority or even full ownership, according to multiple sources

A MYSTERIOUS woman who roams the streets of Botany, in Sydney’s southeast, in the early hours of the morning has conned dozens of residents out of their wine. Nicknamed “the wine lady” by residents on the Facebook’s Botany Bay/Mascot Notice Board, the woman tells her victims a heart-wrenching story about her mother suffering a stroke. She then requests an alcoholic beverage.