The 10th annual International Sweet Wine Challenge (ISWC) highlighted the diversity on offer in this category, with the top trophy presented to a Viognier for the first time. Previous winning wines have included Semillon, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer, but this year it was time for Viognier to shine.
The 2013 Freeman Dolcino (meaning “little sweetie”) is made from Viognier grapes harvested at very high sugar levels and fermented by wild yeasts in a combination of old and new oak barrels.

NSW Small Winemakers Show celebrated its 24th year of competition this year. 568 entries were received from 90 small producers that crush a maximum of 500-tonnes annually. More than 45 per cent of wines entered received a medal, the highest-ever percentage recorded at the show. Gold medal wines came from a broad spread of regions, including the Hunter Valley, Canberra District, Hilltops, South Coast, Mudgee, Orange, Southern Highlands and Riverina.

Western Australia has continued its supremacy over the eastern states in the wine stakes battle.
Wineries from the Swan Valley, Great Southern, Dunsborough and Margaret River took home the major gongs at the heavily-contested 2015 Perth Royal Wine Show.
With almost 2100 wines poured and judged at this year’s show, competition was hot.

The highly-anticipated Australia Trade Tasting (AuTT) took place in Melbourne last week. Trade professionals from across the Australian adult beverage industry came together to taste trending beer, wine and spirits and attend a series of seminars on the state of the US and Australian markets. Three days of events took place in Melbourne, followed by a final day of trade only tastings in Sydney today, September 7.

Australia’s free trade deals with Japan and Korea have been in force for half a year, but agricultural exports are already up.
Beef, grapes, wine and mangoes have shown the biggest rises in the first six months of 2015.
The reports, from industry and government sources, come as Labor is under pressure to clarify its position on the China Free Trade deal.

Wine Marlborough’s longest serving board member Ruud Maasdam is to step aside at this year’s elections after 15 years.
Maasdam, owner and winemaker at Staete Landt Winery, has served on the board since 2001 and is one of four board members, along with Simon Clark, Laurin Gane and Guy Lissaman to step down from the 11-person board.

The 4th annual Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology’s (ASVO) Awards for Excellence have been officially launched, with the ASVO calling for nominations for the prestigious awards.
Since their inception, the ASVO Awards for Excellence have attracted a high calibre of entrants and are now recognised within the industry as a demonstration of expertise for wine industry professionals to aspire to and achieve.

On Thursday, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) made public comments on wine tax that were immediately and strongly disputed by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.
“FARE makes the claim that wine taxes are low in Australia compared to other countries which is incorrect,” said Paul Evans, the WFA chief executive.

House of Arras 2005 Grand Vintage Brut was crowned Best Australian Sparkling Wine last night at the Awards Dinner of the 2015 Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships.
“Tasmania is undoubtedly Australia’s most exciting sparkling wine region, while Ed Carr of Accolade is definitely its most prolific, award-winning, sparkling winemaker.”

Following on from last week’s discussion about wine tax are some suggestions from industry how reform of tax can meld with focusing on rebuilding demand to assist industry recovery. So what are some of the ideas put forward so far, asks Riverland Wine?