Close your eyes and think of a sommelier. What image springs to mind? Did you picture a middle-aged Frenchman with a bunch of grapes pinned proudly to his lapel? While this stereotype has been unswervingly pervasive in the wine trade, particularly among consumers, it is one that is proving to be increasingly out of step with reality. In fact, it’s being smashed to pieces by a new tranche of fresh-faced female sommeliers.
Rioja’s array of different wine styles means it is now practically impossible to define the character of the region’s reds according to one Master of Wine. Speaking during a historical tasting of Rioja wines made in Haro held in the Spanish town last Friday, Tim Atkin WW said: “It is almost impossible to define Rioja today as there are so many different styles. “I think the idea of traditional versus modern Rioja is old hat now – we’ve moved beyond that. Producers like Cune and Muga have both styles in their ranges.”
The fifth Great Sherry Tasting took place in London this week attracting a record number of trade visitors to sample wines from more than 38 producers, represented by 23 of the UK’s leading importers. More than 300 members of the trade attended the event hosted by Beltran Domecq, president of the Consejo Regulador in Jerez, who described the market for Sherry in the UK as “vibrant”.
Blue Apron, a $US2 billion company that wants to make cooking easy by sending you perfect portions of ingredients in a box with a recipe, is now expanding its offerings to deliver wine too.
The wine delivery service is called Blue Apron Wine. Every month you’ll get six 500-milliliter bottles of wine — about two-thirds the size of a normal bottle of wine — delivered to your door.
Villa Maria will release its first organic wine in Australia, the 2013 Villa Maria Private Bin Organic Merlot, available from 1 October. The organic wine is the product of 16 years of work towards natural and sustainable vineyard and winemaking practices as the company edges towards its goal of having 50 per cent of its company owned vineyards organically managed by 2020. Fabian Yukich, executive director of Villa Maria, has been a passionate proponent for sustainability at Villa Maria for 18 years.
Per capita consumption figures on a par with northern Europe make New Zealand a market ripe with potential for wine exporters, a new report claims.UK-based Wine Intelligence said 60 per cent of the adult population of New Zealand drinks wine at least once a month, on par with the Netherlands and Sweden, and ahead of the UK. While overall consumption volumes have remained relatively stable over the past few years, some categories have shown noticeable growth.
A TASMANIAN winery has taken on some of the most famous wine brands in the world at China’s biggest wine competition and come away with gold. Bream Creek Vineyard’s 2011 Pinot Noir was awarded a gold medal at the most prestigious wine and spirits competition in China — the 2015 China Wine and Spirits Awards, in Hong Kong. After becoming the largest and fastest growing wine market in the world, the Chinese market is receiving a further boost thanks to the rising popularity of wines among younger consumers.
A new type of genetic test being performed by a liquid-handling robot at Lincoln University is taking DNA testing to the next level with its ability to deliver five times the standard amount of data used to identify grapevine varieties. Developed by Dr Darrell Lizamore at Lincoln University and delivered by Zebra Biotech, the new transposon marker test is a unique DNA testing process not available anywhere else in the world, offering an alternative to and improvement on existing methods.
Saddlers Creek and Thomas Wines were the big winners at the Hunter Boutique Winemakers Show this week. The awards, held at the Crowne Plaza on Thursday night, celebrate the efforts of the smaller wineries and is invariably a hotly contested affair. Saddlers Creek’s 2009 Semillon took out two major awards – it was named best white wine of the show, and also took out the Karl Stockhausen trophy.
The Canberra region’s high-quality 2015 wine vintage will face the judges as two wine shows begin this week. The Australian Cool Climate Wine Show at Murrumbateman and the Canberra and Region Wine Show at Exhibition Park provide opportunities for the best drops to be compared as the next growing season begins. Canberra District Wine Industry Association president John Leyshon said he and other wine producers had enjoyed an impressive past season, with a doubling in the weight of grapes produced on his own winery.