A cold snap has seen severe frosts hit the entire length of Burgundy’s vineyards as well as other French regions – although the full extent of the damage is so far unknown. Temperatures plunged to below zero recently leading growers in Burgundy and elsewhere in Europe to awake to an almost wintry landscape – if they hadn’t been up all night seeing to their candles and other anti-frost measures.
Wine Australia has commenced the Wine Sector Survey 2016 that will gather key pricing and crush data to form an accurate picture of this year’s vintage across Australia. The Wine Sector Survey was delivered to wine businesses nationally and – like the Wine Sector Survey 2015 – combines four previously separate surveys to streamline data collection, which will help save time and reduce paperwork for grape and wine businesses.
The final line-up is complete for Winetopia, held May 20-21 at Shed 10 in Auckland, as event organisers promise to deliver the ‘greatest celebration of New Zealand wine”. Presented by Singapore Airlines, WINETOPIA will give visitors the opportunity to taste their way around every region in New Zealand in a single session.
GONE are the days of BYO casks and cans of beer, instead wine lists across the Coast have improved with age. One of the world’s leading wine presenters and writers Tyson Stelzer, a former head of science at Ashmore’s Trinity Lutheran College, is toasting the Coast’s maturing tastes. Tyson says our restaurants are showcasing award-winning wine lists in line with our increasingly sophisticated palettes.
Vision Wine Partners is the new, specialist wine sales and consultancy business, being run by familiar faces, Nick Blair and Michael Every. Most will remember Blair from when he worked at Pernod Ricard and Every from Peter Lehmann Wines. Both have a long history in wine sales and marketing, and have now decided to combine their experience to set up a new, joint-venture that will help Australian wine brands get out from the winery and into market.
Woolworths shares jumped after the struggling supermarket group restructured its growing Wool-worths Liquor Group under a new name. A short time ago, Woolworths shares were up 3.8% to $22.07. The retailer is putting its drinks business, including Dan Murphy’s and BWS, under the name Endeavour Drinks Group.
A $1 billion subsidy for the wine industry will be slashed in Tuesday’s budget, in a move aimed at end-ing rorting by “virtual winemakers” and boosting returns for farmers. The changes are expected to benefit genuine winemakers, including small producers, but will curb the prevalence of wine that is often cheaper to buy than bottled water, known as “two-buck chuck” and sold aggressively by major liquor retailers.
Matthew Jukes is launching his new 100 Best Australian Wines list next Tuesday 3rd May at Australia House, London. This much anticipated event is a must-attend for all those visiting from across the globe and Matthew is expecting over 300 people. “As always, this publication is the result of exhaustive tastings held in the UK and Australia over the last twelve months,” Jukes said. “It represents the finest one hundred Australian wines available on the shelves in the UK for the coming year.
Merchants taking part in Liv-ex’s annual en primeur survey have declared Château Margaux to be the ‘wine of the vintage’ in 2015, but the first growths in general have been called a “mixed bag”. Every year before the campaign gets underway, Liv-ex sends a survey to its 440 international members ask-ing them a series of questions about the latest Bordeaux vintage.
Marlborough is the largest wine growing region in the country and now it is on the verge of becoming the undisputed centre of wine research. Minister of Science and Innovation Steven Joyce announced on Wednesday that a proposal to establish a wine research institute in the region had made the shortlist for a new $25 million government initiative.