A warm and wet spring has caused havoc in the vineyards of Andalusia where vintners report that fungus is threatening this year’s sherry production. Winegrowers fear that as much as 80 percent of their crop could be destroyed thanks to mildew fungus caused by warm temperatures and unusually high rainfall during spring. Wine producing cooperatives across the Jerez region, which lent its name to the fortified wine, have reported devastating effects on their crop.

Cape Town – South Africa’s wine industry could add a further 100 000 jobs by 2025, mostly in the Western Cape, following the signing this month of the Economic Partnerships Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) countries. So said Michael Mokhoro, stakeholder relationship manager for South Africa’s wine and brandy industries.

Over the past couple of weeks, the issue of chequebook wine reviewing has had another round of airplay. It’s a tangled web that has raised a number of questions. For example, are all the shiny “Recommended by” stickers you see on wine bottles in our stores created equal? And are all wine writers who are hosted by a winery, or groups of wineries, compromising their integrity?

Australian winemakers are fuming that their New Zealand counterparts receive $18 million in tax rebates funded by Australian taxpayers. As part of the Closer Economic Relations trade deal between the two countries, New Zealand winemakers are entitled to rebates from a system originally set up in 2004 to boost regional employment in Australia. The Australian Financial Review has reported that winemakers were expecting that following an overhaul of the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET), the rebates would end for New Zealand producers, who have up until now been claiming $25m a year.

A poll in the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill wine regions later this year will have a say in shaping the future of the local winegrape sector. The current four-year term of the Murray Valley Wine Grape Industry Development Committee (IDC) ends in December, meaning that all wine grape growers in the two regions will be required to vote on it continuing. The IDC operates under Victorian legislation, which by agreement with the NSW government also extends across the border.

A national survey of small and medium winemakers has found widespread pessimism about proposed changes to the wine equalisation tax. The 2016 Federal Budget revealed plans to lower the WET rebate from $500,000 to $290,000, with businesses without a financial stake in processing facilities no longer eligible. The results found more than one third of the 600-odd producers who took part in the survey would be worse off under the changes, while 40 per cent would not be eligible for the rebate.

Wu Zhendong sees himself as something of a wine buff. The 25-year-old lawyer from China’s western city of Chengdu is a member of his local wine club, likes to drink Chateauneuf-du-Pape – and now, like many of his peers, buys most of his wine online. Wu reflects a major shift in China’s $14.2 billion wine market, where increasingly price-savvy shoppers are driving a boom in online trade, upending the fast-growing market that has long been dominated by large-scale importers.

Western Australian agribusinesses are exploring e-commerce as a method of selling their products into China. While it can be a slow and challenging process, e-commerce is showing signs of success for some sectors. The first order of an Australia Post pilot program to send wine direct to consumers in China will be shipped next month Six months ago, the program between Australia Post and five Western Australian wineries was launched to sell wine on the popular Chinese-owned website 1688.com.

The past three months have been disastrous for the Champagne vineyards because of the awful weather. This will be a make or break week in the grape growers fight against mildew.
Between mid-April and early May there were a succession of heavy frosts. The growers in the Côte des Bar were the most severely affected. In Les Riceys 200 grape growers had 75% of their vines destroyed. The buds were burnt by a surprise winter frost. They are going to have to use their reserve wines and grapes from undamaged vines to make this year’s Champagne if they want to compensate their losses.

The New Zealand Wine Growers vineyard register 2015-18 arrived in Mark Henderson’s inbox recently. While he’s neither a statistician nor a mathematician, he enjoyed having a burrow into the facts and figures within as it gives a real ‘state of the play’ of our local industry. The plantings of all varieties are mapped out by region, and ranked nationally for both the current and previous year, with forecasts for the two years ahead. You can see where things stand, and spot any developing trends.