Dave Powell is larger than life. The loud-mouthed Australian is big in every way possible – size, volume, ambition, but he makes wines of surprising delicacy. I meet with him on a Tuesday morning at private members’ wine club 67 Pall Mall in St James’s. Running late, he apologises for leaving me hanging a further five minutes while he nips outside for a smoke. Dressed in chinos and a white shirt with his hair tied back in a ponytail, the 53-year-old admits that the staff had to lend him a blazer to meet the club’s formal dress code. “At least they managed to find one that fits,” he quips.’

The Daniel Pontifex Memorial Trust, with the support of Wine Australia, is now accepting applications for the 2016 Daniel Pontifex Scholarship. The scholarship offers a rising hospitality star professional placements in some of London’s finest restaurants as well as the opportunity to visit wine regions to further their career and knowledge.

When Tourism Australia launched the ‘Restaurant Australia’ strategy in 2015, Nathan Gogoll was impressed to see the efforts to put food and wine in focus. But he questions whether the Australian wine industry actually got any traction from the promotions. TOURISM AUSTRALIA RESEARCH, conducted across 15 of Australia’s key tourism markets, shows ‘great food, wine, and local cuisine’ is a major factor influencing holiday decision-making (at 38 per cent), ranking just ahead of world-class beauty and natural environments (37 per cent).

THE NEW wine equalisation tax (WET) could have grave consequences for many of Orange’s wine producers. Along with the Wine Federation of Australia, Orange producers want the government to retain the $500,000 WET rebate cap and not reduce it to $290,000 and also bring forward from July 2019 to July 2017 changes to exclude bulk and unbranded wine from the rebate.

Karissa Kruse has a mission. The charismatic president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission wants to raise the price wineries pay for Sonoma grapes, which now sell for much less than those in Napa County, and her approach is multifaceted. Part of her strategy is to position Sonoma as a leader in sustainability. The commission’s board of grape growers has set a goal of having all of its members fully sustainable by 2020.

Sue-Ann Staff, 45, made wine in Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment at Pillitteri Estates, 20 Bees and Megalomaniac before establishing Sue-Ann Staff Estate Winery Inc. I was a competitive figure skater, so if I came home after school on the bus I’d always keep an eye out for my grandmother’s car, because that’s where the crew was working. I’d come home and ask my mom what farm she was on.

The 2016 New Zealand grape harvest has finished, with high quality fruit being picked across the country. Producers benefited from excellent summer and early autumn weather in grape growing regions, enabling full ripening and flavour development. Philip Gregan, New Zealand Winegrowers CEO, said growers and wineries were looking for a larger vintage going into harvest.

The wine industry in Marlborough is entering its end game, according to one industry expert. Cloudy Bay Vineyards estate director Ian Morden said there used to be plenty of useable land in the region, but now the end game was in play as companies began to compete for scarce vineyard space. He compared this to players on a chess board, positioning themselves to acquire the best vineyard land for the kind of wine they wanted to produce.

With the Australian wine category returning to health in the U.S. market, Barossa Valley-based Peter Lehmann Wines aims to capitalize on the segment’s growth.Acquired from Hess Family Wine Estates by fellow Australian winemaker Casella Family Brands for about $50 million in 2014, the brand is currently relaunching in the U.S. under Casella partner Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, unveiling new packaging across a streamlined portfolio.

Matt Lowe and Jason Standley of Wrattonbully’s Treasury Wine Estate have taken out the State Government’s Vinnovation Award with their invention, which helps to safely dispense sulphur into grape bins. Currently sulphur, which prevents browning of grapes, is applied manually. This new idea is an automated system where the bin is positioned under a nozzle connected to a pre-mixed tank of sulphur solution.