FIRST Karl Roberts noticed early season stress on leaves in a block of pinot noir vines at Capella Vineyard, on the Mornington Peninsula. “We had a few days of excessive heat in the December of 2014 and the leaves were colouring and falling off in one block of pinot,” he said. Next, Karl — the vineyard manager for Capella Vineyard, owned by Handpicked Wines — attended a seminar run by Landcare about regional trials of compost under vines.

Angove Family Winemakers is zeroing in on going completely organic as the movement gains ever greater ground in Australia. Speaking to the drinks business, John Angove, explained that with 270 acres already certified organic and another 19-20 acres set to follow next year, “ultimately we’re looking at the option of the entire 400 acre vineyard being organic. We need to see what the demand will be but we’re seeing a lot of interest and other big companies doing likewise.”

Australia’s largest wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, recently announced an initiative to put a spotlight on the regionality of their wines. The message was clear. Australia’s biggest wine company was moving away from ‘brand Australia’. Should other wine brands follow? Emilie Reynolds reports.

The prices of most winegrape varieties in the Murray-Darling and Swan Hill wine regions increased this year while production dropped marginally. Data provided by wineries to Wine Australia for the 2016 Murray-Darling / Swan Hill Wine Grape Crush Report revealed a 27% increase in the average price of Chardonnay, up from $223/tonne to $283/tonne.

In the early hours of June 24, the mobile phones of executives at BI began buzzing with e-mail alerts. BI is a London-based wine merchant, known until recently as Bordeaux Index, and the messages signalled heavy trading on their Internet platform. “The [Brexit] referendum results had come in and the guys in Hong Kong were trading, bang, bang, bang, £100,000, £100,000.”

California wines sales both domestically in the US and international hit a record of 276 million cases in 2015, with an estimated retail value of US$31.9 billion, according to the Wine Institute located in California. Of the record breaking numbers 229 million cases were shipped domestically. “California wines continue to attract global recognition for their outstanding quality and value.”

One of Wanaka’s pinot noir secrets – Akitu A1 2014 – is out of the bottle. Hawkesbury Estates’ Akitu A1 2014 won four awards at the acclaimed International Wine Challenge in London on July 7, including the New Zealand Pinot Noir Trophy and the IWC Sustainable Trophy. For Hawkesbury’s vineyard manager, Steve Blackmore, the wins are just reward for more than 10 years of patient management. “There are a lot of awards out there and this is one of the best,” he said.

Delegat Group, New Zealand’s largest listed wine company, has revised its forecast net operating profit for the 2016 financial year up $1 million to $37 million on record case sales. Net profit is expected to be $54 million for the year ended June 30, including a $17 million fair value adjustment to biological assets such as its vines and grapes Delegat said in a statement to the NZX. It also said it achieved record case sales of 2.4 million for the year, up 9 percent on last year.

Norfolk Rise Vineyard has attained one of Australia’s top wine awards this week when it claimed a trophy at the 2016 Royal Queensland Wine Show. The Trophy was awarded to Norfolk Rise Vineyard for their 2015 Shiraz, claiming ‘best Shiraz of show’ with 96 points, outperforming over 400 other Shiraz entries from across the country.

WINEMAKERS on the Granite Belt are rejoicing after local vineyards took home big accolades in the Brisbane RNA wine awards last week. Granite Belt wineries claimed a total of 19 medals of the 21 which went to Queensland wineries in the RNA, which was announced on Friday. A massive 11 of those went to Symphony Hill Wines. Symphony Hill winemaker Mike Hayes said the win was “surreal” for their team. “We’re sort of pinching ourselves,” Hayes said Symphony Hill winemaker Mike Hayes was thrilled after winery’s big wins last week. “It’s incredible.”