Merlot may not be venerated in Australia and it’s been “abused” in the US, but the grape “deserves more attention”, according to winemaker Chris Carpenter. Carpenter, who works for Jackson Family Wines, and heads up the winemaking for the company’s Lokoya, Cardinale, La Jota and Mt Brave wineries in Napa, as well as Hickinbotham in McLaren Vale, told the drinks business earlier this month that he’s on a mission to raise the quality profile of Merlot, even though the majority of his wines are Cabernet-based.

The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) recently received a Tanner Award for the most-cited paper published in the journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety in 2013. The paper, entitled ‘The case for anthocyanin consumption to promote human health: a review’, was published with scientists from the Edmund Mach Foundation in Trento in Italy.

The grape arrived in New Zealand in the 1830’s, brought by Roman Catholic Missionaries. Wine production began but it was mostly for religious use or family consumption. It wasn’t until the 1960s when people were in a position to travel more and more easily (why? Passenger jet airplanes!), that some Kiwis began to contemplate a self-produced wine that would pair with local cuisine rather than importing from Europe.

Protecting historically important sites does not need to come at the expense of commercial development, members of a Marlborough iwi say. Last week two Rangitane o Wairau members, wine company owner Haysley MacDonald and his father Phillip MacDonald, reached an out-of-court settlement with Heritage New Zealand after facing charges for clearing scrub and constructing a fence near a historic pa site without permission.

A HISTORIC 125-year-old brick and stone building is the centrepiece of a ready-to-roll winery business for sale at Taminick in North East Victoria. Auldstone Cellars dates back to the 1880s with the cellar built in 1891, which has been extensively restored and includes a dining and tasting room and fully functioning winemaking equipment.

Numerous recent studies have been playing with how yeast can work above and beyond the usual call of duty in sparkling wine production. The Australian Wine Research Institute’s (AWRI) superb yeast biologist Jenny Bellon continues to convince yeast to reshape itself to our needs by breeding across the usual species lines.

No one could accuse Peter Fraser of resting on his laurels. Since being named James Halliday’s Winemaker of the Year for 2016, the laidback McLaren Vale winemaker has been busier than ever, representing Yangarra Estate at events across the world and guiding the winery through a “fast and furious vintage”. When the Halliday team caught up with Pete recently, we asked if being named Australia’s best winemaker last July altered the trajectory of the 12 months that followed. “Well, I’ve done a lot more dinners,” Pete quipped.

TWENTY years ago, a 55-acre expanse of land at Glenlyon lay barren, with nothing more than blackberry weeds and the odd piece of floating tumbleweed. But a Melbourne couple saw more than simply dormant land when they gazed over the site at Green Gully Road. They had a vision, and for the coming two decades, put in the backbreaking work of cleaning, planting and building.

South Australian winemakers the Conte family have sold their long-held premium vineyards in McLaren Vale. The three Conte Estate Wines vineyards on California Road and Bayliss Road near Aldinga, planted by the family in 1965, were put up for sale last year with a $2.5 million price tag. They cover 53 undulating hectares, of which 35 hectares are planted to Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay varietals.

The price of Western Australian wine overseas has gone up, with the export market seeing a 13 per cent increase in value in the last financial year. While overall production increased five per cent, the value of WA wines increased by more than $4.6 million to just under $42 million in the 12 months to the end of June 2016, according to Wine Australia’s export report.