Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) President Dr Mardi Longbottom today announced two new fellows. Brian Croser AO and Di Davidson AM have been honoured for their particularly outstanding and meritorious contribution to the grape and wine industry and to the Society by being admitted as fellows of the ASVO. “Selection was particularly difficult this year because of the extremely high calibre of individuals nominated for our Fellows program said Dr Longbottom and for the first time more than one member was recommended by the selection committee.

Despite many Australian women enjoying in the occasional glass of wine, fewer dabble in a career within the industry, and viticulturist Sarah Collingwood wants to change that. Her parents have had a vineyard for the past 18 years, but she did not start working full-time in the wine industry until seven years ago. “Now John [my husband] and I haven’t left, and we hope we’re doing this for the rest of our lives,” she said. Ms Collingwood said women only made up roughly 10 per cent of viticulturists and wine makers in Australia.

The world’s best winemaker has been named at the 2016 International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) in London, with Australian winery McGuigan Wines being crowned International Winemaker of the Year – and in doing so became the only winery in the Competition’s history to win the title four times. Having won the title in 2009, 2011 and 2012, McGuigan Wines saw off competition from the world’s wine producing nations including France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the USA to become the first winemaker in the world to receive the award four times.

At a celebratory dinner at the Adelaide Botanic gardens restaurant, President Dr Mardi Longbottom announced the winners of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) annual Awards for Excellence. The Awards program recognises professional excellence in viticulture, winemaking and research. The Award recipients have made outstanding contributions to the Australian wine industry through the implementation and promotion of innovative practices and processes to enhance Australian grape and wine production. The ASVO Viticulturist of the year, was awarded to Colin Hinze, of Taylors Wines in the Clare Valley, South Australia.

Aldi is poised to sell wine online in China in the second quarter of 2017 using its Australia business as a base. The discounter has been rumoured to be mulling a launch in mainline China since 2014, when it was reported by the Guardian, however a report in German trade publication Lebensmittel Zeitung announcing the online-only move last week has been confirmed to the Australian media by Aldi. The Aldi spokesman quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald said the discounter had been researching the market and undertaking feasibility studies for several years and was now ready to launch an e-commerce site in mainland China during the early part of 2017.

Monday’s quake has hit the rural community hard, leaving farmers without power and affecting vineyards in the busy bottling period. The earthquake has struck at one of the busiest times for vineyards in Marlborough and North Canterbury who are bottling wine for export. Part of the land at Trevor Burkhart’s vineyard in Blenheim that backs on to the Opawa River has slumped about a metre. “There are big cracks through the vineyard, we’ve got to try and figure out how to fix that. The problem we’ve got with the vineyard is with ongoing spraying – you can’t actually get the tractors in now.”

News of the passing of the Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Amendment Bill in parliament last night has been welcomed by New Zealand Winegrowers. “The Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Act will be a significant advance for the New Zealand wine industry,” said New Zealand Winegrowers CEO, Philip Gregan. “Our ‘Geographical Indications’ – the names and places where our wines come from – are at the very heart of the New Zealand wine story and this new law provides an additional level of protection for them.”

The enigmatic origins of the Syrah variety have finally been decoded thanks to the science of DNA analysis. University of California Davis researchers collaborating with Monpellier University in France have been responsible for solving many of the most difficult amplelographic questions of our time, including the parentage of the Syrah variety. For over a century wine experts have speculated over the origin of Syrah, proffering theories that it originated in the similarly named Iranian city of Shiraz or was brought by Phoenicians from Syracuse in Sicily. Both theories turned out to be erroneous. US and French scientists proved that the parents of Syrah are two rather obscure French grapes.

Coolangatta Estate’s success at major wine shows continues with the Shoalhaven Heads vineyard run by the Bishop family winning Best Wine at the 2017 Sydney International Wine Competition. Cellar door manager Ben Wallis sad Coolangatta Estate’s 2009 Wollstonecraft Semillon has won three trophies this week including the Joy Lake Memorial Perpetual Trophy for Best Wine of Competition. He said it was great achievement for his father-in-law and viticulturist Greg Bishop who nurtured the vines to produce the highest quality wine possible.

Australian vintners are beginning to recognize what went wrong between 2008 and 2013. In the late-1990s, Americans became obsessed with wines from the Land Down Under. For most of this millennium’s first decade, fruit bombs with quirky names and eye-catching labels flew off the shelves of U.S. retailers. But sales soon began free-falling. Between 2008 and 2013, the U.S. market for Australian wine declined by more than 20 percent.