Constellation Brands New Zealand has a new managing director, Simon Towns. Oliver Lewis talked to the leader of the largest wine exporter in the country about his plans to grow the business. What did you do before taking the job in New Zealand? I was the senior vice president for strategy and business development for Constellation in the United States. It was very much about setting the five-year direction of the business across both wine and spirits.

The outrageous and the unusual will be poured alongside some of Western Australia’s new release wines at the Urban Orchard this weekend. The City Wine event at the Perth Cultural Centre on Friday and Saturday will gives wine connoisseurs much more than a glass of red or white to whet their appetite.

According to an IBISWorld report, grape growing and cider production have placed fifth and six respectively in a list of the top 20 industries for export growth in Australia. The report, which looked at the five-year period from 2010-11 to 2015-16, suggested that grape growers and cider producers in Australia have enjoyed plenty of growth thanks to overseas markets in the last half-decade, with grape growers enjoying a 26.6 per cent increase in exports, and cider producers a nominally smaller 25.8 per cent increase.

A project aimed at targeting ways to reduce yield variability in Tasmanian wine crops has been granted funding from the state government’s collaboration fund. The funding was announced by deputy premier Jeremy Rockliff at the Wine Tasmania annual conference in Hobart on Tuesday. “Tasmania’s wine and food is a key motivation for many people to visit Tasmania and our tourism numbers are booming as a result,” Mr Rockliff said.

A Waikato winery backed by Irish comedian Graham Norton has signed a distribution deal with beverage giant Lion. Lion will distribute Invivo Wines’ Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough Pinot Gris and Graham Norton’s Own Sauvignon Blanc nationwide. Invivo is big on branding and notched up a marketing coup in 2011 when it secured Graham Norton as a “brand ambassador”.

A change in career has proved the right move for a Marlborough lawyer and chef, who have won scholarships to support their winemaking studies. Family law practitioner Barbara Mead and Karaka Cuisine chef Sander de Wildt, who are both in their second year of study for a Bachelor of Viticulture and Winemaking at the NMIT campus in Blenheim, are two of 120 Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology students to receive $1500 scholarships.

A 22-YEAR-OLD Tyrrell’s Hunter Valley Semillon has been declared an international Legend of Wine by the British “bible of wines”, Decanter magazine. The listing places the Tyrrell’s flagship 1994 Vat 1 Semillon among such Decanter Legends as Krug champagne, Chateau Margaux, Chateau Haut-Brion Blanc, Egon Muller-Scharzhof, Chateau Palmer, Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Chateau Lafite and Chateau d’Yquem.

Silos Estate is among the many vineyards opening their cellar doors for a three-day festival of wine and local produce this long weekend. Owner Rajarshi Ray is the festival coordinator and said most of the wineries involved were in the Gerringong, Shoalhaven Heads, Kangaroo Valley and Nowra areas. “We have got a good group of people involved this year starting in the north with Crooked River Wines and Roselea Vineyard near Gerringong.

Australia’s future popularity in the UK may well ride on the growing number of Mediterranean varieties emerging from the country, delivering a more niche and premium proposition than the established reliance on volume sales. “The mood in Australia is slowly moving back to some cautious optimism,” John Angove of Angove Family Wines told Harpers.

Philip White goes looking for election policy which could help the wine industry face the new extremities of climate. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I do believe the posh bits of the east coast of Australia just started to fall into the Pacific Ocean. Like ancient Viking gods that feed on CO2, the evil weather warriors, Niño and Niña, are at war in a manner few understand. We’ll call this wild tide early coastal collateral damage.