Marlborough grapegrowers have had their most profitable harvest in more than five years. Caythorpe Family Estate grower Simon Bishell said strong demand for Marlborough wine overseas and favourable exchange rates had resulted in higher grape prices. New Zealand Winegrowers had not released their official numbers, but Bishell estimated the average price for Sauvignon Blanc grapes would have been around $1800 per tonne.

Maori residents of the New Zealand town Murupara have rallied together in an attempt to block the opening of a new liquor store by staging a protest. The town, which lies on the north island, is home to less than 2,000 people, a third of whom are under the age of 15, according to The Guardian. But not only that, Murupara, which is predominantly inhabited by Maori people, has been in decline for a number of years now, with the median wage standing at just NZ$17,000 (£8,000) per annum.

Within the convenience sector wine sales’ growth is outpacing the rest of the wine market and for those suppliers, particularly of New World wines, and retailers with identifiable brands and new formats, the opportunities to capitalise on the sector abound. Australian and American wines have done phenomenally well in the impulse channel and combined have 40 per cent of the market share.

The man who brought us Alpha Box & Dice is back with a wine label that pays homage to the oft-forgotten heroes of the business – the growers. After Justin Lane moved away from Alpha Box & Dice, the winery he founded, and he and partner Angie Bignell sold their bar Cantina Sociale, there was no chance he was going to disappear completely.

That got your attention! It’s the top of mind question for many; almost as critical as the need to know the final water allocation for 2017. Despite most growers and wineries having completed the 2016 harvest months ago, no-one has the answer to the ‘total crush’ question; never mind the ‘accurate’ crush by region. There will be ‘estimates’ but with so many tonnes being crushed ‘out of the region of origin’, no individual or organisation can be confident of national, State or regional data.

HIGH altitude, reliable rainfall and ideal terroir make Orange a great place to grow grapes and make wine. However, despite the favourable conditions, Orange vignerons must continue to improve their techniques to re-work old vines with new grapevine varieties and clones to remain industry leaders. Some of these leading techniques will feature at the Orange Agricultural Institute Training Centre on Tuesday, June 7.

California’s In Pursuit of Balance winery association is calling it quits. With fewer than 40 small wineries from around the state, it never amounted to much in a commercial sense. But its stance and that it knew balance echoed faintly across the vast market of U.S. consumers like someone talking in a canyon. It could be heard when the wind blew in the right direction.

It’s the height of irony. Irrigation systems designed to buffer farmers from the effects of a warming planet may be causing them to think their local area is cooler and wetter than it is, says research published June 1 in the journal Global Environmental Change — perceptions that other studies suggest may slow their efforts to address climate change.

Mahana Estates and its winemaker Michael Glover are taking a stand against the practise of ‘paid for’ reviews in the interest of transparency for wine consumers. Glover said he has been surprised by the prevalence of the ‘paid for’ wine review since moving to New Zealand and taking up the role of winemaker at Mahana.

Noisy Ritual’s name stems from the idea that some cultures historically used “noisy rituals” to aid wine fermentation. When Cam Nicol, Alex Byrne and Sam Vogel open its doors on June 18, Melbourne’s first permanent urban winery will offer these raucous rituals in the form of workshops, a cellar door, exhibitions and pop-ups. The team began making wine when they found a fermenter under Nicols’ house in 2014. In 2015 Noisy Ritual was born as a pop-up, group-winemaking experience in Preston.