The Government has announced it will pass legislation to set up a geographical indications registration system for wines and spirits which will operate in a similar way to trademark registration. The Geographical Indications Registration Act will identify wines as originating in a specific region and the distinct qualities or reputation it has due to that; examples in the wine world are French Champagne and Burgundy. Philip Gregan, New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive officer said the move will equip the wine industry with the tools to protect its premium brands from misappropriation or misuse.

A university researcher is training sniffer dogs to detect pest and disease in vineyards. Dogs have traditionally been trained to sniff out drugs, explosives and even missing people, but their new target could be phylloxera – a devastating disease that feeds on the roots of vines and can eventually kill an entire vineyard. Melbourne University viticulture and animal science researcher Sonja Needs said she could train any breed to be a sniffer dog.

A prominent South Australian winemaker has faced court accused of destroying more than $300,000 worth of wine from a Barossa Valley winery. Trevor David Jones, 57, has been charged with serious criminal trespass and property damage. Jones previously made wine for Kellermeister Wines at Lyndoch, where it is alleged he deliberately opened taps on four wine tanks releasing nearly 25,000 litres of wine in February. He now runs his own winery, Trevor Jones Fine Wines, also based at Lyndoch.

Some Adelaide Hills grapegrowers have been forced to abandon their entire vintage after their grapes tested positive to smoke taint from the Sampson Flat bushfire. One of the growers and winemakers, Frank Baldasso, was trapped on his property during the January blaze, and counted himself lucky to have survived as the fire roared through one of his vineyards. He had lost about a quarter of his vines, but he was safe, and optimistic that the smoke – thick enough to block out the sun, but quickly swept away by the wind – could not have ruined the rest of his precious vintage.

The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) has welcomed the federal review announced into the nation’s tax system. Paul Evans, WFA chief executive, said the review would be an opportunity to highlight the role Australian wine plays in supporting tens of thousands of regional jobs.
“Industry profitability, structure, production risks and the economic footprint of Australian wine compared to spirits and beer are very different and clearly justify why wine warrants a different tax rate,” Evans said.

Naked Wines, the online wine retailer which crowdfunds independent winemakers through its customer base of over 250,000 ‘angels’, has found that its consumers are favouring higher alcohol wines. Eamon Fitzgerald, Naked Wines’ UK managing director said there was a growing preference for “punchier, more intense wines with a higher alcohol content than people were used to a few decades ago.”’

New Zealand’s agriculture industry threw down the proverbial gauntlet in 2012: “We’re going to double our agriculture-food exports by 2025.” Industry expert Dr. Keith Woodford reviewed the aggressive policy earlier this month on NZFarmer.com. The key to reaching the goal, he said, is wine.
“If agri-food is defined widely to include wine, then Marlborough wine has certainly been one of the greatest success stories of the last fifteen years,” Woodford wrote. “During that time, there has been a 12-fold increase in production.”

Three years’ rain falls in three days, causing chaos during harvest. Chile has declared a state of emergency after freak rains brought devastation to the north of the country, killing at least nine people and causing extensive infrastructure damage. In the Elqui Valley, Chile’s northernmost wine region, the unexpected March deluge played havoc with vineyard access mid-harvest, but it also brought hope for growers who have endured a lengthy drought.

New Zealand Winegrowers Association is hosting a series of events to celebrate the sixth annual Sauvignon Blanc Day, which is set to be held on Frday 24 April. The activities which will include tasting and seminars, will kick off in New Zealand, to be followed with separate events in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Germany, London, Toronto, New York and San Francisco. The final event in San Francisco will be a tasting held at Twitter’s headquarters.

John Casella, the managing director of Casella Family Brands (CFB), has told TheShout that he is excited about the future of Peter Lehmann Wines (PLW), after buying the company last year. After reporting a financial loss for the first half of the year, Casella said this was to be expected because of the purchase of PLW as well as other tough market and economic conditions. Casella told TheShout: “There are obviously high costs associated with the change in ownership that have had a significant impact on the overall loss reported.