A cheap dessert wine from Aldi has won a top international award – beating out bottles that cost three times as much. The budget supermarket’s £5.99 Berton Vineyards Botrytis Semillon from Australia took out the gold medal, awarded by industry experts at the International Wine and Spirits Competition.
The Six Nations Wine Challenge is a Sydney-based wine show that uses an international judging panel to compare the very best wines from six countries (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, Canada and the US). This is the 14th year of the competition.
Jackson Family Wines’ latest purchase continues a trend of big corporate players entering Oregon’s wine scene, but observers aren’t worried the newcomers will dilute the industry. Jackson Family, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., and perhaps best known for its familiar Kendall Jackson label, is buying WillaKenzie Estate winery in Yamhill, Ore.
Wine Australia has launched an updated and improved Gross Margin Ready Reckoner. The Gross Margin Ready Reckoner is a free and confidential business planning tool that allows wineries to run different production and market scenario simulations to determine the most relevant price point for their wine in a specific export market. Wineries can model the impact of changes in product mix, pricing, markets and distribution strategies on their profit margins.
As two Chinese companies emerge as possible suitors for Accolade Wines, speculation is mounting that Champ Private Equity could sell the company through a trade sale rather than an IPO. China Resources, the company which owns the world’s biggest selling beer, Snow, and Kweichow Moutai Company, which produces Moutai, are circling Accolade, which is priced at over $1bn.
The vineyards, winery and business assets of Pask Winery are for sale. Pask owns just over 58ha of vineyards in the sought-after Gimblett Gravels and a winery on Omahu Rd. The company’s wines have consistently enjoyed gold medal and trophy success in the UK, Australia, Asia, USA, Canada and New Zealand across a range of varietals and wine styles.
The Australian wine brand, which has been a headline sponsor since March 2014, will use the renewal to build on its widespread marketing and advertising campaigns around England Cricket, which last year saw a £4 million consumer marketing campaign during the Ashes. Accolade Wines general manager (UK & Ireland) Rob Harrison said the company was delighted to renew the partnership.
Jackson Family Wines is taking advantage of a ‘generational shift’ in Oregon and is also keen buy more vineyards in Australia, as well as potentially southern England, group chairman Barbara Banke has told Decanter.com.
Demand for the latest release of Australia’s most famous wine, Penfolds Grange, will be put to the test as the price hits an all-time high. It coincides with reports Grange is no longer the most collected wine in the country, overtaken by the cheaper Penfolds Bin 389. With Penfolds and its parent company, Treasury Wine Estates, raising the cost of a single bottle of the impressive 2012 vintage Grange to a recommended $850 when it goes on sale on October 20, up from $785 for the past two releases, retailers and wine industry insiders remain uncertain of the public’s response.
Food industry exec leads huge turn around at treasury wine Estates.