It was a tough year for Pokolbin Estate vineyard in 2011 after a fire gutted their cellar door in August – but they have risen from the ashes to make the best Riesling in Australasia. The boutique vineyard is not new to winning awards, boasting a long list since 1998, but this latest win has given the team a much-needed confidence boost. The prize-winning drop was the product of 40-year-old vines and a season of generous weather conditions that helped the Riesling grapes to thrive, reports The Maitland Mercury.

Amid a continuing wine glut, Foster’s wine spinoff, Treasury Wine Estates, has the opposite problem with demand outstripping supply for some of its premium brands, according to chief executive David Dearie. ”We are way short of the global demand today, and what we’ve got to do is to balance the growth of something like Penfolds with some of the other brands we’ve got,” Mr Dearie told BusinessDay.

In a year where winemakers worldwide were battling the grape glut, Mudgee’s own up-and-coming stars more than held their own. Today The Mudgee Guardian looks at the “Top 10” wine news stories for 2011.

Jacob’s Creek has signed a three-year deal with tennis legend Andre Agassi as the Australian wine brand seeks to reinforce its connections with the sport. Former Wimbledon champion Agassi will feature in a global promotional campaign for the Pernod Ricard-owned brand which will encourage consumers to embrace Jacob’s Creek’s “True Character” tagline. The campaign will be amplified throughout The Wimbledon Championships to reinforce the brand’s status as the Official Wine of Wimbledon, reports The Drinks Business.

A Victorian viticulturist has opened his own wine shop in a shopping complex in northeast China. Fred O’Keefe from Kialla in the state’s centre has been exporting his wine to the country for more than three years. He expects the Chinese market will become almost 100 per cent of his business in the next two years, reports ABC Rural.

Yarra Valley cellar doors will stay open late this summer to let wine lovers watch the sun go down with a glass of some of the finest wines in Australia. Eight cellar doors will open until dusk every Friday and Saturday evening during January and February, serving wines from De Bortoli Yarra Valley, Oakridge Estate, Domaine Chandon, Punt Road, Mandala Wines, Seville Estate, Medhurst Wines and Whispering Hills, reports the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader.

Entries are rolling in for the 2012 South Coast Wine Show. Along with the annual Shoalhaven Winter Wine Festival in June and now Harbourfeast in November, the South Coast Wine Show is one of the biggest events on the local food and wine calendar. The show is in its 13th year and attracts entries from across the South Coast Zone, including the Shoalhaven Coast and the Southern Highlands wine regions, reports the Milton Ulladulla Times.

This week, Deborah Walton-Derry and Peter Morice take a look at two wines named for the tanks they were fermented in, in The Marlborough Express. Malcolm Rees-Francis, winemaker at Rockburn in Central Otago, says the names Spitfire Gewurztraminer and Tigermoth Riesling celebrate the individuality of the wines and one of the people who has worked in the winery – “Doc” Adam Robinson.

Astrolabe Wines still has wine stuck on stricken ship the Rena and no insurance claim can be lodged until the wine is retrieved. General manager Jason Yank said his Marlborough wine company had $400,000 worth of wine on the ship that, in a cruel coincidence, hit the Astrolabe Reef in the Bay of Plenty in October. The wine was technically owned by the European importer as soon as it was put on the ship, however Astrolabe Wines has not been paid because the consignment never arrived, reports The Marlborough Express.

Two Marlborough wines are being served at a Malaysian charity wine dinner raising money for medical care, new houses and clean water in flood-ravaged Thailand. Greywacke Wild Sauvignon Blanc and Seresin Momo Pinot Noir will be poured at a Japanese restaurant, Mikan, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the Land of Smiles Thai Flood Relief Charity Wine Dinner on Monday, reports The Marlborough Express.