The South Australian Farmers Federation says there is damage to some wheat and other cereal crops from heavy rain. There is concern grape crops also may have suffered damage from weekend rain, reports ABC Online.

The countries newest wine region is rolling up its sleeves to pop the corks for 6000 visitors.
ABC Rural reports A Day on the Green, a music festival held at wineries, has just been announced it will be coming to the New England region of NSW for the first time

The countries newest wine region is rolling up its sleeves to pop the corks for 6000 visitors.
ABC Rural reports A Day on the Green, a music festival held at wineries, has just been announced it will be coming to the New England region of NSW for the first time

Amps Fine Wine is heading to New Zealand after coming top in a competition encouraging on-trade buyers to boost wine sales. Harpers reports the incentive competition, which coincided with the Rugby World Cup, was held by New Zealand Winegrowers along with tournament organisers NZ2011. The aim was to encourage on-trade buyers to increase the diversity of New Zealand varietals offered by the glass and on main wine lists.

Amps Fine Wine is heading to New Zealand after coming top in a competition encouraging on-trade buyers to boost wine sales. Harpers reports the incentive competition, which coincided with the Rugby World Cup, was held by New Zealand Winegrowers along with tournament organisers NZ2011. The aim was to encourage on-trade buyers to increase the diversity of New Zealand varietals offered by the glass and on main wine lists.

There is only one way to lift this current malaise and economic gloom and that is with a glass of fizz. The Yorkshire Post reports if we all pop the corks on sparkling wine this season then we won’t be able to hear Europe’s currency collapsing around us and our spirits will be lifted sufficiently to cope with whatever crisis appears next.

There is only one way to lift this current malaise and economic gloom and that is with a glass of fizz. The Yorkshire Post reports if we all pop the corks on sparkling wine this season then we won’t be able to hear Europe’s currency collapsing around us and our spirits will be lifted sufficiently to cope with whatever crisis appears next.

The season’s deep discounting and the accelerated fall in wine volumes in the last weeks of the year will have a lingering hangover effect on the trade in 2012. That’s the opinion of sector leaders and analysts, who foresee volumes falling by up to 5% and up to one million wine drinkers leaving the category by the end of the year, reports Harpers Wine & Spirits Trade Review.

The 2012 winegrape crop should amount to 1,351 714 tons, according to industry (producer cellars and viticultural consultants) estimates on 29 November 2011. South African wine news site, wine.co.za, reports the early vintage figures represent an increase of 3.9% compared to the 2011 crop, but is nevertheless 5.2% smaller than the record crop of 2008. The 2012 wine crop – including juice and concentrate for non-alcoholic purposes, wine for brandy and distilling wine – is expected to amount to 1 043.4 million litres.

Over the past couple of months I’ve hosted — as always — a number of private “wine-tertainment” events. Phillip Silverstone, writes in Montgomery News, that my decision to use the same wines at all the events made sense, since the likelihood of the same people attending multiple events was slim (don’t misunderstand me — I’m not suggesting they wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to see me multiple times — it’s simply that the locations were quite a distance apart.)