Working for an advertising agency in Sydney in the 1960s, Marion von Adlerstein remembers a time when long client lunches were still de rigueur and afternoons finished with drinks in the boardroom. The drinks served were mostly beer, spirits or fortified wines such as sherry. Wine was still regarded as ”a little bit of plonk” and if you ordered champagne at a bar, you received an Australian sparkling such as Great Western. All that changed for von Adlerstein when she met the man who would become her second husband, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

With the euphoria of the Rugby World Cup finally ebbing, please excuse an indulgent retrospective analogy. In New Zealand’s world of wine there are a handful of stars that have an international reputation, a number that hover beneath the radar of critical acclaim, and then there’s the rest who do a fine job but have yet to establish themselves as major players. That reliable, unflashy but always dependable “lock of ages” Brad Thorn is a perfect example of someone who you’d always love to have in your team because he just gets on with it and does the business, writes John Hawkesby in The New Zealand Herald.

Grossly intoxicated young women, some incontinent and smeared in their own blood, are a symptom of Toast Martinborough wine festival’s “feral” drinking culture, police warn. They say some wineries appear to have breached liquor licensing laws by continuing to serve people who were clearly intoxicated. One vineyard encouraged festival-goers to scull full glasses of wine, reports The Dominion Post.

Soil and vine health should be assessed according to the mineral content in a wine. Speaking at this month’s Biodyvin tasting in London, Olivier Humbrecht MW stated, “Finding a high mineral fraction in a wine is a sign of a soil that functions properly and a sign that the vine is able to extract these minerals from the soil.” Humbrecht, who is president of the 15 year-old Biodyvin association, made this comment during a seminar called “Minerality in biodynamic wines” held during the London tasting, reports The Drinks Business.

A sale of Burgundy wine at the world’s biggest charity auction Sunday drew lower bids than in previous years as economic jitters hit home. The sale of the so-called President’s Lot is a highlight of the annual “Hospices de Beaune” auction, at which rich wine enthusiasts bid for fine Burgundy wines in a yearly sale whose proceeds are donated entirely to charity. But economic worries crimped enthusiasm at Sunday’s sale. Most auctioned bottles drew less than their expected bids, while the President’s Lot — a 460-liter barrel — raised 110,000 euros, reports Reuters.

Besuited fat old men with black teeth droning on about malolactic fermentation is the last thing the wine industry needs if it wants to educate and attract younger consumers. That’s according to Pancho Campo MW, founder of the Wine Academy of Spain, who said that wine’s image should be “simple and sexy”, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit. Speaking at the recent Wine Future 11 conference in Hong Kong, Campo said: “The biggest problem of the next generation is that we are losing millennial consumers [aged between 18 and 25].”

Asia’s thirst for rare and fine wine is moving beyond the dining table as the industry seeks to tickle the region’s capital markets as well as its taste buds. China is already the fastest-growing wine consumption market globally, and industry experts say wealthy Chinese business people are now also developing an appetite for the investment opportunity that wine offers, reports AFP.

The future of National Wine Month hangs in the balance after WSET boss Ian Harris said he will no longer run it. The month long festival, which launched last year, aims to raise a peak of awareness about wine – encouraging new consumers into the category and pushing existing wine drinkers to trade up. Harris said given the 30% growth in the WSET’s operations worldwide, he no longer had the time to dedicate to organising it, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

Around 10,000 revelers have once again flocked to the Wairarapa for the 20th annual Toast Martinborough festival. Spread across eleven wineries and with musical acts ranging from Rodger Fox to the Warratahs, the sun shone on festival goers throughout yesterday, reports NewsTalk. Toast Martinborough General Manager Rachael Fletcher says the day ran smoothly.

Australia’s independent winegrape growers are being urged against taking a “business as usual approach” in negotiating contracts with grape purchasers for the 2012 harvest. Wine Grape Growers Australia Executive Director Lawrie Stanford gave the warning while launching new online information tools to help growers negotiate their grape sales. The online initiative was launched last week at WGGA’s annual general meeting in Adelaide, reports Stock and Land.