Congratulations to Jordan Hogg from Seresin – the Tonnellerie de Mercurey NZ Young Winemaker 2016. The National Final was held on Tuesday 23 August at MRC and the winner was announced at the Bragato Wine Awards dinner on Thursday 25 August. Congratulations also goes to Alex Roper from Mission Estate, Hawke’s Bay who was the runner up. Tom Hindmarsh and Matt Fox were the other finalists, also performing strongly throughout the competition.

Alibaba has launched a flagship Australian wine store through its Tmall platform, providing an opportunity for Aussie winemakers to tap into the lucrative Chinese market. Australian winemakers are set to benefit from Alibaba’s latest offering — a flagship business-to-consumer wine store offering Australian wines through the Tmall.com platform.

NSW wine industry personalities including Bruce Tyrrell, Iain Riggs, Darren De Bortoli and Bill Calabria helped launch the inaugural First Planted Lunch in Sydney on Friday. The Langtons-sponsored event featured a live wine auction conducted by Matthew Caillard MW which included a number of rare and unusual items including a barrel of Tyrrell’s 2016 Vat 47 Chardonnay which sold for $12,232 and a double magnum of Lake’s Folly Cabernet which sold for $990.

THIS has got to be Australia’s craziest wine. And no — it’s not picked by naked maidens under a blue moon. It’s not even foot-stomped by unicorns. And it’s certainly not some unpronounceable grape variety imported from Outer Mongolia. In fact it is made from an astounding 108 different grape varieties, grown in the Barossa Valley and mashed together into an extraordinary rose blend that defies all winemaking conventions.

Tasmania’s East Coast wine region is booming, with 19 vineyards in operation. Many were started by farmers wanting to diversify and value-add to their land. Businesswomen Helen Bain and Subi Mead are capitalising on the local industry’s growth with their new business, The Farm Shed East Coast Wine Centre at Bicheno.

Orchardists and grape growers have backed up Prime Minister John Key’s comments on the difficulties of getting beneficiaries into seasonal work. He said the New Zealand Seasonal Workers Scheme, which is designed to give unemployed locals a job as opposed to a separate programme which brings in people from the Pacific Islands, had issues with locals who “just can’t muster what is required to actually work”.

The Federal Government’s tax reform of the wine industry is squarely targeted at those producing bulk and unlabelled wine. Big retailers like Coles and Woolworths, which produce wine, will also lose the rebate. The government is currently meeting with the industry as part of its consultation into the changes.

Hawkes Bay wine company Rod McDonald Wines is the only New Zealand winery and business to win a prestigious prize in the 2016 Harpers Design Awards. The internationally recognised design awards, made up of a high calibre judging panel, received entries from ten countries around the world, with only five picking up an award.
“The standard was high, with some stunning examples of enticing and engaging design, really lifting those products above the ordinary,” said Harpers editor Andrew Catchpole. “But our brief as judges went beyond purely aesthetical considerations, looking at how well the design of each product had been tailored to the client’s brief and its target market.”

The WEA Conference and Exhibition WineEng 2016 will be held at the Serafino Winery in South Australia’s McLaren Vale region this week (September 7 and 8). The conference is a significant and unique event on the wine calendar, concentrating on many aspects of wine production and aimed at production operations personnel (winemakers, engineering and maintenance staff, bottling and packaging management, general management as well winery suppliers). The common goal for those who attend is to ensure that the Australian wine industry remains competitive both in the domestic and global markets.

Global architectural firm The Buchan Group has uncorked its design of the Mt. Beautiful Tasting Room in Cheviot, New Zealand, aimed at introducing food and wine enthusiasts to this internationally successful, locally grown wine label. Mt. Beautiful is a premium North Canterbury wine brand grown and produced at Spotswood, nine kilometres north of Cheviot. The tasting room based in Cheviot showcases its varieties in Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay. Sympathetic to the timber-themed design of the adjoining Two Rivers Cafe, the fitout uses a blend of natural materials to reflect the environment of the vineyard.