Accolade Wine’s chief executive Paul Schaafsma is set to bow out according to The Australian Financial Review. Schaafsma was appointed chief executive of Accolade in October, 2015 and is pulling the pin prior to the business listing in early 2017. Accolade’s 80 per cent owner CHAMP Private Equity has anointed Michael East, a 30-year wine industry veteran who is currently the general manager of Accolade’s operations in Australia and Asia as the successor.

A lawyer specialising in the wine industry says family-run vineyards need to have clear succession plans in place, in order for the industry to remain strong into the future. Wine lawyer Will Taylor said as vignerons aged, businesses needed to prepare for generational change in the industry.
He said there were conflict-avoiding and business-development reasons for having a proper succession plan in place.
“I see the disasters in my job when people don’t plan for succession,” he said.

CHAMPAGNE connoisseur Peta Baverstock is pitting her knowledge against some of the nation’s best as a finalist in the Vin de Champagne Awards in Sydney, reports The Advertiser.
The Robe winemaker and cellar door manager was the only South Australian named among the top six professionals in the country to face the judging panel and undergo a blind tasting at the prestigious award event next month.

In Max Allen’s latest wine column for The Australian, he reported on a recent tasting from the winemakers of Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. It was a good opportunity to catch up with the goings-on in this high, sprawling region north of Melbourne, to see what’s working well in its vineyards, planted variously on the slopes of old volcanoes, in forest-fringed gullies and on boulder-strewn granite plateaus.

Perennial wine winner Villa Maria again demonstrated its dominance by taking out the top prizes at the first of the 2016 awards. A Villa Maria Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot were the champion white and red at the Romeo Bragato Wine Awards. The Villa Maria Single Vineyard Ihumatao Chardonnay 2014 won the overall trophy as well as its category and the white wine section.

Central Otago winegrowers Roger and Jean Gibson are elated that a wine from their Lowburn Ferry vineyard has ranked Number One in high profile Decanter magazine in the UK. The in-depth tasting of more than 170 Pinot Noirs from across New Zealand in Decanter’s September 2016 issue was carried out by a panel of three prominent UK industry wine judges. Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2014 scored 96 points out of a possible 100, giving it ‘outstanding’ status in the tasting.
In the covering feature article reviewing the tasting, New Zealand is described as being “the best Pinot-producing country outside of France”.

The CEO of Australian Vintage Limited, Neil McGuigan, has called on the Government to continue its reforms to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate and remove it from bulk wine immediately.
As part of his Budget in May, Treasurer Scott Morrison announced some changes to the WET Rebate, including a tightening of the eligibility criteria and a stepped reduction in the rebate cap.
However McGuigan has told The Shout, that while he supports the rebate for boutique producers it should be taken away from bulk wine straight away.

The New Zealand wine industry must be ready to take full advantage of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, says a visiting wine trader from the UK. UK Wine and Spirits Trade Association chief executive Miles Beale has been in this country for the wine industry’s annual conference which was held in Blenheim. Mr Beale said the United Kingdom’s planned exit from the EU will open up opportunities for New Zealand as the UK starts doing its own trade deals. He suggests exporters move early and start discussions with the UK.

One of New South Wales’ best known and most loved annual festivals returns when the Orange Wine Festival takes over the famous cool-climate region come October. Spread from 14th to 30th October, the stacked program, celebrating 20 years of Orange as a wine-growing region, will add an additional two signature festival events along with its record 90+ satellite events, making for one of the most comprehensive regional wine festivals to date.

ONE of my favourite Shiraz in the recently published Top 100 Wines winter edition was the Redman 2012 Shiraz. Its attraction, as my tasting note suggests, is because it’s an “old-school, traditionally grown and vinified style … a wine that doesn’t show off and lingers in your senses for some time.” Last week in Coonawarra, the Redmans – brothers Bruce and Mal at the helm – added far greater meaning to their sense of tradition by opening 50 consecutive vintages of that Shiraz, starting with the first one their dad Owen made under the Redman label in 1966.