Heathcote’s international reputation for exciting wines has been enhanced with impressive results for Mediterranean-style varieties at the fourth annual Saint Martin Heathcote Wine Show. Judges awarded medals to 24 wines Mediterranean class where entries more than doubled to 36 this year. Among the seven gold medals announced was the 2015 De Bortoli Villages Heathcote Shiraz Grenache also awarded trophies for best in class and best wine other than Shiraz.

Entries for the eleventh annual Young Gun of Wine are now open (until September 16), and the competition organisers, judges and sponsors are on the hunt for the best ‘young at heart’ winemakers around Australia. Established in 2007, the Young Gun of Wine has become the most exciting wine trophy in Australia. Celebrating the finest and most innovative rising stars, it is the place to spot the best new talent and trends in wine.

A 13 strong judging team , including international judges Andrea Frost and Nick Ryan, is gearing up to judge over 600 entries for this year’s Bragato Wine Awards in Auckland, on 16 and 17 August.
Andrea Frost is an award winning wine writer, columnist and author based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2013, Andrea was named Wine Communicator of the Year and her first book, ‘Through a Sparkling Glass, an A-Z of the Wonderland of Wine’, was awarded Best Wine Publication.

A recent story in Wines and Vines Magazine (W&V), Made me think way back to the 1980s when, in an effort to help New York grape growers whose livelihoods were on the line because of the collapse of the state’s large wineries, the New York legislature and governor had a bright idea: limit sales of wine coolers in grocery stores to products produced with grapes grown only in New York.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, it made “cents” to pay for wine up to two years in advance. Those were heady times, and the equation was simple. It was found in nearly every wine book I purchased back in the 1980s and early ’90s. It went something like this: “Buy two cases. Cellar one and sell the other after it’s appreciated in value. It’s like drinking for free.”

A private Iranian investor holding company, ARIC LLC is building a ‘Green Village’ wine tourism attraction in Kakheti, one of Georgia’s most historic wine producing regions. Initial plans for the Green Village project include to develop vineyards, fruit gardens, a nut plantation, a wine production facility and five-star villas in Sagarejo, a town in Kakheti, 58 kilometres from Georgia’s capital Tbilisi.

According to a recent survey of 1,586 Brits, conducted by UK research and consulting firm Ginger Research, 88% of respondents said they considered themselves a wine buff or a wine lover. The research was undertaken on behalf of The Co-Op. Ben Cahill, Co-Op wine buyer, said the survey produced some really interesting insights into how we’ve become more interested in wine as a nation.

Wine lovers will learn more about their favourite drop from scientists at The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) in an evening of wine tasting and science on 16 August in Adelaide. For more than 60 years the AWRI has provided scientific research and support for the Australian wine industry. This event will give AWRI scientists a new opportunity to share their findings with wine consumers.

Men and women harvest Merlot grapes under the scorching sun in one of Egypt’s up-and-coming vineyards, as the Muslim-majority desert country strives to win over international wine connoisseurs. “It’s a great story, what we’ve done with Egyptian wine,” said a proud Labib Kallas, as he inspected vines planted in reclaimed desert land north of Cairo on a hot day in July.

United Farm Workers—America’s largest farm workers union—is reporting that the three farm workers who died last week on three separate vineyards in California were suffering from undue heat exposure. All of the deaths took place in Kern County in California’s fertile Central Valley. However, the Kern County coroner’s office is disputing that heat was a factor in at least one of the women’s deaths, who fell ill after working in the hot sun.