With six months to go before the 2017 winegrape harvest wineries have been active in securing grapes, according to Murray Valley Winegrowers executive officer Mike Stone. “There’s far more interest at this time of the year than is usual because wine stocks have declined and the export demand for Australian wine is growing,” Stone said.
There were no sour grapes on the NBR Rich List this year, with wealthy wine company owners and families cashing in on the growing industry. The New Zealand wine industry reached new heights this year, posting a record $1.57 billion worth of exports in the year to June, up nearly 10 per cent on the previous year. This increase in exports, driven by demand in the United States, has lined the pockets of the wine rich, most of whom posted increases in personal worth, according to the National Business Review.
Preservative-free wines don’t age — and you need to drink them quickly once you’ve opened them, right? Well, not necessarily. If they have been made well, using pristine grapes, and if they have been stored carefully, good preservative-free wines not only have the capacity to mature for years in the bottle but they also can drink surprisingly well for a while after opening.
As a vine ages, it establishes a root system and framework of trunk and cordons. Over the decades, new layers of growth, like the rings on a tree, result in more solid, twisted and gnarled old vines. The dry-grown ‘Great Grandfather’ Shiraz vines, planted during the 1860s, in Henschke’s Hill of Gracevineyard are a perfect example of pre-phylloxera vine stock that continue to produce low-yielding, intense, flavourful and balanced fruit.
A brand new trophy and additional awards and medals will be up for grabs at South Australia’s Limestone Coast Wine Show, with entries now open for the 16th annual event. The introduction of a Wine of Provenance Trophy is among the significant changes in store for the October show, providing a platform for exhibitors to enter three vintages of the same wine.
Six leading independent wine experts have come together to create “The Fine Wines of New Zealand” a list of the country’s most prestigious wines which has a solid line-up from Hawke’s Bay. A selection panel comprising Masters of Wine Alastair Maling, Michael Brajkovich, Sam Harrop, Simon Nash and Steve Smith, along with Master Sommelier Cameron Douglas, has agreed on the list for 2016, which includes 47 wines representing seven varietals.
Vintage in danger as massive blaze continues to frustrate firefighters. Monterey County’s best wine grapes are in peril as an enormous fire is burning out of control to their windward side. The fire that started in Soberanes Creek in Big Sur on July 22 has grown to cover more than 38,000 acres. It has destroyed 57 homes and has burned one vineyard already. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
A WATER treatment company is using the Internet of Things to command an army of bacteria in the battle against polluted winery wastewater. South Australian company Factor UTB has developed technology to alter the treatment environment for winery, industrial and municipal wastewater.
TWENTY years ago local winemakers opened their cellars for the first Gisborne Wine and Food Festival. Annie and James Millton, who own Millton Vineyard, started the festival alongside a small number of other wineries. “It helped bring fun into the hard work that goes into creating a wine,” Mr Millton said. On Monday, tickets will once again go on sale for the festival taking place on October 22 and 23. However, this year’s Labour Weekend event will be unique.
Hong Kong-backed Belvino Investments has sold its Dunvar vineyard in the NSW Riverina to Casella Wines for about $12 million and its Del Rios vineyard on the Murray River in northern Victoria to GoFarm Australia for between $22-$25 million. In a third big vineyard sale, family-owned Kingston Estate Wines snapped up the 252-hectare New Residence vineyard near Loxton in South Australia’s Riverland region from a Seven Fields investment syndicate for an undisclosed sum.