For Scott McWilliam, winemaking is a vocation. He is a sixth-generation winemaker and started working in the family business from the moment he was big enough to help out (age 14). Armed with a Post Graduate degree in Oenology from the University of Adelaide, McWilliam has established himself as one of Australia’s most promising young winemakers and belongs to the Winemaker’s Federation of Australia Future Leaders program.

While a wet and stormy winter has many South Australians counting the days until summer, flooding at Langhorne Creek south of Adelaide has grape growers smiling. Above-average rainfall means the Bremer River, which flows through Langhorne Creek and to Lake Alexandrina, has overflowed into vineyards. Robbie Potts and his family have grown grapes on the flood plain for 165 years, and use levee banks and floodgates to irrigate their vines.

Tannic Italian grape Sagrantino will one day rival Shiraz as the best red variety in Australia according to Chester Osborn of d’Arenberg. Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to London, Osborn said: “One of the grapes I’m most excited about at the moment is Sagrantino, which will rival Shiraz one day as the best red variety in Australia as it works all over the place and has great acidity.

It’s been a busy and successful decade since Rod McDonald won Winemaker of the Year. He talks about the past and the future of his Hawke’s Bay wine career. A record-breaking summer is set to translate into magic in wine bottles. So predicts Rod McDonald. The award-winning Hawke’s Bay winemaker should know. He has dedicated the past 23 years to creating delicious wine and has nabbed numerous successes along the way to prove his prowess.

OPINION: There has been much talk in the media in recent months about independence of wine writers, paid reviews and gold stickers on wine bottles that promote things other than success, all with the aim of trying to get you and me to select one bottle over another when we browse the shelves of our favourite wine supplier. In this column I want to have a look at wine shows and the judging process that means you can rely on a gold, silver or bronze wine show medal as a solid indicator of quality.

Hailstones the size of golf balls pelted the Chablis region, about 200km south of Paris, last month. It was the final nail in the coffin of this year’s crop following unseasonable frosts and rain in April. More than 1,000 acres of prized Chardonnay vineyards, especially in the southwest of the region, were all but destroyed by poor weather which also hit the Cognac and Beaujolais-producing region of Burgundy.

I recently attended a masterclass of d’Arenberg wines with winemaker Toby Porter. D’Arenberg is one of Australia’s “First Families of Wine”, with four generations of family ownership dating back over 100 years, and is based a short drive south of Adelaide in McLaren Vale. The winery encapsulates a spirit of upholding tradition; nurturing old-vine plots of Shiraz and Grenache and continuing to use the more labour-intensive basket presses in its winemaking.

Ride sharing company Uber plans to launch a new service to make South Australia’s wine regions more accessible to tourists. The company, which has a firm presence in Australia’s big cities, will this week trial an “on demand wine tour”. Uber senior marketing manager Mal Chia said the initial trial would take place in the Adelaide Hills, with other regions to follow.

THE Winemakers Federation of Australia says it is eagerly awaiting the implementation of the federal Coalition’s $50 million program which will focus on helping accelerate the recovery of the nation’s grape and wine industry. The initiative was announced in its budget earlier this year, but legislation to implement it still has to be introduced into Parliament by the government.

Tributes have poured in for one of the pioneers of the Martinborough wine industry, Richard Riddiford, who died on Tuesday. One of the early directors of Palliser Estate, Mr Riddiford died of cancer following a short illness, aged 65. He has been described as the driving force behind the wine festival Toast Martinborough, which started in 1992.