Mike Winter from Amisfield has taken out the Bayer Central Otago Young Viticulturist of the Year for 2016. This is the third year Winter has taken out the title and he is very determined to take out the National title this year, especially as it is the last time he can compete. He will be too old next year as cut off age for the competition is 30 years old or younger on 31 December, so Winter will be putting a lot of time and effort into study and preparation over the next few weeks.

In Napa, words like “organic” and “biodynamic” can be seen as a drawback. Mildew and viruses may actually make wine taste better, but you might not want to get into the true dirt of organic farming with consumers. These were two of the takeaways from Napa Valley’s 10th annual organic grapegrowing conference last week.

A Waitaki winery is experimenting with an ancient wine technique to produce orange wine. Orange wine was first produced about 5000 years ago in Georgia. The wine was made when white grapes, with seeds and skins included, were mashed up and placed in a container and left for a period of time with little to no additives included in the ingredients list, website Wine Folly says.

Australia’s wine sector recorded increases in the average purchase price of winegrapes and its overall crush this year, according to the Vintage Report 2016 released yesterday at the 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference. The report, released by Wine Australia, the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia and Wine Grape Growers Australia, showed an increase of six per cent in the national crush to an estimated 1.81 million tonnes.

The boss of Woolworths’ Pinnacle Drinks arm, which supplies 73 different house brand wines to Woolworths’ liquor retailing stores including Dan Murphys and BWS, says having exclusive brands is increasingly important to the company’s liquor retailing operations in a highly competitive industry.
Woolworths has come under heavy criticism for increasing the amount of house brands it is stocking on its shelves across its $8 billion liquor retailing business and squeezing out branded wine producers.

One of Australia’s biggest family-owned wineries wants to become the country’s first zero-waste wine producer, and has invested more than $15m to achieve this goal. De Bortoli Wines, which has wineries at four sites in two states, has already cut the amount of waste it disposes to landfill from 300 tonnes a year to 48 tonnes as part of a long-term sustainable business plan adopted in 2004.

Australian vignerons will soon have a new weapon to fight wine fraud, with chemical analysis helping authenticate whether a wine comes from the Barossa or Beijing. In a response to the growing problem of second-rate wines being fraudulently sold under premium labels, researchers at the Australian Wine Research Institute are working to identify unique chemical signatures of the country’s famous wine regions.

UK consumers still perceive Australian wine to be homogenous and dominated by big brands, according to the CEO of Berry Bros & Rudd. Speaking at the Winemakers Federation of Australia conference in Adelaide earlier today, Dan Jago, who assumed leadership at the UK wine importer, retailer and merchant last year, warned that Australia’s “fine or esoteric or artisan wines” are not cutting through in the country.

Slattery Auctions if offering over 1,500 Cases of Roscrea Estate Wine by tender. The wine was made by a high profile Hunter Valley Establishment and there are three great wines for offer. Listed below are the wine tasting notes and quantities: 2014 Roscrea Estate Verdelho: With grapes collected from the Hillside vineyard at Roscrea homestead, this wine shows fruity notes on the nose with hints of lemon and passionfruit.

Business is picking up for a Marlborough nursery that supplies grape vines to the wine industry after a devastating downturn almost a decade ago. Ormond Nurseries, outside Blenheim, was one of around 35 businesses around New Zealand supplying the industry before the 2008 harvest. General manager Ben Wickham said the huge harvest, which saw speculators swamp the market with bulk wine, dropped prices and killed demand for new plantings.