South Australian winery Sidewood Estate has today announced its acquisition of a 25ha vineyard on Ironstone Road at Echunga in the Adelaide Hills. The cool climate location of the new Echunga property fits with Sidewood’s current vineyards at Oakbank, Verdun and Nairne. Owen Inglis, Sidewood Estate owner, said the new vineyard will be dedicated to producing more Shiraz varieties, after a surge in popularity was making it difficult for the winery to keep up with demand.

A Hunter Valley winemaker has raised $1.8 million to take his marketing-led wine brand global and beat his industry’s “self-limiting” ways. Chris Archer spent 20 years making wines for others in the Hunter Valley and New Zealand, before his frustration led him to launch a beverage startup with his wife, Cath, in 2009. “I want wine to go up against Heineken or Red Bull, these strong global brands that plug into the existing infrastructure in whatever territory they’re taking on next,” he says.

Yalumba has announced it will further develop its brands in China through a new distribution partner-ship with ASC Fine Wines (ASC). The partnership will see ASC, which is owned by Suntory Wine International (SWI), become the exclusive distributor in mainland China of wines from The Yalumba Wine Company and Hill-Smith Family Vineyards including its sister vineyard Nautilus Estate of Marlborough, New Zealand.

Australian Vintage Limited is one of Australia’s largest wine producers and the architect of some of the country’s most recognisable brands, including McGuigan, Tempus Two and Nepenthe. But despite brand notoriety and years of award-winning winemaking under the belt, some confusion remains around just who Australian Vintage Ltd is. So, Ashley Pini, Publishing Editor or drinks bulletin, sat down with General Manager for Australasia and North America, Cameron Ferguson, to set the record straight.

Woolworths Liquor Group has announced that it will be changing its name to Endeavour Drinks Group. The company informed supplier partners today. Endeavour Drinks Group will incorporate Woolworths’ banners: Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Cellarmasters and Langtons. Rose Scott, General Manager Merchandising and Marketing said the company wanted a new name that would differentiate its liquor business from its supermarkets food business.

Grapegrowers tend to base weed control choices on what they used successfully in the year of their best yields. They may vary those choices somewhat to account for specific problems their scouts turn up, but usually there are two or three compounds they use year after year. Instead of finding contin-ued success and high yields, those “tried-and-true” weed control compounds are bringing two other things to vineyards: herbicide-resistant and herbicide-tolerant weeds.

Producers of New Zealand’s most popular wine variety, Sauvignon Blanc, are aiming to show off the diversity of their produce at a London tasting in May. The New Zealand Sauvignon: Re-discovery and New Directions tasting while take attendees through Sauvignon wines from different regions and sub-regions in an attempt to show the range of differences possible in the eponymous variety.

A Taranaki fruit winery has been placed into liquidation. In the High Court at New Plymouth on Tuesday, an order was made to liquidate Sentry Hill Winery (2006) Ltd due to an unpaid debt of $130,000 owed to New Zealand Customs. According to the statement of claim, Sentry Hill owed Customs $140,741.30 for four instalments of unpaid tax since December 2013.

ONE of Europe’s largest conglomerates is venturing into agricultural technology for the first time by investing $2.5 million in an innovative Tasmanian start-up business. In a world first, the Bosch Group — one of the world’s leading technology suppliers — will invest in Tasmanian business The Yield in a partnership that includes a global licensing deal. Several Tasmanian farmers are already reaping the benefits through their participation in the development of The Yield.

Meerea Park winemaker Rhys Eather is a man who likes to make you wait. It’s not discourteous, he just wants to give his flagship Alexander Munro wines bottle age, besides not producing them in years when they don’t pass tough quality tests. That philosophy shows in four wines which have just arrived on my tasting bench. We have two first-release Munro wines from the 2011 vintage, which Rhys rates almost as highly as 2014.