The University of Minnesota touts a popular legacy of apple breeding, but earlier this month, the school debuted a fruit that fans can sip on. The Itasca, a cold-hardy wine grape, will make its way to nurseries and licensed growers’ vines in 2017. It will be about another four years until Itasca-based dry white wines will hit liquor store shelves, said University grape breeder and horticulture professor Matt Clark.
Northern Grampians Shire Mayor Cr Murray Emerson is urging the community to support the Grampians Grape Escape later this month. Cr Emerson said the Grape Escape had grown into one of the Northern Grampians Shire’s biggest events. The Grampians Grape Escape is on April 30 and May 1 at the Halls Gap Recreation Reserve.
New Zealand and China are the only countries in the world planting more grapes. New Zealand’s vineyard area is expected to increase in Marlborough alone by about 1000 hectares a year for the next four years. In Hawke’s Bay Delegat bought an 800 ha dairy farm last year beside its 400 ha Crownthorpe vineyard, and is planting there. Wine New Zealand chief executive Philip Gregan confirmed wine plantings were on an upward trajectory.
Tradition has it that a cheeky red should accompany a lamb dish. However a glass of red may not be obligatory if dining on lamb found grazing at a winery on the Southern Highlands in New South Wales. Their diet at one vineyard could mean the taste of wine permeates their meat. Winemakers Jeffrey Aston and his two colleagues Ian MacDonald and Mark Bourne run the sheep through what is known as their tractorless vineyard.
The 2016 vintage has been heralded by grapegrowers and winemakers as ‘one of the greatest vintages in McLaren Vale’s history’. There was an exciting anticipation in the lead up to the flurry of activity through the months of February, March and April and Richard Angove, Angove Wines chief winemaker and managing director, has confirmed the predicted quality. “2016 may well go down as one of the great vintages in recent memory,” Angove said.
Hunter Valley is Australia’s oldest wine-making region. Viticulture in the Hunter, just two hours drive north of Sydney, dates back to 1820s when James Busby, considered both father of the Australian and New Zealand wine industries, was among the first to plant vines there, alongside George Wyndham. Today, the region boasts a $520.6 million tourism and wine industry with over 150 vineyards producing some of the nation’s best wines including Semillon and Shiraz.
Treasury Wine Estates chief executive Michael Clarke, whose global portfolio includes Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Lindemans, has warned Australia must move away from the poor reputation “Brand Australia” has overseas for cheap wine, to an industry that stands for more premium wine that generates sustainable profits. Addressing The Australian’s Global Food Forum in Melbourne, Mr Clarke also called on the federal government to snuff out the wine equalisation tax (WET) rebate system in its current form, which he said was “being rorted’’ and only served to further cheapen “Brand Australia”.
The master of wine, columnist and author, who recently attended a Hong Kong event for the Room to Read charity, talks to Bernice Chan about finding fine wine at university and how she chooses wines for Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. What do you make of the wine business in China? “It’s getting there. That said I’m blissfully protected from the 90 per cent underbelly of fake stuff.
With appetite for fine wine and dairy products booming on Alibaba’s import-focussed Tmall platform, it’s not surprising that chairman Jack Ma has his eyes on New Zealand. Though the e-commerce billionaire’s love for the country is apparently not just just commercially driven. During a Q&A session yesterday with the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, Ma hinted that he was potentially interested in buying land in the southern island, calling it the “dream land.”
Polina Bosca, a sixth-generation Italian winemaker, has said that frequent crop destruction due to extreme temperatures climate change all over the world is “seriously affecting” the global wine industry, because of frequent crop destructions due to extreme temperatures. She hails from Bosca is the sixth generation of the Bosca family of winemakers, of Canelli in Italy’s Piedmont region, which is known for its winery culture and the extensive presence of grape vineyards.