Yarra Valley winery Levantine Hill Estate has appointed Ben Shillito as its sales manager to expand the emerging brand’s presence across Australia and help launch a program for international sales. Shillito was previously the national sales and marketing manager for Adelaide Hills’ winery Bird in Hand. Samantha Jreissati, managing director, said she was pleased to welcome Shillito to the team.
In any given four-week period last year, Australian adults drank just over 426 million glasses of alcohol between them, the latest data from Roy Morgan Research reveals. While this may seem like an ocean of liquor at first glance, it actually translates to an average 23 glasses per person per four weeks. But how much of that is beer, how much is wine and how much is spirits? As we revealed recently, a higher proportion of Australians 18+ drink wine than beer in an average four weeks, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a greater volume of wine than beer is consumed.
CHINESE wine drinkers can now be transported to the heart of the Barossa following Seppeltsfield’s launch of a virtual reality tour of the winery. The 165-year-old wine estate has teamed up with Adelaide company Schwerpunkt to produce a virtual tour of the winery, which can be accessed via both high-end and entry-level virtual reality glasses such as Google’s Cardboard product.
Treasury Wine Estates is stepping up plans to divert funds into higher returning assets with the sale of vineyards, vacant land and homesteads in Australia’s prime wine regions in the second tranche of a broader sell-off that will deliver a combined $10 million-plus. Treasury, the maker of Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Rosemount sold off six vineyards in October, 2015 to reap close to $6 million and has now put a second group of vineyards, excess land holdings and homesteads on the market which experts expect could fetch an aggregate total of up to $4 million.
A winemaker from the Tamar Valley has won the Tasmanian Rural Women’s Award, saying she will use it to research cellar door trends overseas. Rebecca Duffy took over at Holm Oak Vineyard in Rowella nine years ago, and has since grown wine production from 1,500 cases a year to 12,000. Duffy is also the director of Wine Tasmania and the secretary of the Tamar Valley Wine Route group.
To be held at New Zealand House in Haymarket, London, on Saturday 23 April, from 10am-4pm, the event is being billed as a celebration of the finest food and drink from New Zealand. The all-day course is to be catered for by Anna Hansen’s The Modern Pantry. The subjects that will be covered on the day include New Zealand wine-making history; the implementation of sustainable viticulture and pathway toward organic winemaking; and the closure revolution that lead to the widespread adoption of screw caps and the country’s rapid growth in wine production.
Online wine seller Vinomofo has received a record-breaking tech start-up funding round, securing a $25 million investment from Blue Sky Venture Capital to help it accelerate its growth plans. Blue Sky is the sole investor in the funding round, which is the largest raised by a local tech start-up without the assistance of US or other overseas investors. It is also first time that co-founders Andre Eikmeier and Justin Dry have taken venture capital investment, and is the largest venture funding round committed by Blue Sky.
Australian growers are being encouraged to take advantage of the Federal Government’s Managing Farm Risk Program which will provide one-off rebates up to $2,500 to help eligible farm businesses with the cost of independent professional advice on insurance options to protect them from the perils of drought, frost, hail and fire. Darryl McCrae, SureSeason managing director, said the offer was a once in a lifetime opportunity for growers to thoroughly investigate what insurance options could mitigate their financial risk from catastrophic events.
Mudgee and Hunter vignerons will soon hear the first results from an industry-driven NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) trial to investigate how vineyard management can help maintain the balance of freshness and fruit character in the districts’ red wines. Free industry updates from the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre, an alliance between DPI, Charles Sturt University (CSU) and the NSW Wine Industry Association will be held in the Australian Rural Education Centre, Mudgee on Tuesday April 19 and at Tuscany Wine Estate Resort, Pokolbin on Wednesday April 20 from 8.30 am until 1 pm.
Festivities celebrating the seventh annual International Sauvignon Blanc Day will kick off on Friday May 6 in New Zealand, home to some of the world’s most coveted Sauvignon Blanc wines, before continuing around the globe, following the sun. Wine brands, restaurants, bars, retailers and Sauvignon Blanc fanatics are encouraged to post video clips, photographs and messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram showing their passion for New Zealand’s most popular drop by using the “hashtags”: #SauvBlanc and #nzwine.