Australia’s Langton’s Classification may not be as well-known as Bordeaux’s 1855 Classification, but it is an excellent barometer of how the Australian fine wine market is developing. In a similar way to St-Emilion’s classification, Langton’s is reviewed every five years and wines can be added, deleted, promoted or demoted. Started in 1990, it’s a three-tier system: Exceptional, Outstanding and Excellent.
Bill Hardy, the fifth generation family member of Australian winemaker Hardys, talks proudly of his pioneering great-great-grandfather Thomas Hardy and his vision to create fine wines sold in the markets of the world. Over at Grant Burge, the winemaker’s website tells of fifth-generation Barossa vigneron Grant Burge who along with his wife Helen founded Grant Burge Wines in 1988, driven by the passion of the Burge family.
DOCTORS have called for cheap casks of wine, or “goon bags” — the staple of underage drinking in the park — to be taxed out of existence. The Royal College of Australian Physicians wants wine to be taxed like beer, to stop the health budget being wasted on preventable, alcohol-related ailments. “This is not about stopping people drinking wine, this is about taxing cheap alcohol, which is abused by young people and those who already have problems,” RACP President Professor Nick Talley said.
As the Chinese pile into Bordeaux, French château owners rediscover California. Alfred Tesseron, who owns Bordeaux château Pontet-Canet, hunted for a Napa Valley property for years. When he and his niece Melanie saw the late Robin Williams’s 640-acre Villa Sorriso high up on Mount Veeder in September, it had the right wine “magic.” The closest neighbor is musician (and vintner) Boz Scaggs.
“I just drink it and feel like I’m running through this field of butterflies and daisies. It takes you to another place.” That’s not something you usually hear about a wine, especially from Alison Christ, a sommelier with a New York accent and tattoo-covered arms. But this is no ordinary wine – it’s a Domaine Lucci Noir de Florette from the Adelaide Hills, made without chemical fertilisers, pesticides, filters, machinery, wood barrels or added yeast. It’s a natural wine – in other words, a controversial but fast-spreading approach to winemaking that is quickly gaining fans in Hong Kong.
Total champagne shipments to the UK in 2015 are up 1.7% on 2014, to 312,531,444, bottles, the highest volume figure recorded since 2011, according to the CIVC (Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne). The most impressive growth in value comes from the US where shipments rose by 7.09% to 20.51m bottles, but this was worth €514.8m, up 28.18%.
Wine might not be the first thing you put into your emergency survival kit, but for Port Waikato residents, ‘Panic Proof Pinot’ was the booze on offer to entice the community to prepare for an emergency. The rural and somewhat isolated town has created a community response team, which is responsible for coordinating the town’s emergency management plan.
Marlborough wineries scrambled to take in grapes before rain hit on Wednesday, while others brushed the event off, saying it was unlikely to cause any damage. MetService issued a severe weather warning for Marlborough earlier in the week, predicting heavy rains would lash the region on Wednesday afternoon, before easing on Thursday morning. Some wine companies decided to bring their grapes in earlier because of the threat of rain, choosing to have them safe in the winery instead of exposed to the elements.
The local vintage has been particularly early this year with some varieties maturing up to 3 weeks ahead of ‘normal’. Despite an interesting year, with early heat, a prolonged dry spell, hail and late rains, the quality of grapes across the Canberra District looks very good. The grapes are fermenting, winemakers aren’t sleeping much and the 2016 wines are starting their journey to the bottle and innevitably our glasses.
ASIA is quickly developing a taste for West Australian grapes, with the trickle of premium wine into Singapore growing by almost 50 per cent last financial year. The state’s $720 million wine industry continues to grow in popularity in overseas markets according to the WA Government, which partnered with winemakers in an international marketing campaign in 2012. Wine exports grew by 23 per cent in China, and 19 per cent in the UK, with WA’s Margaret River region leading the charge — representing more than 60 per cent of exports.