Penny’s Hill winery in the McLaren Vale has won Best Australian Red Wine at the esteemed Mundus Vini international wine competition in Neustadt, Germany. The title was taken by the winery’s 2014 Footprint Shiraz, which also won the top ranking Grand Gold award. This year’s competition was as fierce as it was immense, with more than 5,000 wines from 149 different regions of the world all evaluated by a panel of 160 qualified and recognised wine experts.

Whitey revisits Wirra Wirra, coming in through the top end of its McLaren Vale belfry to sing with the red Shiraz knights and Cabernet queen ’round the table way below. As the proportionate importance of really good wine increases in Australia’s export portfolio, this development is pushing more winemakers to attempt the launch of better wines domestically.

When John Kirk came to Canberra from Ireland in 1968 he was surprised to find there were no vineyards in the region. The biochemist considered the climate similar to that of Bordeaux and so planted the region’s first vines near Murrumbateman in 1971. “As soon as we experienced the Canberra environment, I started asking, ‘why aren’t their vineyards here’,” Dr Kirk told 666 ABC Mornings. “I was always told, ‘Oh, it’s too cold in Canberra; you can’t grow vines there’. Well I didn’t believe that.”

UK chancellor George Osborne has left the wine trade ‘deeply disappointed’ by announcing that wine duty tax will rise with inflation – whilst beer, cider and spirits levies will be frozen. Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), said ‘We are disappointed that 30m wine consumers have been singled out for a duty rise.’

More labour and accommodation is needed to service the Marlborough wine industry, which is predicted to grow by a quarter over the next five years, a new report shows. The Marlborough Labour Market Survey, released on Monday, was organised by Wine Marlborough, in collaboration with New Zealand Winegrowers, the Marlborough District Council and Seasonal Solutions Co-operative Limited.

The single most complete collection of Coleraine wine, dating back to its inception more than 30 years ago, has been auctioned off in Auckland for well over its valuation. The highest bidder was Air New Zealand, which nabbed the ‘vertical’ (one bottle from every year it was made) for $4800 at Webb’s Auction house on Tuesday evening. Webb’s fine wine expert Reece Warren said Air New Zealand planned to use the collection for promotional purposes as part of its Great Wines of New Zealand programme.

Government proposed changes to the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA) aimed at encouraging healthy competition in the market have been given the tick of approval by The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA). Paul Evans, WFA chief executive, said the changes included adopting an ‘effects test’ to strengthen competition law and protect businesses against those with the power to misuse their market dominance.

Following its return to 100 per cent family ownership in late 2014, McWilliam’s Wines has appointed chairman and fifth-generation family member Jeff McWilliam to the role of CEO, to replace outgoing CEO, Robert Blackwell. As McWilliam prepares to take the helm in July, he speaks to TheShout about the future direction of the business. “Me stepping up to the CEO role has been in the planning for quite some time.”

With bottles of the best Australian and imported wine on the menu, it seems Sydney City councillors have expensive tastes. Seven News has taken a look at the council’s cellar list and discovered it is worth much more than Mayor Clover Moore and her councillors have recorded. Penfold’s is one of Australia’s most famous luxury brands and, for most of us, drinking a bottle of Grange remains an unattainable luxury.

FOR some time now, Tasmanian sparkling wines have been declared, by people who should know, to rival the quality of Champagne. Australian wine judge James Halliday encouraged us by describing House of Arras sparkling wines as having “the complexity, texture and structure … akin to Bollinger RD and Krug”.