The Marlborough wine industry is so optimistic about the future that predictions are for an increase in producing vineyards of nearly 25 percent in the next four years. But with that growth will come challenges, according to a Wine Marlborough, New Zealand Winegrowers, and Marlborough District Council labour market survey. Undertaken last year, the survey shows that the industry is set to grow by 6,444 hectares by 2019/2020.
IT’S the latest thing in grape harvesting and a sure sign that Tasmania’s wine industry is coming of age. Normally, it takes a crew of 24 pickers up to seven hours to harvest one hectare of grapes but this $500,000 Pellenc 4680 made short work of 11ha of sparkling grapes in 20 hours at Ian Roberts’ Riversdale Estate at Cambridge recently. “The machine has cut labour costs by up to 80 per cent, it’s huge,” Roberts said.
Pernod Ricard’s local business which makes Australia’s No.1 wine brand Jacob’s Creek tumbled to a loss of $31 million in its latest financial year even though the Australian arm lifted sales revenue by 4 per cent to $518 million as it battled against its two larger rivals Treasury Wine Estates and Accolade Wines. Jacob’s Creek sells more than 6 million cases of wine annually and is made at Pernod Ricard’s Barossa Valley production site in South Australia.
Australian Vintage chief winemaker and CEO Neil McGuigan said he has noticed a clear trend by international buyers away from high alcohol Australian wine. Speaking with TheShout on the first day of ProWein in Düsseldorf, McGuigan said he has noticed the change in the attitudes from international buyers at the show. “There’s no doubt that the buyers are looking for more balance in Australian wine. No buyer has said they want the alcohol higher, not one person – so thank god we are over that.
Fresh off the back of a 66 per cent increase in Chinese wine export values in 2015 – making China Australia’s third most valuable export market – a contingent of Asian wine influencers toured the Barossa last Friday as part of Wine Australia’s visitors program. A total of 22 guests – including trade, media and sommeliers – from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were hosted by several Barossa winemakers for the day before being treated to a regional tasting and dinner at Murray Street Vineyards.
Casella Family Brands (CFB) has announced plans to establish a European subsidiary to be based in Cambridgeshire, England. Casella Family Brands Europe Limited will initially manage Yellow Tail wine in Great Britain with long-term plans to expand to the European market. Simon Lawson, CFB Europe general manager, said the company was focused on achieving ongoing growth of Yellow Tail in Europe
This May the UK will host the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium (ICCWS 2016). Global experts in the wine world from eight different countries are speaking across three days making this a once-in-a-lifetime event not to be missed from 26-28 May 2016, Brighton. The ICCWS 2016 is a three-day international symposium for all involved in making, marketing and selling cool climate wines.
Marlborough has experienced the third largest gross domestic product increase in New Zealand over the past five years, new figures show. Statistics New Zealand released its annual regional GDP statistics this week, which showed Marlborough GDP increased to $2.5 billion in the year ending March 2015. This was an increase of 2.2 per cent on the previous year and an increase of 28 per cent since 2010, the third highest in the country behind Canterbury and Auckland.
The newly released 2016 Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory (WID) weighs in at a massive 610 pages and has comprehensive details on 3,023 Australian and New Zealand wine companies. Publisher Winetitles Media began the important role of compiling industry statistics, winery contact details and industry suppliers in the one directory in 1983. In 2016, the Directory lists 555 New Zealand wine producers that commercially sell their wine, down slightly from 558 last year.
Early last year in an article on the news website Techcrunch, contributor Tom Goodwin penned the now very popular statement “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate. This begs the question, “How is the wine industry doing in social media?”