Over 300 guests will descend on Marlborough in early February to take part in the first ever International Sauvignon Blanc Celebration. Delegates from 18 countries will hear from some of the world’s most renowned wine writers and educators, and have the opportunity to taste over 400 wines from 1-3 February 2016.
The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) has slammed a Monash University study into the impact of increasing wine taxation on at-risk consumers. Paul Evans, WFA chief executive, said the study was poor in its method and its outcomes were not credible. “The study calls for a minimum floor price on alcohol – a notion already discredited by the former Australian National Preventative Health Agency – or an increase in wine taxes and it claims these will reduce consumption by at-risk or heavy drinkers,” he said.
According to Premier Mr Weatherill, South Australia has a burgeoning food and wine industry. “Exporting premium food and wine to the world is one of our State’s Economic Priorities and we have already reached some of our three year targets in just one year,” he said. “The State Government’s latest Food and Wine ScoreCard Food shows a $1.1 billion increase in gross food and wine revenue for 2014/15 over the previous year.”
Dame Sally Davies tells radio listeners people needed to take into account the clear link between alcohol and cancer. England’s Chief Medical Officer has defended a move to issue new guidance on drinking by suggesting people should drink tea after a day’s work instead of a glass of wine. Dame Sally Davies also said the idea that drinking a glass of red wine a day is good for you is an “old wives’ tale”.
The award-winning Kiwi winemaker Nikolai St George has been appointed as chief winemaker of Marlborough-based Giesen Estate Wines, it has been announced. St George takes up the role after having worked for seven years at Treasury’s Matua Valley Wines, the producer of New Zealand’s first Sauvignon Blanc, and wineries in Central Otago and Waiheke Island. He will take up the new chief winemaker position on 25 January, Giesen confirmed.
A new disease prevention strategy could save grapegrowers thousands of dollars and improve the efficiency of their sprays. Following the massive 2008 harvest, a Marlborough grower approached New Zealand Winegrowers to ask them to research the use of machine harvesters in controlling crop levels, something he had seen in Australia. The idea was that harvesters would beat the vines, causing them to drop bunches of grapes to reduce the overall yield, but something unexpected happened: it also significantly reduced the risk of botrytis.
The Great Aussie Taste-Off, a new initiative from Wine Australia for this year’s Australia Day tasting, will attempt to demonstrate the diversity of Australian wines by pitching Masters of Wine and Master Sommeliers against each other in a series of wine matching duels. Sessions will ask an MS and MW to pick the best matches for a series of dishes prepared by The Harrow at Little Bedwyn’s Roger Jones. The contenders will have to defend their choices to attempt to convince the audience that their match deserves to win.
A sunscreen and shade trial is continuing to deliver results for Western Australian grapegrowers. The project, being conducted as part of the Western Australia Regional Program funded by Wine Australia, started in 2014 to help growers find ways to manage the effect of extreme heat events on fruit quality – in particular, looking at the use of shadecloth and two commercially available sunscreen products.
The threat of forgeries are among the many risks wineries face when making a push to export into the Asian nation, with trademark theft and squatting another big concern for vintners. Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards winemaker Corrina Wright said the push into China was “difficult” but their links with a Western-educated distributor in Hong Kong had helped to pave the way.