A few months ago, fast-growing Australian startup Vinomofo embarked on a “weird” experiment. For the last four years, co-founders Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier have measured their success the same way most companies do – through revenue and profits. But the online wine retailer prides itself on its core values – of stepping up, caring more, keeping it real, doing some good and having some fun, and the focus on profits often was often in contrast to this credo.

Whitey’s happy that three of the best reliable annual bargains have hit his funnel just in time for the holidays. Just feast your eyes on them weenie little alcohols. Then get cross-eyed over the price. That must embarrass and annoy many more pretentious practitioners of the gris arts. Always up the top end of my bottom spend sector, the wines of Dominic Torzi, Tracy Matthews and Tim Freeland come in three brands and it’s a sweet thing that these Longhop ones have lobbed in time for the birthday of Our Lord.

With guest Wine Wanker, Grace Donald from Wine is a Verb. In part 1 of her story. Grace sipped and savoured Australia’s best wines at the annual James Halliday Top 100 wine tasting, but the best was yet to come. Grace got to chat with her idol, and asked him the questions we’d all like to ask. Including what iconic wines weren’t in the top 100 and why. Let’s eavesdrop in on their conversation….

The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) has welcomed Dräger and TransferMate as new supporters of the organisation for the coming year and they are providing special offers to WFA members. They join WFA’s business family which already includes Finlaysons, Lallemand, Amorim, IMCD, Wine Intelligence, Scholle, Arthur J. Gallagher and Bulk Energy and Winetitles.

People buy a bottle of “Napa Valley” wine with certain expectations — the biggest being that the wine is actually made from Napa Valley grapes. However, in an attempt to cash in on the cache of the Napa Valley name, some unscrupulous producers try to sell “Napa Valley” wine using grapes from other areas or even countries. “Napa Valley has had its name ripped off around the world on bottles of wine that don’t really come from here,” said Rex Stults.

Taittinger is to become the first French champagne house to produce fizz in the UK after investing in a former Kent apple orchard. The company has teamed up with British wine agents Hatch Mansfield and private investors to buy 69 hectares of farmland near Chilham and expects to fill its first bottles in five years.

Mission Estate winemaker Paul Mooney was a happy man back in May when the Jewelstone label turned gold at the International Wine Challenge competition staged in London. He was smiling again last month when Jewelstone was again read out as the winners of the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. In a way he has done the Jewelstone double – as the May gold medal was for the 2013 Jewelstone Syrah while the recent Pure Elite Gold and Trophy win was for the 2014 Jewelstone Chardonnay.

Sileni Estates has brought the glamour of 1930s Art Deco to life with the launch of the limited edition Art Deco Sparkling. The special bottling celebrates Napier, the Art Deco capital of New Zealand, and the partnership between Sileni Estates and the Art Deco Trust. “We’re excited to release this special wine which celebrates our home town. Art Deco Sparkling has lively bubbles, beautifully aromatic stone fruit flavours and nicely balanced acidity,” says Sir Graeme Avery, Sileni Estates CEO and President.

Winemakers are becoming more reliant on a good dog these days. The trend is so entrenched that books are appearing about winery dogs and their colourful backgrounds. At Murrumbateman Winery one dog, Mollie, has become so useful at welcoming visitors to the cellar door her name appears on one of the wine labels. A husky-kelpie cross, Mollie has a Facebook following, evident in the large number of dogs who attended a Christmas party at the winery on Sunday.

One of Tasmania’s smallest wineries, situated in a non-vintage area, has a unique approach to growing the pinot variety, a mainstay of most Tasmania wineries. The motto of the Motton Terraces winery could be “anything but pinot” as there are no pinot grapes on the property, unlike most other wineries in the state. The winery is situated on a bush block off the beaten track and inland from Ulverstone in the north-west.