De Bortoli Wines, one of Australia’s largest family-owned wine groups, has sunk to a $4.526 million loss for fiscal 2015 after poor investments in mining and resources stocks dragged it into the red despite stronger earnings from its core wine business as the lower dollar improved export margins.
The winery, led by managing director Darren De Bortoli, rode a bullish sharemarket a year earlier that helped it post a profit of $11.4m in 2014, bolstering the family business at a time when the wine sector was suffering from a high dollar.

The New Zealand wine industry has welcomed the possibility of a free trade agreement (FTA) between New Zealand and the European Union. Talks towards establishing an FTA were announced last week in a joint statement by New Zealand prime minister John Key, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk.

As a result of Accolade Wines carrying out a review of some of its positions and reporting lines up to 15 people have been offered redundancy. Sources have told TheShout that the changes will be mainly happening in the company’s marketing department. A spokesperson for Accolade told TheShout: “Accolade Wines can confirm that some positions have been reviewed, and some reporting lines have been changed, in line with the normal course of business.

A new Urban Winemakers Club is starting for aspiring viticulturists around the Auckland region to turn their crop into their own personalised label. The new concept is the brainchild of Nick Nobilo, regarded as a pioneer of the modern New Zealand wine industry. “Wine making is my passion and I enjoy people who are interested in it and want to learn more,” the born-and-bred nor-west resident says.

A NUMBER of top quality wines were judged at the 2015 Blackwood Valley and Western Australia Boutique Wine Show in Bridgetown at the weekend. The event, now in its 13th year, is designed to recognise excellence in boutique Western Australian wineries and promote the outstanding wines produced in the Blackwood Valley Wine Region. This year the competition attracted a record 272 wines from 52 boutique wine producers who crush less than 250 tonnes within Western Australia.

As corks across Australia pop on Tuesday as we watch the race that stops a nation, Mumm champagne is celebrating the event that has helped its popularity soar. Melbourne Cup week is now the wine’s biggest week in the year for champagne sales and consumption, eclipsing New Year’s Eve. The brand has moved from the eighth most popular champagne in 2010 to second place behind Moet.

IN 2005, Richard Vandenberg was appointed captain of a Hawthorn football team that had spent almost a decade in the wilderness. At the time, it was slowly emerging from an era of turmoil that stretched all the way back to a now inconceivable merger with perennial cellar dwellers Melbourne in 1996. Not blessed with freakish talent, “Richie” had something that appealed to a club that had such a horror stretch the previous year it sacked its coach mid-season.

What makes an award-winning cellar door experience? In the case of the Pindarie winery in South Australia’s iconic Barossa Valley, sheep are a small but important part of the mix! Pindarie – which was named Australia’s best tourism winery at this year’s Qantas Australian Tourism Awards – is built on a 750-hectare mixed-use farm about seven kilometres west of Tanunda. Vineyards share the land with other crops and around a thousand ewes that you can watch while you sip wine on the veranda. At the right time of the year, you can even see the shearers in action.

The Australian wine industry is benefitting from the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, with Australian bottled wines showing a strong 50.8% increase in value and 20.5% increase in volume, with the average price raising by 25.2% according to industry publications. Based on the trade agreement, China has started to reduce the import tariffs on Australian wines from this year and will eventually abolish the tariff in 2019.

Tasmanian winery Home Hill wines, which took out the coveted Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for Best Young Red this month, is facing a serious shortage of its prized drop. The Ranelagh winery is only the second Tasmanian operation to take out the award, considered the highest achievement for a one or two-year-old red. Home Hill owner Terry Bennett said the Kelly’s Reserve pinot noir 2014 had a long-lingering back palette, good mid palette and lovely nose.