The Wine Marlborough board has four new members after they were voted in by wineries and grapegrowers earlier this month. Elections for the board, which is charged with marketing and protecting Marlborough’s reputation as a premium wine growing region, ended on October 1. There were three grapegrowing candidates and four winemakers, with two from each side of the industry being voted onto the board.
Significant upgrades to Broke Road at Pokolbin, considered the gateway to the Hunter Valley’s wine country, will be officially opened this morning. The project is part of the New South Wales Government’s $20 million commitment to upgrade local roads via the Hunter Infrastructure Fund. In February, it was announced the other end of Broke Road would also get a massive facelift, including improvements at intersections, new tourist signage and lighting.
Anti-mosque protesters have sparked the abandonment of a major food and wine festival in Bendigo after police told organisers that community safety could not be guaranteed. The business community in the central Victorian town is livid, after the threat of violent protest over a proposed mosque forced them to abandon the festival planned for this weekend.
A Government funding program is offering SA wineries the chance to reduce their running costs and increase efficiency. The South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) has been awarded $50,000 by the Office of Green Industries SA to deliver the Lean Production for Wineries Program 2015–16. Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Ian Hunter said the Program would offer participating wineries expert support to find ways of improving work practices and resource efficiency, reduce wastage, improve productivity and reduce production costs.
The Co-operative is to list a wine made with grapes from both Australia and New Zealand among a number of new additions to its range. Parallel Vines combines 70% Australian Chardonnay and 30% New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in a blend created by buyer Ed Robinson and supplier Andrew Peace of Andrew Peace Wines.
Wine production sounds more glamorous than it really is. The day to day functions, logistics, monitoring and maintenance are constant and intensive at times. Harvest, especially, is not for the faint of heart. Therefore a great system for handling the ‘business of wine’ is paramount to maintain sanity and keep the business functioning. You can then focus on the ‘wine business’: the wine making and sales passion that compels us vintage after vintage.
Torres has revived two more “ancestral” varieties as part of its long-running project to bring back forgotten grapes. Two red varieties, Moneu and Gonfaus join the 40 other Catalan varieties that have been bought back from the brink of extinction in the past 30 years. So far only seven of these varieties look as though they would be suitable for winemaking and the two most recently revived are among them.
On the evening of October 20 there will be glasses raised to a special wine. It will be the wine adjudged to be the Champion Wine of Show; the best of the Bay; the top drop, as declared by the judges of the 15th Hawke’s Bay A&P Bayleys Wine Awards. The event is now an established part of the region’s world-class wine industry and the nod as the Bay’s best wine is eagerly sought after by winemakers, viticulturists, winery management – everyone on deck, so to speak.
THE Marlborough Wine Show, now in its fifth year, is being held at the Marlborough Convention Centre, in Blenheim, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Featuring exclusively Marlborough wines, which are judged by a panel of international and domestic critics, the event aims to showcase diversity of wine in the region. Awards will be presented at a dinner on Thursday, October 22.
A TINY vineyard in the back blocks between Truro and Kapunda in the northern Barossa districts has blitzed the rest of the wine world with a red wine judged to be the best Shiraz on the planet. The St Kitts Vineyard, owned by Angaston based Thorn-Clarke, was the exclusive source for the winery’s flagship red, the Ron Thorn 2012 Shiraz ($95), which this week was voted the world’s top shiraz by judges at the prestigious London-based International Wine and Spirit Competition.