Per capita consumption figures on a par with northern Europe make New Zealand a market ripe with potential for wine exporters, a new report claims.UK-based Wine Intelligence said 60 per cent of the adult population of New Zealand drinks wine at least once a month, on par with the Netherlands and Sweden, and ahead of the UK. While overall consumption volumes have remained relatively stable over the past few years, some categories have shown noticeable growth.

Villa Maria will release its first organic wine in Australia, the 2013 Villa Maria Private Bin Organic Merlot, available from 1 October. The organic wine is the product of 16 years of work towards natural and sustainable vineyard and winemaking practices as the company edges towards its goal of having 50 per cent of its company owned vineyards organically managed by 2020. Fabian Yukich, executive director of Villa Maria, has been a passionate proponent for sustainability at Villa Maria for 18 years.

A TASMANIAN winery has taken on some of the most famous wine brands in the world at China’s biggest wine competition and come away with gold. Bream Creek Vineyard’s 2011 Pinot Noir was awarded a gold medal at the most prestigious wine and spirits competition in China — the 2015 China Wine and Spirits Awards, in Hong Kong. After becoming the largest and fastest growing wine market in the world, the Chinese market is receiving a further boost thanks to the rising popularity of wines among younger consumers.

Saddlers Creek and Thomas Wines were the big winners at the Hunter Boutique Winemakers Show this week. The awards, held at the Crowne Plaza on Thursday night, celebrate the efforts of the smaller wineries and is invariably a hotly contested affair. Saddlers Creek’s 2009 Semillon took out two major awards – it was named best white wine of the show, and also took out the Karl Stockhausen trophy.

A new type of genetic test being performed by a liquid-handling robot at Lincoln University is taking DNA testing to the next level with its ability to deliver five times the standard amount of data used to identify grapevine varieties. Developed by Dr Darrell Lizamore at Lincoln University and delivered by Zebra Biotech, the new transposon marker test is a unique DNA testing process not available anywhere else in the world, offering an alternative to and improvement on existing methods.

The Canberra region’s high-quality 2015 wine vintage will face the judges as two wine shows begin this week. The Australian Cool Climate Wine Show at Murrumbateman and the Canberra and Region Wine Show at Exhibition Park provide opportunities for the best drops to be compared as the next growing season begins. Canberra District Wine Industry Association president John Leyshon said he and other wine producers had enjoyed an impressive past season, with a doubling in the weight of grapes produced on his own winery.

A Melbourne business executive has acquired the prized Main Ridge Estate vineyard in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula for more than $3.25 million. The five-hectare property, with three hectares under vine, at 80 William Road in the affluent rural town of Red Hill was the first commercial vineyard on Mornington Peninsula when it was founded 40 years ago by winemakers Rosalie and Nat White, who have decided to retire.

AUSTRALIA’S most famous wine, the iconic Penfolds Grange, has been outplayed this year by an unlikely bunch of its own stablemates. The stars of this year’s highly anticipated Penfolds luxury wine releases are white hot — not red. Four high-class whites, a riesling and three chardonnays, steal the attention from its usual leading red lights such as Penfolds Grange, St Henri and Bin 389, continuing stellar 2015 competition form which has led to the Magill based producer being named International White Winemaker of the Year at London’s prestigious International Wine Challenge.

QUEENSLAND food, wine and skincare producers are cashing in on the 300 million Chinese online shoppers who are being lured by the green image of brand Australia. Consumers from Beijing to Guangzhou are logging on to purchase everything from Australian skincare to wine on the country’s big online market places. Mt Cotton winemaker Sirromet’s online wine sales for home delivery account for more than 40 per cent of its Chinese sales.

AWRI Commercial Services is offering a rapid Brettanomyces bruxellensis detection service with a 1-2 day turnaround time. This service will provide results much more quickly than traditional plating methods currently used to detect viable Brett cells. The report will indicate whether the sample is positive or negative for B.bruxellensis. It will also provide the approximate number of cells/mL, giving an indication of the level of contamination.