A WORKING group has begun the task of bringing together two national peak bodies in a bid to tackle the downturn crippling the wine industry. More than 40 wine industry leaders from across Australia met at a forum in Adelaide late last month, where they agreed on a national response from across the industry was essential to bring it back to good health. The leaders identified a need to tackle supply and demand-related issues and the capabilities of businesses, organisations and individuals across the industry.

THE AVENUE DE CHAMPAGNE in Épernay, France, is the most famous address in the world of sparkling wine. Beginning at the Place de la République, the road stretches east through Champagne country—a straight line of villas and mansions housing some of the biggest names in fizzy wine: Perrier-Jouët, Pol Roger and Möet & Chandon. For three centuries, Champagne, an area of 30,000 hectares, was the only name that counted when it came to sparkling wine.

Craggy Range has officially launched its top-end wines from the 2013 harvest, which the New Zealand producer hailed “the vintage of a generation”. “There’s always been a huge amount of belief about what we’re doing at Craggy Range and a huge amount of ambition,” remarked chief winemaker Matt Stafford as he introduced the winery’s Prestige Collection at an event in London this week. “We’ve always set out to get the best from the land and 2013 was the culmination of that for us.”

In New Zealand, virtually every wine in the country is bottled under screwcap, while in Spain, cork is mandated. Bottle closures can be real corks, synthetic corks, screwcaps, glass stoppers—but is one better than the others? A few weeks ago I was sitting on a suburban commuter train bound for New York when a group of men who looked to be in their late 30s entered the car.

Australia’s current alcohol warning labels are failing to effectively convey health messages to the public, according to a new study from Deakin University. Researchers with Deakin’s School of Psychology examined awareness of the voluntary warning labels and the ‘Get the facts’ logo that directs consumers to the industry-led informational website DrinkWise, and whether alcohol consumers visited this site.

September is one busy month for Mudgee, thanks to the Wine and Food Festival’s four weeks of tastings, events, celebrations, and evenings out. President of Mudgee Wine Grape Growers, Ted Cox, said there was a huge number of activities and events on during September that were expected to draw in quite a crowd. “We’re certainly doing a lot of different things this year,” Mr Cox said. Things have certainly changed since Mr Cox first began involved with wine in Mudgee.

Luxury champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, has poached Moet Hennessy director and Australian native, Bernadette Knight, as its new global chief marketing officer as it sets out a new brand course and international growth plans. Knight has spent more than a decade in the luxury wine and spirits industry, and was most recently the US director for Hennessy Cognac. She has also worked with champagne brands such as Veuve Clicquot, Krug, Ruinart and Taittinger.

Problems in China have spooked the wine industry in recent months. Chris Losh takes a look at what has gone wrong in the country, and where else wine producers could look to sell their wares. Have you heard of the ‘Peak Wine Theory’? It’s the idea that wine consumption has reached its maximum level, and that, volume-wise, it’s all downhill from here. It’s been discussed for much of the last ten years.

Submissions to the Federal Government’s Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate Discussion Paper close this Friday – let’s hope this inquiry will bring some equity and simplification, asked Des Caulfield, director at accounting firm MGI Adelaide. “The Australian wine industry is one of the nation’s most competitive industries globally, yet Australia is one of the highest taxed wine nations in the world.”

Until recently (over the last 30 or so years) no one felt it necessary to discuss the level of alcohol (abv) in a wine. It was always assumed the abv was correct and in balance depending on the normal winegrowing and winemaking conditions of the vintage and growing area. But that all changed with the advent of the 100-point scale and the evolving market importance of wine critics such as Robert Parker and others in the late 1970s and 1980s.