Following three days of judging over 1,400 wines, 91 gold medals have been awarded in this year’s Air New Zealand Wine Awards. Chair of Judges and Master of Wine Michael Brajkovich said the most pleasing aspect of this year’s awards was the spread of gold medals across a number of varieties and regions. “Pinot Noir was once again the star performer with 17 golds. Predominantly the wines came from Marlborough and Central Otago, but a Hawke’s Bay Pinot Noir was also in the mix.”

The Western Cape Member of the Executive Council of economic opportunities Alan Winde will investigate allegations of dire employment conditions for those working in the wine industry after a documentary by a Danish filmmaker painted a bleak picture showing the exploitation of employees. Reports emerged of some Danish businesses boycotting the sale of South African wines after the airing of Tom Heinemann’s documentary in Sweden and Denmark last week. Winde in a statement on Tuesday said the allegations are viewed in a serious light.

To capitalise on Japan’s growing demand for premium wine, Treasury Wine Estates has increased its selection of Australian and New Zealand brands in an improved route-to-market strategy. Under the new strategy, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) will directly import, market and sell a number of premium wine brands including Rawson’s Retreat, Lindeman’s, Wynns, Coldstream Hills, Yellowglen, Pepperjack and Secret Stone which will be available to the trade from 10 January and will add to TWE’s existing brands in Japan which are Penfolds, Beringer, Wolf Blass, Rosemount and Matua. In addition, plans are afoot to introduce a number of TWE’s Californian wine brands under the direct import model from April 2017.

The Daniel Pontifex Memorial Trust, with the support of Wine Australia, has awarded the 2016 Daniel Pontifex Scholarship to Stephanie Jacob, assistant wine buyer at Supernormal in Melbourne. Ms Jacob will travel to Europe in 2017 to gain valuable experience in some of Europe’s finest restaurants and visit some of its wine regions, with the scholarship covering all associated costs. On being awarded the scholarship, Ms Jacob said, ‘I’m thrilled to be awarded this travelling scholarship, it is really tailored to the needs of the individual, and recognises the invaluable knowledge that comes from travel and experiencing the culture of a place first hand.

West Australian wines exceeded the expectations of Wine Show of WA international judge Jane Parkinson. The UK-based wine journalist, author and broadcaster was in WA for two weeks as part of the 16-person panel of judges for this year’s annual event. Parkinson said her expectation of high quality wines was “more than met”. “It was my first experience judging in a state show – I have been the international judge at a city show in Australia before – and I really enjoyed focussing on the wines from that particular state, especially when we don’t see as many WA wines in the UK as we do wines from other Australian states,” she said.

Chinese demand for quality wine has given the Australian industry a huge boost in 2016, according to the latest Rabobank report. In its Wine Quarterly report, the bank said Chinese imports of bottled Australian wine for the first six months of the year had risen 41 per cent from the same period in 2015 to 35.3 million litres. The value of Australian wine imports by China had risen 39.2 per cent to $353 million.

Worldwide wine production is expected to fall this year to its lowest since 2012, chiefly due to adverse weather that sharply cut output in France and South America, wine body OIV estimated on Thursday. Global wine output is set to decrease by 5 percent compared with last year to 259.5 million hectolitres (mhl), one of the three smallest volumes since 2000, the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) said in preliminary estimates for this year. An expected 12 percent drop in French production, to 41.9 mhl, and steep declines in Chile (-21 percent to 10.1 mhl), Argentina (-35 pct to 8.8 mhl) and Brazil (-50 pct to 1.4 mhl) accounted for most of the projected global fall, the OIV said.

After being involved in Australia’s wine industry for nearly 40 years Kathleen Quealy has been named as the first female Wine Communicators of Australia Legend of the Vine. Quealy started her love of wine working on the bottling line for McWilliams in the late 70s as an after school job. Her parents though, were shocked when Quealy subsequently enrolled at winemaking school in Wagga Wagga. It was there she met life long mentor and Pinot Gris advocate Max Loader. Loader saw the courage and vision in Quealy, and took her under his wing.

A new board for Vinehealth Australia has been appointed following an independent selection process, with Roseanne Healy elected as chair. Ms Healy has broad experience of the wine and grapegrowing industry and has been re-appointed for a second term on the board. She is joined by new members, Anna Hooper, Prue McMichael and Andrew Clarke, former members Marc Allgrove and Nigel Blieschke who were reappointed for a second term, and Ashley Chabrel who has been reappointed for a third term.

A South Australian production company is making inroads into the labyrinthine Chinese market with cooking show Chef Exchange, which follows Adelaide chef Jock Zonfrillo and Shandong chef Qu Jianmin as they explore each other’s food, culture and customs.“Chef Exchange is helping to create awareness of the state’s primary producers in a key export market with Boston Bay Wines, Ferguson Australia Lobster, Hutton Vale Farm and Seppeltsfield Winery among those featured in the first series,” 57 Films Director and show producer Paul Ryan said. Four half-hour episodes of the show, made by Adelaide company 57 Films, will be screened on China Central TV News, which is broadcast to 180 countries around the world.