Australia’s free trade deals with Japan and Korea have been in force for half a year, but agricultural exports are already up.
Beef, grapes, wine and mangoes have shown the biggest rises in the first six months of 2015.
The reports, from industry and government sources, come as Labor is under pressure to clarify its position on the China Free Trade deal.
Wine Marlborough’s longest serving board member Ruud Maasdam is to step aside at this year’s elections after 15 years.
Maasdam, owner and winemaker at Staete Landt Winery, has served on the board since 2001 and is one of four board members, along with Simon Clark, Laurin Gane and Guy Lissaman to step down from the 11-person board.
The 4th annual Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology’s (ASVO) Awards for Excellence have been officially launched, with the ASVO calling for nominations for the prestigious awards.
Since their inception, the ASVO Awards for Excellence have attracted a high calibre of entrants and are now recognised within the industry as a demonstration of expertise for wine industry professionals to aspire to and achieve.
On Thursday, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) made public comments on wine tax that were immediately and strongly disputed by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia.
“FARE makes the claim that wine taxes are low in Australia compared to other countries which is incorrect,” said Paul Evans, the WFA chief executive.
House of Arras 2005 Grand Vintage Brut was crowned Best Australian Sparkling Wine last night at the Awards Dinner of the 2015 Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships.
“Tasmania is undoubtedly Australia’s most exciting sparkling wine region, while Ed Carr of Accolade is definitely its most prolific, award-winning, sparkling winemaker.”
Following on from last week’s discussion about wine tax are some suggestions from industry how reform of tax can meld with focusing on rebuilding demand to assist industry recovery. So what are some of the ideas put forward so far, asks Riverland Wine?
B.C. wines were put to the ultimate test at the Judgment of BC on Tuesday, Aug.25.
Twelve B.C. wines were pitted against 12 acknowledged global benchmarks, and BC’s C.C. Jentsch Syrah 2013 from the Okanagan Valley ranked first among the flight of Syrah, and Soumah Chardonnay Single Vineyard 2013 from Yarra Valley, Victoria Australia came out on top for the flight of Chardonnays.
Damon Huard’s hands are stained a deep purple. His white polo shirt has two circular splotches of the same hue. For the past hour he has been drinking wine siphoned out of new $1,500 French-oak barrels—just another day at the office.
“This is our little Napa,” says Huard. It’s late July, another football season approaches, and the former NFL quarterback is surveying his new 5,300-square-foot winery outside Seattle with the look of a proud parent.
The annual Queensland Wine Awards is the night of nights for the local wine industry with accolades for wine quality, service quality and contribution to the wine industry. This year Ballandean Estate matriarch, Mary Puglisi, was recognised for her outstanding contribution.
A new, free wine education tool has launched, offering online video content to help students tackle the Master of Wine syllabus and hone their essay skills. WineTutor.tv, which launched this week, has been set up by Tim Wildman MW in partnership with Johnny Mindlin, a specialist in producing educational audio and video content.