A focus on premium wine and the story Australia has to tell are key to increasing North American market share, according to Wine Australia regional director Angela Slade.
The United States was the top destination for bottled Australian wines by value at $369 million and for exports by volume at 108 million litres in the past 12 months.
Ag companies are learning to do more with less water. Four years into the drought, it’s become the new normal for many companies.
The Delicato Family Vineyards in San Bernabe is rethinking its watering practices. New technology is helping age old agriculture. Compared to 2011, in 2014, DFV used 55 percent less water to irrigate and frost protect.
Vineyards across the Mid-Valley are gearing up for harvest with the bar set much higher by last year’s haul, when overall grape harvest in the state jumped 39 percent compared with 2013.
“It marks the third straight year of double-digit production gains,” said Michelle Kaufman, communications manager with the Oregon Wine Board.
E. & J. Gallo Winery, the world’s largest wine company, today announced that it will purchase Talbott Vineyards in Monterey County’s Santa Lucia Highlands. The deal will close September 4, and neither side is saying how much Gallo is shelling out.
Coming on the heels of Gallo’s purchase of J Vineyards & Winery last March, the Talbott deal signals a potentially significant shift in Gallo’s focus toward premium wines.
An Auckland Chardonnay and a Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot shine at this year’s Romeo Bragato Wine Awards.
Grown by Brett Donaldson, the Villa Maria Single Vineyard Ihumatao Chardonnay 2013 won the coveted Bragato Trophy – Champion Single Vineyard Wine and the Bill Irwin Trophy for Champion Chardonnay.
Caleb Dennis is the 2015 Bayer ‘young viticulturist of the year’. Representing Hawke’s Bay, Caleb competed in a wide range of challenges over three days to beat three other contestants and claim the title. The nataional final took place in Hawke’s Bay so the local contestant received a rapturous applause from the crowd when the results were announced, especially from his colleagues at Craggy Range.
The Abbott Government has released its Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate Discussion Paper aimed at pruning market distorting wine industry subsidies.
Submissions to the discussion paper – originally flagged for release in July – are due to close on September 11.
A WET Rebate Consultative Group comprising senior wine industry members has also been established as part of the taxation reform process.
The De Bortoli winery in the Yarra Valley holds two things in the highest regard: family and taste.
“We don’t want our wines to taste like they come from the Barossa,” Stephen Webber says.
“We want our wines to taste like the Yarra Valley. It’s a pretty important thing called terroir, which means the flavour of the place, and we try pretty hard to make sure our wines taste like they come from here.”
“Stock up on the ’14 vintage, customers, it’s a cracker … the hype of the 2014 shiraz from the Hunter is not a myth. Top wines had beautiful fruit with good oak balance and will be treasures for years to come.”
No, this is not a salesman’s spiel, it’s the 2015 Hunter Valley Wine Show judges giving enthusiastic praise to 2014 shiraz.
A wine industry leadership summit ‘Grape and Wine 2015 – A Focus for Action’ will be held in Adelaide tomorrow, Friday 28 August. It is understood representatives from 40 national, state and nominated regional industry organisations will be involved.
There is an ambition Grape and Wine 2015 will reach consensus on:
– Priority areas for industry representative bodies to contribute to a return to profitability; and
– Principles that should shape a future industry representative structure and organisations.
However, on the eve of this ambitious meeting, opposition to one proposed restructure has gained momentum.