A celebratory 35 years of the preeminent international wine competition in the United States wrapped up on June 14th with the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Surpassing last year’s record number of entries, this year’s competition had a 7% increase in contenders from the year before. The elegant downtown Hotel Nikko was once again the headquarters for this competition, judged by 50 leading palates from around the U.S. as well as Australia, Germany and New Zealand.

A shady car park feature has grown into winter fun for a north east Victorian winery. Boggy Creek Wines, in the King Valley, charged $5 for people to pick their own plastic bag of olives creating fun for visitors in the depths of winter. Georgia Beavis, from the winery, said there was no intention of the trees becoming an attraction when they were planted. “Why they were planted in the first place is that they provide really good shade,” she said.

Just 11 per cent of Australians on social media are “very likely” to be following brands on social media, according to eMarketer research from Waggeer Edstrom Asia-Pacific. The March 2015 survey asked internet users in nine different Asia-Pacific countries to rate how likely they were to follow a brand on social media and found that Australians lacked enthusiasm. Despite only 1.2 million Australians considered very likely to come across information about brands on social media, wine brand Yellow Tail has a huge following with 1,366,396 fans, the largest Facebook audience in Australia.

Treasury Wine Estates has turned around its China business and is targeting annual sales growth approaching 20 per cent over the next five years, helped by the recently signed free trade agreement and declining sales of Chinese-made wine. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, the company’s new managing director for Asia, Robert Foye, described the growth in China as “big” and said the turnaround had been faster than expected.

A discussion paper prepared by the Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA), was circulated to South Australian wine producers on Monday 22nd June. The paper outlined a consultation process to review the current State Cellar Door Rebate in South Australia. While the SA State Government is considering abolishing the Cellar Door Rebate in SA, a process of industry consultation will occur to ensure any decision made does not have unintended consequences.

WHEN Noosa Food and Wine Events, the company behind Berardo’s Restaurant and the Noosa International Food and Wine Festival, went into voluntary administration last month there was an outpouring of grief and sadness. Then the severity of debt left with many of the company’s suppliers became apparent, and all I was hearing was anger and dismay. This week a Noosa restaurant owner with 35 years’ experience running successful eateries challenged Jim Berardo to explain what happened.

Constellation Brands scholarship winner Jascha Oldham-Selak is upholding a long family tradition in pursuing a passion for wine. The 25-year-old was recently awarded this year’s Constellation Brands New Zealand Ltd wine industry scholarship for a student enrolled in viticulture degree studies at EIT. The $5000 scholarship will help fund Jascha’s Bachelor of Viticulture and Bachelor of Wine Science concurrent degree studies.

Gorgona, a northern island in the Tuscan Archipelago, is Italy’s answer to Alcatraz: the only remaining penal colony in Europe. But unlike the notorious former jail in the San Francisco bay, prisoners on Gorgona spend their days tending a vineyard on sun-baked slopes surrounded by aromatic pine trees, rather than locked in high-security cells. The Telegraph was granted a rare visit to Gorgona, where the inmates are part of a unique experiment in rehabilitation.

Wine tourism is the ”next frontier” for the Central Otago wine industry. The findings of a recent Lincoln University survey of wine tourists would be invaluable, Central Otago Winegrowers Association president James Dicey said yesterday. ”Wine tourism is really the next frontier for winegrowers. ”Until now we’ve been focused as an industry very much on the trade – wine writers, buyers and retailers … a small number of people with influence.

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler and exporters alike will be taking some comfort from the devaluation of the New Zealand dollar over recent weeks and analysts are calling it lower still. The catalyst for the latest shift lower was the Reserve Bank’s surprise 25-basis-point rate cut on June 11. The central bank specifically singled out the sharp decline in dairy prices for comment in its monetary policy statement, and once again said the currency was overvalued.