Wine Australia hosted its first Inspired Tasting in Tokyo on Monday, with more than 100 wines on show personally chosen by local Japanese A+ Australian wine specialists. Providing education and training to the Japanese wine market, Wine Australia’s 37 Japanese-based wine specialists chose special wines with significant meanings for the event. More than 100 media and trade guests had the opportunity to taste 107 wines at the Inspired Tasting. Hiro Tejima, Wine Australia regional manager, said he saw an overwhelming response from guests reflecting a wider interest in Australian fine wine.

Pernod Ricard aims to increase underlying sales and operating profit growth to 5% in the medium-term by focusing on innovation, ramping up its digital strategy and trading shoppers up to premium spirits and wines. The group said it enjoyed five per cent annual growth before the economic crisis and believes it can return the business to these historical levels. Key to its strategy will be switching the focus from a brand-centric model to a consumer-centric one, it revealed at its capital markets day in Paris.

The New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival is back and bursting with flavour as 23 of the nation’s best boutique vineyards strut their stuff, on Sunday June 14 at the historic Imperial Building in Fort Lane, Auckland. Attendees can expect a culinary experience like no other, learning about and tasting wines from New Zealand’s many different regions, indulging in gourmet food and enjoying live music.
Vertical tastings, where guests taste the same wine from a vineyard year on year and learn about how and why they’re unique, will be held throughout the day.

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey who founded Barefoot Wines, the world’s number one selling wine, are heading to Australia to talk about they built their brand in the US. The pair will take the stage at a US export focus conference hosted by Australia Trade tasting on 2 September in Melbourne. Organisers have labelled it a “must attend event” for producers who are looking to enter the US market, or who are already selling there.

Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers has embarked on a determined drive to further raise the national and international profile of the region’s wines, with the announcement of new branding launched in Napier last night. The announcement of the new logo and wording came at an appropriate time, with the 2015 vintage being acknowledged and toasted as the third “great” one in a row.

Stakeholders in the Australian wine industry are planning to engage with leaders of allied agricultural, food and beverage sectors to share knowledge on latest concepts and directions in marketing and sales at WineTech 2015. Key agrifood and beverage leaders will participate in a strategic seminar program associated with the nation’s premier wine industry trade exhibition, to be held at the Adelaide Showground, Wayville from 14 to 16 July.

Amid a tongue-twisting litany of Italian wine varietal minutiae leading his recent article in Australia’s Financial Review, wine and drinks writer Tim White offered the wine-drinking masses a unique look into the emergence of Italian wines in the Land Down Under. White pointed out that Australia’s Chalmers nursery is exerting “pioneering efforts” in creating “vine stocks of Italian cultivars” that “are as good as you’ll find them in their homeland.” In fact, White pointed out, “there are more than a dozen clones of Sangiovese available now in Australia.”

The latest ABS research report on alcohol consumption in Australia reveals a remarkable drop to a 50-year low, with beer consumption at a 68-year low and wine uptake at its weakest in 8 years. That ties in with global trends. OECD figures also show alcohol consumption in developed countries has dropped by 2.5 per cent in the last 20 years, albeit with widely varied findings between countries and a rise in what is deemed ‘risky drinking’.

McLAREN Vale winemakers are uniting to create the region’s ultimate blend that would challenge Penfolds Grange. The Australian Wine Research Institute and the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association are behind the project to create VALO – a blend of some of the region’s finest 2014 premium reds. Oliver’s Taranga winemaker Corrina Wright said VALO’s quality would compare to SA’s most celebrated wine. “I don’t think we will have too much trouble with (reaching the quality of Grange) – we have got some pretty strong vintages,” Wright said.

IRELAND: Over €5 (A$7.17) from a typical €10 (A$13.35) bottle goes in excise duty and tax and this has soared by 35pc over the last four years. Off-licences are now demanding a reduction in the tax on wine, which they say is 624 per cent higher than the average in the EU. Evelyn Jones, who owns The Vintry off-licence in Rathgar, Dublin 6, said that high excise is squeezing the quality out of wine. “It’s extremely difficult to source quality wine that can sell for €10 a bottle, which is a price-point many people seek,” she said.