WineTech 2015 will be one of the biggest and most diverse wine industry trade shows ever presented in South Australia as bookings for the conference continue to soar. Held at the Adelaide Showground, the event has seen more than 85 per cent of exhibitor space booked with a significant number of Australian and overseas companies participating for the first time. Hosted by Wine Industry Suppliers Australia Inc. (WISA), WineTech 2015 will be a dedicated trade exhibition targeting people in the industry with a direct operational focus.

Italy is the world’s third biggest consumer of wine, quaffing 20,400 hectolitres in 2014, according to figures released on Monday by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. The United States is the biggest consumer, drinking some 31,000 hectolitres – 13 percent of the global intake – followed by France. But when it comes to wine production, Italy saw a decline of 17 percent last year after significant harvests in 2013. France remained the biggest producer of wine in the world, pumping out 47 million hectolitres last year.

Global wine consumption has dropped slightly in the last year, according to the latest figures from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) – but overall there are signs of stabilisation. Speaking at the launch of the OIV’s global state of conditions report, Jean Marie Aurand, director general, said consumption had dropped by under one per cent to 2.4mhL compared to 2013, with the 2014 figures estimated to be 240mhL.

Social media is abuzz with news that China has overtaken France as a winegrowing region and is now second only to Spain. It comes in large part from this BBC report that cites International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) statistics. The BBC headline — “China overtakes France in vineyards” — might well be accurate. The problem is with the first sentence: “The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (IOVW) said China now had 799,000 hectares (1.97 million acres) of land devoted to winegrowing.”

Wine drinkers instinctively reach for New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc when the weather heats up (no wonder last Friday was International Sauvignon Blanc Day). More often than not, they choose Nobilo. Nikola and Zuva Nobilo left Croatia in 1936, with war on the horizon; they emigrated to New Zealand, where Nikola planted the country’s first commercial grapevines in 1943 west of Auckland. He presided over the birth of New Zealand’s wine industry, championing the use of classic grape varieties instead of hybrids, promoting the consumption of wine with food, and helping to develop Marlborough as a wine region.

One of Wairarapa’s best-known vineyards has lost its license for a day after serving drunk, disorderly customers during the Toast Martinborough festival. The Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority ordered a 24-hour suspension of the alcohol licence held by Foley Family Wines Holdings NZ Limited, majority-owned by American billionaire Bill Foley, for Te Kairanga winery in Martinborough. The decision was over breaches of new alcohol laws at the 2014 Toast Martinborough festival. A duty manager, Paul Rayner, also had his manager’s certificate suspended for 28 days.

If there is a single word I associate most with Aussie wine it is heat. How we envied the Australian producers their heat years ago. It ripened grapes effortlessly, creating the kinds of wines that first captivated me in my late teens. Those bottles of Seppelts Moyston Claret and Chalambar Burgundy I purloined from my father’s cellar were dark, soft, boozy and luscious. I couldn’t imagine how wine could get any better. And then it all changed. I can’t remember exactly when I decided I couldn’t take that heat any more.

Even occasional wine drinkers have a preference when it comes to red or white wines. But have you ever wondered how your state’s drinking habits stack up to, say, California or New York? Well, NakedWines.com, a popular online wine merchant, has done the maths for you. According to the maps below, middle America leads in white wine consumption, while the east and west coasts prefer red. NakedWines compiled this data based on its sales during the first six months of 2014, which made for a sample of over one million bottles of wine.

Wineries are marketing their products in the wrong way and should instead be selling consumers “an emotional experience” according to a leading Languedoc producer. Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to London, Jean-Claude Mas of Domaine Paul Mas said: “Wine is not a product, it’s an emotional experience and we should be selling it this way. “Money is a form of frustration for consumers now. They are looking for something new, something that can only be had from new experiences.”

ARGENTINA: As an autumn chill settles over the country, the harvested vineyards mottling yellow and russet, Jose Manuel Ortega’s winery rises amid snow-capped Andean foothills. Inside, Ortega is holding forth on why the poetry of a Malbec yields to the prose of healthy profits. “If you’re a shrewd investor, you’re late on bonds and shares and you’re left with real estate,” Ortega said at his vineyard in La Consulta in the province of Mendoza. “Any decline in Argentine risk due to the positive outcome of the election will raise the price of our property.”