Roading contractors were called to clean up 16 grape spills on Marlborough roads during this year’s harvest. Sergeant Michael Moloney, of the South Island Commercial Vehicle Investigation Unit, said most of the spillages happened on Alabama Rd and Grove Rd. Moloney believed the spill rate was likely a result of inappropriate vehicles and out-of-town drivers who were unfamiliar with the roads. Some truck drivers forgot they were carrying liquid loads and would come to an instant halt at intersections and roundabouts causing the grapes to spill.

Wine lovers will likely be able to zip between Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough on a new air service as soon as August. Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said there was a “high likelihood” a service would be up and running between Napier and Blenheim. “Our hands are tremendously full, as you can imagine,” he said, of the carrier’s expansion. It has recently picked up two services which are being dropped by Air New Zealand: a Westport service starting tomorrow, and a Taupo-to-Wellington route starting soon.

WE CONTINUE our Q&A with members of the Australian wine industry to find out their thoughts on the recently launched senate inquiry into the industry, the proposal for a temporary levy on every bottle of wine sold in Australia to assist growers through current tough times, and the general state of the industry. Today, we present the views of the warm inland regions as told by the representatives of their local industry organisations: Andrew Weeks, the newly-appointed business manager for Riverland Wine; Mike Stone, executive officer for Murray Valley Winegrowers; and Brian Simpson, chief executive officer of the Riverina Wine Grapes Marketing Board.

Victoria’s western districts are renowned for the wool they produce. But the region is slowly gaining attention for its small but growing wine industry. The Henty wine district sits between the Grampians to the north and the coast to the south. Pierrepoint Wines owner Jennifer Lacey said the greatest task was making people aware of the wines the region produced. “The vineyards that are remaining are extremely successful, we produce incredible fruit,” she said. “Most wineries in the area are at least four stars with James Halliday, most are four-and-a-half and five.”

May is just around the corner, bringing with it the fourth annual Aussie Wine Month, the country’s biggest celebration of Australian wine. Aussie Wine Month, an initiative of Wine Australia, encourages wine drinkers to discover the diversity, quality and regionality of our local wines and share their discoveries by including #AussieWineMonth in their social media posts.

Grape growers in the South Australian Riverland are calling for a rethink of the marketing of Australian wine at home and overseas. Poor prices for this year’s vintage led to growers looking for answers. Riverland Wine executive officer Chris Byrne said the issues with the consumer perception of wine were an industry-wide problem and what consumers wanted was not being listened to. He said a marketing effort to help consumers understand that the Riverland was more than a bulk wine producing region was being drafted.

China now has the second-largest wine-growing area in the world after Spain, pushing France into third place, according to figures released by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. The figures for 2014 showed China had 799,000 hectares of land devoted to wine growing, compared with 1.02 million hectares for Spain. Australia was 12th on the list with 152,000 hectares. France remained the biggest producer of wine in the world, pumping out 47 million hectolitres last year, while Australia produced 12 million hectolitres and China 11 million.

A delegation of 10 Chinese government officials and winery executives will travel to California to attend the first educational seminar sponsored by the Cal-China Wine Culture Exchange (CCWCE), taking place on Friday, June 5, in Sacramento. The seminar is a collaborative project with the Napa Valley College and the Sacramento Convention and Visitor’s Bureau held in conjunction with the Consumer Wine Awards and the Grape Escape Celebration in Sacramento on June 6.

Named after the highest of all clouds, Cirro Wines had its beginnings in 2009, a time when things were far from rosy for the New Zealand wine industry. It is the brainchild of two flying winemakers, David Tyney and Richard Green. The men have more than 30 years’ combined winemaking experience from travels around the world and own Viscosity, a wine consultancy business based in Marlborough. The idea was to focus on developing an export brand for the Australian market.

A leading British winemaker is warning that the industry faces a nasty hangover on the back of a big increase in the number of English vineyards making sparkling wine. Frazer Thompson, chief executive of Chapel Down Group, said that competition was becoming “intensive” and he predicted that this would inevitably lead to industry consolidation within the next three or four years. He said the Kent-based group will be in a strong position to participate.