Australian wine has made a lasting impression on wine palates in North America with an impressive showing as the theme country at the 36th Vancouver International Wine Festival (VIWF), Canada’s preeminent trade and consumer wine event. It’s estimated that 25,000 wine drinkers (encompassing media, wine trade and consumers) enjoyed Savour Australia, Wine Australia’s packed program of epicurean events and experiences. Guests sipped their way through Australian wine regions, discovering the ‘history, evolution and revolution’ of our wines along the way.

Wine Australia’s ProWein stand in Germany this week was a continuous hub of activity with more than 400 wines on show, food and wine matches, and an in-depth exploration of the past, present and future of Australian wine. During the three-day Fair, held from 15–17 March, ProWein attracted more than 52,000 international trade visitors to the Messe Hall in Düsseldorf. A total of 5,970 exhibitors from 50 nations were on show in the Fair’s nine exhibition halls, including 39 dynamic producers on the Wine Australia stand.

CANADA: The British Columbia (B.C.) government faces another trade concern over its liquor reforms. Brian Walsh, chair of the Australian Grape and Wine Authority has written to B.C. Premier Christy Clark raising objections to reforms that favour B.C. wines. Walsh stated in his March 5 letter that B.C. VQA wines had a 20.9 per cent market share last year in B.C., generating gross sales of $217 million. He noted that this was 12 per cent up from the previous year. Australia, had a 7.9 per cent market share in B.C. wine sales last year, according to his letter.

Bordeaux (AFP) – Chinese investors now rival the French in buying vineyards in Bordeaux: a sign both of the region’s global prestige and China’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine, according to local property agencies and industry associations. More than 100 properties in France’s southwest wine-producing area are today owned by Chinese tycoons looking to diversify fortunes built upon real estate, jewellery, industry or tourism holdings.

Fast-growing wine company Invivo Wines raised more than $1 million in the space of a few hours after its equity crowdfunding campaign opened yesterday. Auckland-based Invivo’s capital raising began on the Snowball Effect platform at midday and had secured more than double the $500,000 minimum funding target by 5.30pm. The company is looking to raise up to $2 million, the maximum allowed through a crowdfunding campaign, and has said it will use the capital to ramp up its expansion in international markets.

The Cowra Wine Show Committee has announced the 2015 show will incorporate the inaugural Australian National Single Vineyard Wine Show.
As well as recognising the top wines, the viticulturists or grapegrowers of the best white and the best red single vineyard table wines will be rewarded with trophies. Russell Cody, chief judge, supported the initiative and said he was confident producers would see it as an opportunity to showcase their wonderful single vineyard wines. Schedules inviting entries to the two shows will be emailed to producers on Friday 1 May.

WELLINGTON, March 18 (Xinhua) As a sales manager and marketing director of a famous New Zealand winery, Martin Tutty had never thought that he would need to come to China so many times a year. Martin’s story, however, has also become a common experience of his Kiwi peers. Since China and New Zealand signed Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) in 2008, the Chinese market is regarded by the former as an important business engine. As such, Martin currently spends three or four months a year in China, dealing with local distributors in numerous Chinese cities.

The B.C. government faces another trade concern over its liquor reforms. Brian Walsh, chair of the Australian Grape and Wine Authority has written to Premier Christy Clark raising objections to reforms that favour B.C. wines. Walsh stated in his March 5 letter that B.C. VQA wines had a 20.9 per cent market share last year in B.C., generating gross sales of $217 million. He noted that this was 12 per cent up from the previous year. Australia, had a 7.9 per cent market share in B.C. wine sales last year, according to his letter.

AGL Energy has rejected a call from a community group to hand-in its coal seam gas exploration licences in the Hunter Valley. The Hunter Valley Protection Alliance challenged AGL to dispose of two exploration licences covering the Broke Fordwich winegrowing region. It argues having already handed two neighbouring licences back to the state government that the company should exit the area altogether. AGL said while there are some surface restrictions, it considers there is still exploration potential for the Broke Fordwich licences.

The Australian On-Premise wine market is undergoing a once in a generation change. Listings of imports have lifted from a quarter to a third of all listings. The number of brands listed has increase by 75% in just 12 months after being fairly stable at around 2000 for the last seven years. This is according to Wine Businesses Solutions’ Wine On-Premise Australia 2015 report which has just been released this week.