The University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine is taking its wine education free to the world with its first open online course on wine. Offered under the banner AdelaideX, Wine101x is a free online course covering wine tasting, how grapes are grown and wine is made and how science benefits the wine industry. Although entirely online, participants will make their own ‘virtual wine’ and have their process judged – with medals awarded to the best of the bunch.

The real impact of fluctuating currencies on South Australia’s winegrape growers will be presented at the second annual SA Winegrape Growers Summit being held on July 17. The Wine Grape Council of South Australia (WGCSA) said while the falling dollar is a positive factor for the wine industry the level of benefit is still to be determined. Peter Hackworth, WGCSA executive officer, said new free trade agreements with countries like China and South Korea were good signs for Australia’s wine industry, but our competitors in other exporting countries like Chile and South Africa are also benefiting from similar rates of depreciation.

SAN MIGUEL Corp. (SMC) has expanded its packaging business in the Australasian region with the acquisition of an Australian supplier of wine bottle closures and customized bottles. In a statement, the country’s most diversified conglomerate said San Miguel Yamamura Packaging International Ltd. (SMYPIL) — through its new Australian unit, SMYV Pty. Ltd. — has completed the purchase of Vinocor Worldwide Direct Pty. Ltd. The Adelaide-based Vinocor makes cork, screw caps, customized glass bottles and champagne hoods and capsules.

With 39 producers from 30 regions, across six states, this year’s Australian wine contingent will be the largest and most diverse that ProWein has seen. The Wine Australia stand will also neighbour fellow Australian exhibitors to collectively showcase more than 60 wineries. The centrepiece for Wine Australia will be a masterclass hosted by Australian wine expert, Mark Davidson, which will explore the theme ‘History, Evolution, Revolution’.

Harvesting is in full swing in almost every vineyard across eastern Australia and this year, more than ever, it is a race to get ripened grapes picked in time. An early spring and erratic summer weather meant harvesting in some regions began a month earlier than usual. In most wine regions it is likely to be finished weeks earlier than normal. But in the inland wine producing regions some growers will not bother to harvest their grapes as Australia’s wine industry faces a period of rationalisation. Growers who do not have contracts to sell their harvest to wineries face the prospect of unwanted fruit — another year of financial loss.

As visitors outnumber residents in the California wine industry’s spiritual home, is Napa cooking its golden goose? What is a winery; a place to make wine, or an event center to host tastings? In grappling with that question, Napa Valley is also struggling with a bigger one – what is a paradise? Napa currently has more cars driving into and out of the county every day than it has residents. It has the nation’s first agricultural preservation law, but it grants variances to that law several times a year that allow people like Philippe Melka to build closer to the road than the law supposedly allows.

Marlborough’s gross domestic product has increased by $213 million, thanks to the region’s thriving wine industry. The latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show the region’s GDP increased from $2.069 billion to $2.282b in the year ending March 2014 – the third-highest increase in the country.
Wine Marlborough general manager Marcus Pickens said the figures showed the region benefited when the wine sector performed well and showed profitable growth.

Morley Hewitt has loved ”every minute” of his involvement with the Central Otago wine industry. Hewitt is managing director of VinPro, a company which had its origins as a humble mobile bottling plant. Over the past 20 years, it has grown to be one of the larger employers in Cromwell and now does the bottling for the majority of Central Otago wine producers. ”It’s a great business – it’s the romance, food, wine … It’s all there. I’m very proud of the Central Otago industry.”

The Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA) are seeking applicants for non-executive directors to join their board for a part-time term of up to three years. As the current term for each of AGWA’s seven non-executive directors nears its end, a spokesperson for the industry body said they are interested in hearing from applicants who come from a variety of career backgrounds. Supporting the national wine sector by investing in research and development, growing global demand and protecting the reputation of Australian wine, AGWA is funded by grapegrowers, winemakers and wine exporters as well as the Australian Government.

Melbourne used to be one of the Great Wine Capitals of the World: the network – club if you like – of wine-centric cities, established in 1996 by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce. Its members now include Bilbao (for Rioja in Spain), Cape Town (for the Cape Winelands of South Africa), Mainz (for the Rheinhessen), Porto (for the Douro in Portugal), San Francisco (for the Napa Valley in the US), Valparaiso (for the Casablanca Valley in Chile), Mendoza (Argentina), and the aforementioned Bordeaux.