Grapegrowers and winemakers in the Canberra district are hailing a bumper 2015 season, following what have been described by many as the best growing conditions in years. This year grape quality and crop volumes are excellent, according to premium Shiraz grapegrower Brian Binning from Yass.
The harvest can be a lottery, but Binning said things were shaping up well for one of the best years on record. “It’s very good harvest – the best we’ve had since we grafted our vines over to Shiraz,” he said.

A Western Australian grape grower has been able to get a second crop of fruit, after a hail storm wiped out most of his vineyard. “The hail itself is what I class as severe. All the green foliage was fully defoliated,” said Rod Hallett of Alkoomi Wines in Frankland River, 320 kilometres south-east of Perth. After some quick thinking and heavy pruning Hallett said he was thrilled to see some crop return, after 90 per cent of his vineyard was essentially wiped out.

Maintaining competitiveness in the retail environment will be on the agenda in Adelaide, at WineTech 2015 in July. Hosting two seminars on July 14, Wine Communicators of Australia (WCA) plan to focus on some of the options and opportunities available to wine businesses. As well as looking at what can be learned from the experiences and responses of other sectors of the food, beverage and agriculture industries, WCA will explore the growth of online retail sites and the unrelenting slashed prices that come with it.

(Bloomberg) — Argentine grape growers for low quality, bulk wines must improve standards, create new products or switch to other fruits and vegetables to return to profitability, Mendoza Governor Francisco Perez said. A drop in consumption of box wine and over production of the grapes has kept the price paid to producers unchanged for the past three to four years amid inflation above 20 percent, the governor said in an interview in his office in Mendoza after hosting the annual harvest festival.

Furious seems a fair way to describe the mood at a creditors’ meeting of the latest wine investment firm to bite the dust. Around 600 investors have been left in the lurch by the collapse of APW Asset Management Ltd, formerly known as Australian Portfolio Wines. Except that it might not have collapsed at all. What was supposed to have been the creditors’ meeting descended into farce when sole director Chima Maduabuchukwu – Madu for short – declared that he had not appointed a -liquidator after all.

Powdery mildew has been spotted in vineyards across Marlborough, and contractors have their workers fighting to keep the disease at bay. Some are spraying their vineyards, while others are simply cutting off the affected fruit. Alapa Viticultural Services owner Alan Wilkinson said at least three vineyards had been written off as a result of powdery mildew. “It’s quite significant. It’s definitely worse than last year,” he said. “It gets into the bunches and taints the fruit and the fruit gets sooty white spores. “It’s not very pretty.”

The rebirth of Chateau Tanunda is one of the most remarkable stories of the Australian wine industry. This massive, iconic stone and brick building was South Australia’s second-largest building when it was built in 1890, second to Elder Smith’s Port Adelaide wool store, and was part-funded by 200 Barossa Valley grapegrower shareholders. It’s hard to believe, but by 1998 it was unoccupied, unloved, unkempt, inhabited only by pigeons, and under threat of demolition.

A Hawke’s Bay winemaker has suggested that a recent surge in investment from major producers has put New Zealand’s second largest wine region in a prime position to raise its profile abroad. “We’re kind of like where Marlborough was 15 years ago before Sauvignon Blanc took off,” observed Miles Dineen, winemaker at Crossroads, a 55-hectare property that came under the Yealands Estate portfolio following a merger in 2011.

WINEMAKER Paul Clark remains a glass half full kind of guy, despite the devastation the Sampson Flat bushfire wrought on his vineyards. So when Birdwood High School offered to donate its crop of Sauvignon Blanc grapes to Kersbrook Hill Wines, he saw an opportunity to inspire a new generations of Hills vintners. About 50 students picked more than half a tonne of grapes to send to the winery, where Clark is now working with a smaller bunch of mostly Year 10s to produce a special 600-bottle vintage.

Sunraysia wine grape growers say they have received the worst prices from wine companies in nearly 10 years. The 2015 grape harvest has seen good quality and consistent fine weather, and will finish up earlier than normal. But Mike Stone, from Murray Valley Winegrowers, says unsustainable prices from wine companies will see those who have just been hanging on leave the industry this year. “Winegrape prices must improve in 2016 or the industry in this region will continue to shrink,” he said.