A lawyer specialising in the wine industry says family-run vineyards need to have clear succession plans in place, in order for the industry to remain strong into the future. Wine lawyer Will Taylor said as vignerons aged, businesses needed to prepare for generational change in the industry.
He said there were conflict-avoiding and business-development reasons for having a proper succession plan in place.
“I see the disasters in my job when people don’t plan for succession,” he said.

CHAMPAGNE connoisseur Peta Baverstock is pitting her knowledge against some of the nation’s best as a finalist in the Vin de Champagne Awards in Sydney, reports The Advertiser.
The Robe winemaker and cellar door manager was the only South Australian named among the top six professionals in the country to face the judging panel and undergo a blind tasting at the prestigious award event next month.

In Max Allen’s latest wine column for The Australian, he reported on a recent tasting from the winemakers of Victoria’s Macedon Ranges. It was a good opportunity to catch up with the goings-on in this high, sprawling region north of Melbourne, to see what’s working well in its vineyards, planted variously on the slopes of old volcanoes, in forest-fringed gullies and on boulder-strewn granite plateaus.

Perennial wine winner Villa Maria again demonstrated its dominance by taking out the top prizes at the first of the 2016 awards. A Villa Maria Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot were the champion white and red at the Romeo Bragato Wine Awards. The Villa Maria Single Vineyard Ihumatao Chardonnay 2014 won the overall trophy as well as its category and the white wine section.

Central Otago winegrowers Roger and Jean Gibson are elated that a wine from their Lowburn Ferry vineyard has ranked Number One in high profile Decanter magazine in the UK. The in-depth tasting of more than 170 Pinot Noirs from across New Zealand in Decanter’s September 2016 issue was carried out by a panel of three prominent UK industry wine judges. Lowburn Ferry Home Block Pinot Noir 2014 scored 96 points out of a possible 100, giving it ‘outstanding’ status in the tasting.
In the covering feature article reviewing the tasting, New Zealand is described as being “the best Pinot-producing country outside of France”.

“California Celebrity Vineyards” raises intriguing questions about how we vino buffs should relate to celebrity-tagged wines. Are any of them actually really good? Do they deliver value for the dollar? How involved with the winemaking should we expect celebrities to be? (Quick answer: Mostly, not very!) If you’re inclined to give the back of your hand to the whole business of celebrity wine, you’ll probably agree with veteran California winemaker Stuart Smith, who says, “my first thought is that celebrities getting into wine is God’s way of telling them that they have too much money”.

The CEO of Australian Vintage Limited, Neil McGuigan, has called on the Government to continue its reforms to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) Rebate and remove it from bulk wine immediately.
As part of his Budget in May, Treasurer Scott Morrison announced some changes to the WET Rebate, including a tightening of the eligibility criteria and a stepped reduction in the rebate cap.
However McGuigan has told The Shout, that while he supports the rebate for boutique producers it should be taken away from bulk wine straight away.

GEELONG bubbles connoisseur Cam O’Keefe is vying for the title of champagne king. Mr O’Keefe who owns Centra Hotel on Myers St, is one of five finalists in the prestigious biennial Vin de Champagne Awards and will be flown to Sydney for a gala event on September 26. For him, champagne is more than just a bubbly treat. “You find most people in the food and wine industry are most serious about one aspect and for me that’s champagne.”

ONE of my favourite Shiraz in the recently published Top 100 Wines winter edition was the Redman 2012 Shiraz. Its attraction, as my tasting note suggests, is because it’s an “old-school, traditionally grown and vinified style … a wine that doesn’t show off and lingers in your senses for some time.” Last week in Coonawarra, the Redmans – brothers Bruce and Mal at the helm – added far greater meaning to their sense of tradition by opening 50 consecutive vintages of that Shiraz, starting with the first one their dad Owen made under the Redman label in 1966.

One of New South Wales’ best known and most loved annual festivals returns when the Orange Wine Festival takes over the famous cool-climate region come October. Spread from 14th to 30th October, the stacked program, celebrating 20 years of Orange as a wine-growing region, will add an additional two signature festival events along with its record 90+ satellite events, making for one of the most comprehensive regional wine festivals to date.