Kiwis take on Grüner Veltliner (NZ)
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Kiwi winemakers are experimenting with Grüner Veltliner – which they believe could be the next big thing from New Zealand. Nine examples were shown at a masterclass at the New Zealand Wine annual trade tasting, reports Off Licence News. Saint Clair winemaker Matt Thomson, who led the class with Yealands Estate’s Tamra Washington, said: “We find this really exciting. There is no preconception about how it should be made.Cool climate wines could grow Aussie volumes
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Cooler-climate wines could be the answer to Australia's problems of shrinking off-trade volumes and under-representation on restaurant lists. The category saw take-home volume sales drop 2.7% in the year to September 2011, while value sales remained static at £1.1 billion, according to a recent Wilson Drinks Report commissioned by Wine Australia. In the on-trade, the country only has a 9% share of red listings and 7% share of white on wine lists. But the future is bright if it gets its cool-climate offering right, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.Food, wine and fun assured (NZ)
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Organisers of the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival next month say ticket sales look set to match last year's event when nearly 8000 people attended. General manager Marcus Pickens expects a surge in sales over the coming weeks ahead of the festival on February 11, reports The Marlborough Express. New attractions, like the Chef's Table with well-known celebrity chefs, would encourage past punters to revisit the annual showpiece at Brancott Estate Vineyard, he said.Pernod Ricard suffers $99m hit on asset sales (NZ)
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French liquor company Pernod Ricard has taken a $99.1 million loss on the sale of assets by its New Zealand business while a dispute with the Inland Revenue Department sits in its accounts as a potential $87.4 million future loss. A $105.4 million loss in the year to June 30, 2011, reported by Millstream Equities, the holding company for its wholly owned local unit, does not include contingent liabilities of $87.4 million and $58.2 million for interest deductions on convertible notes or an alternative alleged avoidance of non-residential withholding tax it disputes with the IRD, reports the New Zealand Herald.No buyer for Gulgong grower’s winegrapes
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As Mudgee wine region begins its annual harvest over the coming weeks one Gulgong grapegrower may not even pick a berry. For the first time in 16 years Ian McMaster has “lucked out” and not found a buyer for his grapes. He believes on the verge of an otherwise promising 2012 vintage that about 175 tonnes of premium grapes will not make it to wineries here or abroad, reports the Mudgee Guardian.WorkSafe probes wine spill
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Treasury Wine Estates says no workers were at risk when a door on a wine tank failed at its Karadoc winery near Mildura. About 250,000 litres of wine poured from the bin when the door blew out about 10:30pm (AEDT) on Monday night. The wine was captured in the winery's on-site effluent system, reports ABC News.Selling a fine-wine story to US
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When Wine Australia invites you to go ''Around Australia in 80 Sips'' it is a hard offer to knock back. From the time you have wound your way from Margaret River reds to Yarra Valley whites amid the smell of hot meat pies you can easily forget that you are actually at an events space on New York's 42nd Street. There is a reason why this event is being held here. Producers are keen to get Americans excited about the regional subtleties of Australian wines, writes Mathew Murphy in the Sydney Morning Herald.Local leaders share in Australia Day gongs
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Leaders in the food and wine industry have been among those to get the highest honours in South Australia's north and west region in today's Australia Day honours list. Barossa Valley food identity Maggie Beer has been appointed a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia - for services to the tourism and the hospitality industry and the promotion of Australian produce and cuisine. Also being honoured with an AM is John Bastian from the Clare Valley, for community service and service to business, reports ABC West Coast SA.d’Arenberg “Dadd” sparkling wine released
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McLaren Vale producer d’Arenberg has released a limited edition sparkling wine called Dadd. The label carries the signature d’Arenberg red sash, which bears a striking resemblance to a Champagne house with a similarly familial name. As reported by The Drinks Business last May, chief winemaker Chester Osborn revealed the project has been one hundred years in the making.Sustainable Winegrowing programme or bust? (NZ)
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Over 95 per cent of New Zealand's vineyard area is part of the industry’s sustainable-winegrowing push. But Terry Dunleavy, a former executive officer of the Wine Institute, has reservations. “We’ve conned ourselves into a preoccupation with sustainability on the environmental front rather than sustainability on the economic front," Dunleavy said. Wineries are at odds over whether to back the industry’s Sustainable Winegrowing programme, writes Michael Cooper in the NZ Listener.