Karl Stockhausen has celebrated another major career milestone – recently marking his 25-year association with the Mount View’s boutique Briar Ridge wine brand. The association began in 1991 when he briefly took over as Briar Ridge manager-winemaker and then became a consultant to its various winemakers, with whom he collaborated in crafting the Briar Ridge Stockhausen Signature Hunter Valley Semillon, Chardonnay and Shiraz wines.

Today he works on the Stockhausen wines alongside Gwyn Olsen, chief winemaker of Dr John Davis’ Pepper Tree Wines group.

fermentAsian in Tanunda, South Australia has won the Australia’s ‘wine list of the year’ award for 2016 while the sommelier responsible for the winning list, Grant Dickson, received the Judy Hirst award, presented in memory of the inspirational woman who helped establish the awards.

The Australian wine industry is discussing ways to adapt to climate change, as it meets for a major three day conference in Adelaide this week. Warmer temperatures are ripening grapes faster than ever before and throwing up questions about which varieties can be grown where.

The Australian Wine Industry’s most prestigious accolade – the McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Award has been presented to The Len Evans Tutorial. Held every two years, the Maurice O’Shea Award recognises an individual or group for their outstanding contribution to the wine industry. This is the first time the Maurice O’Shea Award Dinner has been held in conjunction with the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference, which is currently underway in Adelaide.

In Napa, words like “organic” and “biodynamic” can be seen as a drawback. Mildew and viruses may actually make wine taste better, but you might not want to get into the true dirt of organic farming with consumers. These were two of the takeaways from Napa Valley’s 10th annual organic grapegrowing conference last week.

Mike Winter from Amisfield has taken out the Bayer Central Otago Young Viticulturist of the Year for 2016. This is the third year Winter has taken out the title and he is very determined to take out the National title this year, especially as it is the last time he can compete. He will be too old next year as cut off age for the competition is 30 years old or younger on 31 December, so Winter will be putting a lot of time and effort into study and preparation over the next few weeks.

A Waitaki winery is experimenting with an ancient wine technique to produce orange wine. Orange wine was first produced about 5000 years ago in Georgia. The wine was made when white grapes, with seeds and skins included, were mashed up and placed in a container and left for a period of time with little to no additives included in the ingredients list, website Wine Folly says.

UK consumers still perceive Australian wine to be homogenous and dominated by big brands, according to the CEO of Berry Bros & Rudd. Speaking at the Winemakers Federation of Australia conference in Adelaide earlier today, Dan Jago, who assumed leadership at the UK wine importer, retailer and merchant last year, warned that Australia’s “fine or esoteric or artisan wines” are not cutting through in the country.

Australian vignerons will soon have a new weapon to fight wine fraud, with chemical analysis helping authenticate whether a wine comes from the Barossa or Beijing. In a response to the growing problem of second-rate wines being fraudulently sold under premium labels, researchers at the Australian Wine Research Institute are working to identify unique chemical signatures of the country’s famous wine regions.

One of Australia’s biggest family-owned wineries wants to become the country’s first zero-waste wine producer, and has invested more than $15m to achieve this goal. De Bortoli Wines, which has wineries at four sites in two states, has already cut the amount of waste it disposes to landfill from 300 tonnes a year to 48 tonnes as part of a long-term sustainable business plan adopted in 2004.