Hundreds attend Huntington festival

Hundreds attend Huntington festival

The Huntington Estate Music Festival continues to attract music lovers in its 22nd year.
The Mudgee Guardian reports that almost 800 patrons attended the five-day festival last week to see world-renowned performers, such as Guy Johnston (cello) and Andrew Meisel (double bass), finishing their unusual duo with a flourish. For those unable to attend the sold-out event, concerts were broadcast live on ABC Classic FM.

Nod for laxative chemical to be used in winemaking

Winemakers will begin using a chemical additive that is also used in toothpaste and laxatives, after the Food Standards agency ruled it safe. The Australian reports that the Winemakers Federation of Australia has won approval to use sodium carboxymethyl cellulose — commonly known as cellulose gum, or food additive E466 — to prevent crystals and cloudiness in white and sparkling wines.

Pop open a winner – it’s a vintage year for English bubbly

British wine and English wine are two very different things, and it’s all too easy to get them confused, reports The Daily Mail. British wine isn’t made from grapes grown in Great Britain. It’s fermented and bottled on our shores, but the grape juice – often arriving in concentrate form – comes from abroad.

Ailing wineries uncork the web

Australia’s embattled wine industry is rapidly moving online in response to an influx of cheaper home-brand labels on supermarket shelves that has pushed many independent wineries to the brink. But such is the power of Woolworths – its chains include Dan Murphy’s, BWS, Cellarmasters and Langton’s – and Coles – which owns 1st Choice, Vintage Cellars and Liquorland – that many winemakers refused to comment for fear of retribution, reports The Age.

Yao Ming courts China’s wine boom

While Yao Ming was growing up in Shanghai, wine was served with ice cubes. It wasn’t until the 7-foot-6-inch Chinese basketball player spent time with National Basketball Association teammate Dikembe Mutombo, a 7-foot-2-inch Congolese player, that he began to appreciate wine, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Wine industry digests unpalatable truths

Faced with a grape glut and cheap imports, Australian winemakers face a challenging future, writes Eli Greenblat for Business Day. Australia’s biggest and most well-known family owned wine companies have posted flat revenue and shrinking earnings in the 2011 financial year as the sector faces a maelstrom of external shocks, led by the high Australian dollar, which has decimated exports, as well as a grape glut and competition from new world producers

Boisset buys Skalli (France)

Boisset has continued its recent spending spree with the company’s biggest deal to date: the acquisition of rival French wine giant Skalli. The acquisition of Skalli Wines’ brands, vineyards and facilities in the Languedoc and Rhône Valley comes just a few weeks after Robert Skalli sold the company’s wine interests in Corsica. The sale to Boisset, for an undisclosed sum, does not include St Supéry, the Napa Valley wine estate owned by the Skalli family since the 1980s. But it does include brands such as Caves St-Pierre, Couleurs du Sud and Fortant de France, reports Decanter.

Boisset buys Skalli (US)

Boisset has continued its recent spending spree with the company’s biggest deal to date: the acquisition of rival French wine giant Skalli. The acquisition of Skalli Wines’ brands, vineyards and facilities in the Languedoc and Rhône Valley comes just a few weeks after Robert Skalli sold the company’s wine interests in Corsica. The sale to Boisset, for an undisclosed sum, does not include St Supéry, the Napa Valley wine estate owned by the Skalli family since the 1980s. But it does include brands such as Caves St-Pierre, Couleurs du Sud and Fortant de France, reports Decanter.

Why can’t wine critics choke down their biases? (US)

This will come as no surprise to most of you: Wine columnists are biased. Some have a special fondness for smooth oak and high alcohol. Others delight in herbaceous cabernet francs, still others in the sweat and guts of an old-school Barolo. As readers, we adjust, mentally deducting or adding a few points here and there when we’re wise to the critic’s unbridled enthusiasm for a particular style. But too often the bias is political, reports The Globe and Mail.

McGuigan Wines plans new city vineyard

McGuigan Wines is planning to build a city vineyard – bringing 80 Semillon vines aged over 60-years old – in Dublin in September 2012. The vineyard will be open for nine days in the Irish capital’s financial district, complete with a cellar door, wine barrels, tractors and chief winemaker Neil McGuigan. Paul Schaafsma, UK & Ireland general manager for brand owner Australian Vintage said the company would bring customers from the UK and Europe to visit the spectacle, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.

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