Blenheim lawyer and Marlborough district councillor David Dew’s Ben Morven Rd vineyard has a buyer. Mr Dew said the property is being sold separately and will be settled in about three weeks with a Marlborough buyer. He put his three vineyards, cellar door and wine company up for sale in July. The 6.8-hectare vineyard with one-bedroom house is to be sold with plans for a larger house, reports The Marlborough Express.
New Zealand wines are the way to go for a casual drinking experience. That’s the message to be aired on Chinese television in 2012. Wellington business Gibson Group is working on a TV series for the Chinese to help introduce New Zealand wines to more of the world. The series, which will feature episodes about three Marlborough vineyards, will air on Tianjin Television some time next year, Gibson Group legal and business affairs manager Victoria Spackman said.
The story behind the AWRI’s Brett breakthrough and what it all means for winemakers can be found exclusively in the November-December issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal, which has begun to arrive in letterboxes this week. As Daily Wine News revealed on Wednesday, the AWRI has become the first in the world to sequence the genome of Dekkera bruxellensis (Brettanomyces) – the most dominant Brett strain in Australian wineries.
The growing appeal of Pinot Noir in Australia has had another boost with a Pinot Noir for the first time being awarded Australian wine’s top gong as Wine of the Show at the National Wine Show of Australia, announced in Canberra last night. The single vineyard 2010 PHI Pinot Noir from Victoria’s Yarra Valley took out the The Len Evans Memorial Trophy for Best Table Wine of the Show, as well as Best Dry Red Wine and the inaugural award for Best Single Vineyard Dry Red, reports Hospitality Magazine.
Some of Australia’s best-known winemakers have been forced to evacuate as a bushfire raging in the Margaret River area of Western Australia approaches. The southwest tourist hot-spot, about 280km south of Perth, is one of Australia’s most renowned wine-producing regions. So far at least five vineyards around Margaret River have been evacuated, including the internationally awarded Leeuwin Estate, Xanadu Wines, Cape Mentelle, Voyager Estate and Redgate Wines, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
A winery which produced its first vintage just two years ago is celebrating after being named New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year by the International Wine & Spirits Competition. Marisco Vineyards was founded in his native Marlborough by Brent Marris former chief winemaker at both Wither Hills and Oyster Bay, reports The Drink Business. Setting out his ambitions for this latest project, Marris explained: “I wanted to move away from contract growers so I spent a year trying to find a specific site – I didn’t want a patchwork spread around like everyone else.”
One of Australia’s largest grapegrower associations says there are early signs that winery demand for grapes in the Murray Valley is on the rise. In its monthly grower newsletter, the Murray Valley Winegrowers chief executive Mark Mckenzie reports a number of major and a growing list of second-tier wineries have started seeking fruit for 2012 earlier than in recent vintages.
In the past 30 years, the University of Minnesota has developed climate-enduring wine grapes that are now made into the four most widely produced wines in Minnesota.
A full crop of “cold hardy grapes” can withstand temperatures of up to 33 below zero. Now, a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will allow researchers from the University and scientists from 11 other institutions to research more climate-resistant wine grapes, the acidity and taste within wine grapes and how best to market the wine to consumers.
Pokolbin Estate Vineyard yet again has claimed another Australasian Winestate title, but this time it’s for a Hunter Riesling – not Semillon.
Cessnock Advertiser reports the 2011 Pokolbin Estate Vineyard Hunter Riesling was judged the best Australasian Riesling at this year’s Winestate Wine of the Year awards in Adelaide after a taste-off with the highest ranked wines in Australia and New Zealand. After winning the Winestate Semillon title four times previously, Pokolbin Estate has secured its name in the history books as a premium Riesling producer.
The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK will go above £5 next year, new research carried out by Accolade Wines suggests. Decanter reports that at present the average cost of a bottle of wine sold in the UK off trade is £4.71, but tax rises will push it above the £5 mark, Accolade Wines says, adding, ‘since 2002, 80% of the rise in the price of wine can be atrributed to tax increases.’