The public is being invited to taste the winning wines of the 2012 Sydney International Wine Competition over a six-course dinner in Sydney next month. Trophy winning wines will be announced at a degustation banquet from noon to 4pm at the Shangri La Hotel on Saturday 25 February. Now in its 31st year, the Sydney International Wine Competition is the only Australian wine show where wines are judged alongside appropriately weighted food.

The community was the big winner with three festivals held at venues around the Tasman district last Sunday. An estimated 2000 people attended the annual Brightwater Wine and Food Festival at Grey’s Vineyard, about 4000 were at the Sarau Festival in Upper Moutere and more than 600 people attended the Summer Food Fare in Collingwood. The region’s finest wines and beers, a mouthwatering range of food stalls and cooking demonstrations and top class music all contributed to a great day out at all three venues, reports Nelson Mail.

It sounds like a wine lover’s dream day. To taste about 80 of Hawke’s Bay’s finest wines all in a sniff and a sip in under eight hours. But for the judges of the bi-annual Regional Wine Selection it is demanding and at the end of the day vital in providing a selection geared to be tasted by visitors from all over the world. And besides, while the three judges for this year’s leading line-up got to savour the rich aromas and taste the many varied flavours they did not allow those drops to go any further than the taste buds in their mouths, reports Hawke’s Bay Today.

Philosophical differences have caused the Australian part-owner of Martinborough’s Te Kairanga and several other New Zealand wineries to pull out of the venture. Wineinc, owned by Australian Bruce Clugston, has sold its 5.12 per cent share in FFW Holdings NZ to majority shareholder Foley Family Wines. Foley now wholly owns the New Zealand firm. The Overseas Investment Office approved the sale last month, reports Business Day.

The annual grape picking harvest is traditionally a busy time for local backpacker accommodation providers. The Hunter Valley YHA in Nulkaba and Bottlebrush Backpackers in Cessnock were both at full capacity last Friday, as was the Wine Country Caravan Park at Nulkaba, with backpackers keen to make a bit of cash on their travels. Most are European, with England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain among the nations represented, reports the Cessnock Advertiser.

Accolades continue to pour in at Belgrave Park Winery. Three of the Cobargo vineyard’s tipples took home medals from the recent 2012 South Coast Wine Show in Ulladulla, where they competed against the best wineries from the Southern Highlands, Shoalhaven and South Coast. The awards were for Belgrave Park’s “Hair of the Dog”-labelled Merlot (silver medal), white Shiraz (silver) and Viognier (bronze), all grown and made at the Cobargo property, reports Bega District News.

The Hickinbotham Vineyard at Clarendon, the source of some of Australia’s finest Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon, now has an American owner. Jackson Family Wines has announced its purchase of the 445-acre McLaren Vale property. The sale comprises 207 planted acres on rolling hillsides, some steep and wooded, and two architecturally significant homes. Although no purchase price was announced, industry sources estimate it was more than $10 million, reports Wine Spectator.

A former Department of Agriculture and CSIRO food research scientist believes he can help local grapegrowers to expand amid tough times in the wine industry. Mudgee man Kevin Scott said the region’s grapegrowers should consider shifting from wine to table grapes. He is not calling for all winegrapes to be grafted but rather an experiment that may offer a positive alternative, reports the Mudgee Guardian.

GST (growing season temperature) may be the climatic index of choice for viticulturists. Pioneering cool climate viticulturist Dr Andrew Pirie, of Tamar Ridge, revitalised GST as a single measure offering a refined definition of cool climate at the opening session of the 8th International Cool Climate Symposium in Tasmania. Pirie tested some of the current climate indices by trialling how successful they are in Tasmania, no easy task in a complex viticultural environment, reports The Drinks Business.

The 15-year-old Harvest Hawke’s Bay Food and Wine Festival has been dropped from the tourist calendar leaving the province without a major event showcasing its produce this summer. Hawke’s Bay Tourism is meeting today with food and wine groups to begin talking about a new event which could be held next summer season, before the end of 2012, reports The New Zealand Herald.