I approached the bottle with trepidation, because it wasn’t a pretty sight. On one side of the slightly scuffed label was a brownish-red stain – the cork from another bottle elsewhere in the cellar had obviously “given up the ghost”. On the capsule was the catalogue number 642. I was about to open a bottle of Wither Hills Marlborough 1997 chardonnay and to be honest, didn’t hold out much hope for its drinkability. The problem with cellaring wine is that we all become hoarders and hate breaking into our stashes. Sometimes, an extra year or two can be a year or two too long, reports The Marlborough Express.

Winegrape growers in north-west Victoria are expecting to harvest some of the best quality fruit in years over the next few weeks. Murray Valley Winegrowers’ Dennis Mills says fruit has ripened quickly due to favourable weather conditions and the harvest is likely to reach full swing this week. However, Mr Mills says yields and prices do vary, with some crops producing 20 to 30 per cent less fruit than expected, reports ABC News.

Every harvest is important to the team at Ballandean Estate Wines, but there is a lot more than usual riding on the 2012 vintage. Last December fire ripped through the storage shed at the historic winery, ruining more than $1.5 million worth of stock. At the beginning of this week the team at Ballandean started harvesting the next vintage of grapes which Leeanne Puglisi- Gangemi hopes can restore stocks at her family’s winery, reports The Chronicle.

Local winemakers are expecting a bumper harvest due to the unusually wet December and cool January weather. Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association president Andrew Margan said conditions were perfect when picking started on January 18, and although it has delayed picking at some sites, last week’s rain did not provide too much cause for concern, reports the Cessnock Advertiser. “It has been going really well with the fruit showing a lovely flavour,” Mr. Margan said.

Wine royalty joined 300 wine lovers on the Hobart waterfront yesterday to talk about the growing cool climate wine industry worldwide and where it is headed. Leading UK wine expert, and wine adviser to the Queen, Jancis Robinson, yesterday welcomed delegates with a short talk about the cool climate wine regions of the world, reports The Mercury. “I am not here to pontificate about Australia’s cooler climate wines,” she told delegates. “But one of my hugest pleasures in the past few years has been trying the new wines from cooler parts of Tasmania and Victoria.”

The owners of Clare winery Skillogalee will say goodbye to their hair next week in an effort to raise $30,000 for children living with cancer. In an event inspired by the heroic battle of four-year-old nephew and grandson, Kai, Nicola Palmer will cut off her 12-year-old dreadlocks, while her father Dave Palmer will shave his head for the cause. The money raised will go towards vital machinery for kids at Brookman Ward at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Foundation.

A high-powered Swiss couple are the new owners of Kina Beach Vineyard and have plans to expand its profile and production. Achim Bauer, a partner in accountancy giant PriceWaterhouseCoopers in London, and Karin Schoch, a human resources manager in Zurich, paid just over $2 million for the six-hectare vineyard and accommodation business started by Dave Birt and Pam Robert in 1997, reports the Nelson Mail.

Climate, soil and geography have long been recognised playing an important role in shaping the character of a region’s wines and whose interplay is at the heart of the French concept of terroir. However, a breakthrough by New Zealand scientists now suggests that an area’s yeasts could play their part in regional differences as well, with the discovery that communities and strains of wine yeasts vary from region to region. In the light of these findings, winemakers wanting to make wines most expressive of a specific place might want to dispense with generic yeasts from a packet and let nature take control of their ferments, writes Jo Burzynsca in The New Zealand Herald.

Whatever the price of a bottle of wine and the degree to which this influences the buyer, the label still plays an extraordinarily important role in its purchase. The label also provides the buyer with the other information that he or she wants and needs to know about the wine. Why the need, then, for a second or back label on the reverse side of the bottle? It is there to provide a warning to people who are allergic to certain foods, or are vegans and do not eat these foods, that traces could be present in the wine. The puzzling bit is how you get traces of fish, dairy products or eggs, the usual culprits, in wine, writes Warren Barton in The Southland Times.

The need to continually promote the area as a premiere tourist destination has meant Barossa Tourism has a new team leader. The role of Regional Tourism Manager of the Barossa has been filled by former Herald journalist and writer for Wine Business Magazine Nathan Gogoll, who began work on Monday. Mr Gogoll explained the Regional Development Australia Barossa administered the role, while Tourism Barossa led the initiative, reports the Barossa Herald.