Lighter-bodied wines dominated the awards at the Sydney International Wine Competition over the weekend. The Trinity Hill 2010 Gimblett Gravels Syrah took out three trophies at this year’s show – the only Australian wine show where wines are judged alongside appropriately weighted food. The Syrah took out trophies for best wine of competition, best red wine of competition and best lighter-bodied dry red table wine of competition.
Researchers in Australia say they have pinpointed key factors in the early ripening of grapes, providing potential answers for wine growers threatened by global warming. In Australia and Western Europe, there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence linking higher temperatures with earlier grape maturation, a phenomenon that can affect the quality of table wine. But wine growing and climate change are each highly complex questions. Until now, no one has sorted out how the variables – warming, sunlight, soil moisture and vineyard management – each play a role in grape maturation, reports the Herald Sun.
Five of the 16 men who planted Australia’s only Aboriginal vineyard have died since they laboured beneath the central western sun more than a decade ago. The grapes remain, drooping in the heat from neat lines of vines in an otherwise arid paddock next to the tiny Murrin Bridge Aboriginal community near Lake Cargelligo. But 609 cases of Murrin Bridge Connection wines sitting in a cellar in Griffith to the south is the promise of new life for the vineyard and employment for the community that created it, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
Those were the days – Chevies, the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and the start of one of the most enduring stories of the Australian wine industry. Justine Henschke might not be old enough to remember them, but she has taken a drive down memory lane to celebrate 1958, when the first of her family’s famed Hill of Grace Shiraz wines was made by her grandfather Cyril. Joining her family at their Eden Valley winery, along with a posse of leading wine experts and media, and the Barossa’s favourite chef, Maggie Beer, Ms Henschke helped launch the 2007 Henschke Hill of Grace, which marks the 50th vintage released of what is considered one of Australia’s most iconic wines, writes News Limited national wine writer Tony Love.
A bushfire tore through one of the state’s best known vineyards in the Upper Derwent Valley and claimed up to 50 sheep on the property yesterday. The family of vineyard owner Gerald Ellis and fire crews spent last night keeping an eye on the blaze that continued to burn around the Meadowbank Estate property. The fire has ruined any chance of a wine grape harvest this year, but Mr Ellis hoped the vines would bounce back, reports The Mercury.
Wine tastes better if a winery is difficult to pronounce, according to new research. In a study by Brock University professor, Dr Antonia Mantonakis, it found English-speaking wine consumers were more likely to buy wine from a winery with a difficult-to-pronounce name. Participants also rated wine more highly in a blind tasting, and were prepared to pay more money for the same wine, if it had a name that was difficult to say in English, reports Decanter.
Former Craggy Range winemaker Rod Easthope is to make an exclusive range of wines for online retailer Naked Wines. Funded by Naked and its 100,000 “Angel” customers, Easthope will also act as a consultant winemaker for other New Zealand producers working with Naked Wines, reports The Drinks Business. “It’s been a lifelong dream to be my own boss, and the Naked Wines’ model is finally making that dream come true,” said Easthope.
We are clean, we are green and the wines we make as near as damnit to natural as you can get. Or so we are led to believe. But the question still remains: How natural is natural? It depends on who you listen to. It’s what they do not do, and to what degree, that distinguishes producers of natural wines from those who use tools and additives to get the results they want, writes Warren Barton in The Southland Times.
The Land of the Long White Cloud is bringing its best wines to Noosa Heads for the Noosa News New Zealand Wine Festival. More than 20 of New Zealand’s winemakers and wine representatives will be present, along with their best products, as they host two multi-course dinners tonight and tomorrow at berardo’s Restaurant and Bar. The meals will be prepared by executive chef Shane Bailey, to be specifically matched to the wines, reports Noosa News.
Martinborough, nestled in the bosom of the wine region known as Wairarapa, is home to a number of smallish but stellar producers. Ata Rangi, Dry River, Palliser Estate and Martinborough Vineyard are top of mind, but there are others who are fast gaining a reputation for excellent wines from a region that continues to prove that small can not only be beautiful but affordable as well, reports The New Zealand Herald.