Maitland will make its mark on the foodie map with this weekend’s fourth annual Maitland Taste Festival. The two-day event runs Saturday 10am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm. Formerly held in Maitland’s mall, this year’s event has been expanded to incorporate the wider city area. Not only will you be able to wander among stalls offering food, drinks and plenty more, but the festival also includes cooking classes and demonstrations, as well as wine and cheese masterclasses. Wineries taking part include Lovedale’s Allandale Winery, Rothbury’s Macquariedale Organic Wines and Pokolbin’s Drayton’s Family Wines and Mount View Estate, reports the Newcastle Herald.

Winemaker Garry Crittenden has been inducted into the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Legends hall of fame. Each year, the hall of fame pays tribute to the leaders, ground-breakers and visionaries of Victoria’s food and wine industry, including chefs, producers, culinary communicators, wine producers and restaurateurs. Mr Crittenden was inducted into the vigneron category of the legends hall of fame for his pioneering efforts in winemaking on the Mornington Peninsula, reports Peninsula Weekly.

Unorthodox is a tag David Anderson wears proudly and applies to both making and selling his immensely rich, powerful and fleshy Wild Duck Creek Estate wines. At a time when most producers are turning somersaults to get sales, anyone wanting Wild Duck Creek wines has to sign up as a subscriber and, in the manner of the enprimeur system of Bordeaux, apply for an allocation from the new releases made each June. The system reflects the cult status Wild Duck Creek has enjoyed since 1998 when US wine guru Robert Parker gave favourable reviews to its reds in his Wine Advocate newsletter, reports the Newcastle Herald.

The final part of the collapse of Mudgee’s biggest winery is now in place with McGrath Nicol being appointed administrators for the troubled Prince Hill Wines Group. Financier Commonwealth Bank appointed Ferrier Hodgson as receivers and managers on March 14 to a property owned by Coonawarra Australia Property Trust subsidiary, CPV Wines, and the Trust’s responsible entity, Coonawarra Premium Vineyards. The vineyard management company Prince Hill Wine Services is also being managed by Ferrier Hodgson, while the listed entity has been suspended from trading, reports Adelaide Now.

Turkish authorities are investigating the country’s former ambassador to the European Union, following allegations he embezzled wine worth hundreds of thousands of euros. Daryal Batibay is suspected of using around €200,000 of public money to buy the wines, before attempting to smuggle them into Turkey. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to Decanter that it and other government agencies are investigating Batibay, who retired as the country’s permanent representative to the Council of Europe late last year.

It’s a “scary” time for wine brands as supermarkets’ own versions are leaving them out in the cold, say experts. Suppliers and branding experts are warning that brands have to change their approach and offer a point of difference in order to appeal to retailers, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit. Nick Bauer, co-director of Free Run wines said: “The is the scary bit – some of the supermarkets have created soft brands that look like they are ‘proper brands’ with heritage and a big story behind them, when they have in fact manufactured it.”

Now clocking up over 20 years, the Hawke’s Bay Charity Wine Auction, an iconic event that is the oldest in the country and has raised more than $2 million for Cranford Hospice, is having a makeover. To be held at Queen’s Birthday weekend on Saturday 2 June, this year’s refreshed auction with its limit of 200 guests, will move from a formal dinner to a more interactive cocktail style afternoon-into-the-evening event. Bidders and guests will be able to sample the auction lots and enjoy tapas style food throughout, reports Voxy News.

Australia’s wine industry may be doing it tough but it’s certainly not standing still, growing by an average of one wine producer every five days for the past 30 years. The 2012 Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory (WID) celebrates 30 years in print, this edition. Its publisher, Winetitles, began the important role of compiling industry statistics, winery contact details and industry suppliers in the one directory in 1983 – when there were just 344 wine producers listed.

There are some spectacular online champagne deals at the moment, especially from the big supermarket retailers, but are they really good news? Ten days ago, Vintage Cellars advertised Bollinger Special Cuvee non-vintage at $56.99 (”Save $27”), plus delivery charges. ”That’s $10 less than I can buy it on my staff account,” says Robert Hirst, chairman of the official importer of Bollinger, Fine Wine Partners. Hirst is upset at what he sees as the trashing of the brand. How can a retailer sell a wine cheaper than the importer can buy it for himself? It’s called parallel importing, and the phenomenon is shaking the champagne industry to its core, writes Huon Hooke in the Sydney Morning Herald.

One of the Hunter Valley’s most exciting young winemakers has called for his counterparts to explore more contrasting styles of the region’s flagship grape, Semillon. Gundog Estate winemaker Matt Burton told The Shout that Hunter winemakers only have themselves to blame for the slow take-up of Semillon, given that so many of them are making it in exactly the same style. “I think if you can branch out into off-dry styles, or fume styles, you’re actually bringing new markets to the variety,” he said.