Is the time for the northern Italian region coming as its Bolgheri cousins suffer at the hands of a Bordeaux resurgence? Online fine wine platform, Wine Owners (WO), has released a number of fine wine predictions it expects to see come to fruition over the coming year. One of these centres around the potential for Piedmont to become the driving force in the Italian fine wine category as the “Super Tuscans” see their advance blunted by a renewed interest in Bordeaux.

California’s harvest season seems to be getting earlier as Mumm starts picking for sparkling wines Mumm Napa is scheduled to kick off Napa Valley’s harvest season today in what will be its earliest start on record. Winemaker Ludovic Dervin said the sparkling wine specialist’s first pick will be one day earlier than the previous earliest harvest kickoff in 1997 – a warm year that was considered one of Napa’s greatest at the time.

Organic wine represents an important part of Australia’s reinvigorated premium push, believes the Angove team, which is busy expanding this side of its business. “It’s about a point of difference and getting away from the tag of mass produced Australian wines with no regional identity,” maintained Jonathan O’Neill, regional export manager for Angove, which produces wine across South Australia with a growing emphasis on McLaren Vale.

A robotic liquid handling system at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) is automating the screening of large numbers of malolactic bacteria strains. Using miniaturised wine fermentations in 96-well microplates, the Tecan EVO 150 robotic system is screening bacteria, sourced from the AWRI’s wine microorganism culture collection and elsewhere, for MLF efficiency and response to wine stress factors such as alcohol and low pH.

The Australian wine industry continues to pull out grape vines at a surprising pace as the industry peak body reveals 85 per cent of producers are struggling to make money. One of the country’s only specialised vine removalists Tom Stephens, who is based in Canowindra in the central west of New South Wales, said his team removes about 12 hectares of vines each week.

Research from the University of Adelaide is helping to show small retailers how they can compete against the huge retail chains – and it’s the little things that can make all the difference. A study of more than 300 Adelaide shoppers has identified a range of factors that draw them to small retailers. Researchers hope this knowledge will give the small stores some fighting chance against their highly competitive, price-driven neighbours.

Keen to push beyond the realms of red, white and rosé, a group of young Spaniards have broken the mould with the launch of the world’s first blue wine. As reported by Olive Press, six entrepreneurs in their ‘20s have invented Gik, a bright blue wine from Bierzo in northwest Spain made with red and white grapes.

More than six per cent of all wines entered were awarded a gold medal at last week’s Spiegelau International Wine Competition, resulting in 83 wines receiving a score of 18.5 or more out of 20. Commenting on the results, Chair of Judges, Mike DeGaris concluded, “the terrific 2013 vintage really shone through – especially for Hawkes Bay Syrah, while the Pinot Noirs offered ripe fruit and good structure. The Chardonnays were really well put together and overall, were better balanced.”

New Zealand’s Mount Brown Estates was the big winner at this year’s Boutique Wine Awards, claiming the Red Wine of Show, Estate Grown and Produced, and Wine of the Show gongs. The awards were in recognition of the winery’s Grand Reserve Pinot Noir 2013.

We’re in a vineyard with Mark Lloyd, who’s pretending to prune. A biplane flies over low; he looks at his tank watch, drops everything and heads off to lunch, which explains why he’s pruning in his dinner jacket at the wrong time of year with a watch you could swap for a house. Because movie.