The proportion of Australian adults drinking wine has been in decline for some years, including the Aussie wine cask, whose popularity is also dropping. The latest findings by Roy Morgan Research indicate that 45 per cent of the population – or 8.1m Australians – drink some kind of wine every month, down from 50 per cent in 2007. Of these, almost 1.3m consume cask wine, suggesting a substantial decline from the 2.3m who drank it back in 2007.

Australia is known for global wine brands that are consistent, predictable and value for money. There is, however, an alternative wine scene worth exploring, and a new breed of winemakers who are challenging established brands with their exciting experimentation. They bring passion, exuberance and an unorthodox approach to winemaking. A blend of tradition and innovation seen in these “neoclassical” Australian reds.

Wolf Blass launched a new brand campaign celebrating those who “boldly chase triumph”, with an innovative “Here’s to the Chase” creative platform. A collaboration between Wolf Blass and new marketing partner J. Walter Thompson, the campaign marks the brand’s first relaunch since the agency was appointed as Treasury Wine Estate’s global marketing services provider in February this year.

Treasury Wine Estates has at least one ace up its sleeve as it looks to continue its good run into the new financial year. It involves the often derided pink coloured beverage known as rosé, or brosé as some people calling it this northern hemisphere summer. Men drinking rosé, or brosé has been a bit of a talking point in the US and Europe this summer. Apparently, people are switching from drinking craft beer to it, causing all sorts of thinkpieces on the matter.

ONE of Australia’s most prominent wine critics faces potential contempt of court and defamation proceedings for commenting on a court case. Lawyers on Wednesday accused James Halliday of contempt of court for writing about Barossa Valley winemaker Trevor David “Boots” Jones. The accusations were made during a hearing in which the court dismissed charges Mr Jones had deliberately drained $300,000 of chardonnay from a rival’s tanks.

Treasury Wine Estates has bounced back into the black, after an overhaul of the wine company stripped out more costs than the firm had forecast. The wine company today posted a net profit of $77.6 million in the year ended June 30, compared with a loss of $100.9m in the previous corresponding period. The firm’s earnings before interest, tax, material items and other accounting adjustments rose 22 per cent compared to the previous year, reaching $225.1m.

Hopes are rising in Rioja for a successful 2015 wine harvest, and pickers are facing an early start.
At Bodegas Sierra Cantabria, Alberto Saldon told Decanter.com that their vines at Vinedos de Paganos have nearly completed veraison (colour change), and should be picked one month early.
Rain over the past week means yields are expected to be average across the region. ‘July saw an unusually high number of days over 40 degrees centigrade,’ Saldon said.

Benefiting from robust premiumisation trends, the U.S. market’s leading wine brands priced at $10-and-above are posting solid growth and outperforming the overall category. The total domestic and imported premium-plus wine segments each rose roughly 4% in 2014, and the top 15 domestic players were up 5.7%, to around 27 million nine-litre cases, according to Impact Databank. Growth was even more pronounced for the market’s top five premium-plus imports, which collectively rose 11.2% to 4.3 million cases last year.

Derek Way is leaving his dream job as vineyard manager at Sagemoor Farms in Pasco, Washington, to pursue other dreams in China. In September, Way, his wife, Lindsey, and their three young children will pack up and leave their quiet home at the vineyard to go live in an apartment in Nanjing, China, a city of more than 6 million people. Way first visited China six years ago during an international study tour while he was in Class 30 of the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation’s leadership program.

Nearly every month, David Gramaje gives a seminar lecture on the same topic. But the plant pathologist at the Research Centre of the Vine and Wine in Rioja never lacks for an audience of worried Spanish winegrowers. They’ve come to hear about combating esca and other vine-trunk diseases, a threat they fear will be the defining vine blight of the 21st century—a scourge on the scale of phylloxera, the pest that nearly destroyed winemaking in 19th-century Europe.