The tourism sector is continuing to pick up speed after the collapse of the mining boom, with an influx of visitors from China and India and more splurging on food and wine contributing to the strongest annual growth rate in spending since the Sydney Olympics were held in 2000.
The Australian Financial Review reports total spending rose by 10 per cent to a record $33.4 billion in the 12 months to June 30, outpacing a 7 per cent rise in visitors to 6.6 million, the latest international visitor survey from Tourism Research Australia showed.

Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is betting that a country known for sipping black tea will develop a taste for Napa Valley red.
The e-commerce company will offer Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and other varieties to its 367 million Chinese customers through its online store Tmall, in a partnership announced Tuesday with Mondavi-owner Constellation Brands Inc.

Church Road Winery is celebrating a trophy win after their Church Road Grand Reserve Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2013 was awarded the Trophy for Best New World Red Wine at the Japan Wine Challenge 2015. The award-winning 2013 vintage, was chosen as the very best in the ‘New World Red Wine’ category – one of only 12 trophy winning wines awarded from the 1,400 wines entered across the world.
Church Road Senior Winemaker Chris Scott says he is very proud of the trophy win.

Exploring New Zealand’s wine regions on his month-long Bragato exchange scholarship, Alessandro Mangiameli has encountered a few surprises.
From Treviso in Italy’s Veneto region, the 18-year-old says winery machinery and winemaking processes are much the same in both countries but different vineyard practices reflect the local soils and climatic conditions.

Casella Family Brands has restructured, and is expanding, its national accounts team following an increase in sales for 2015.
The restructure has seen a number of changes for the company, with three key appointments coming to the national accounts team.

Tickets to the Wine Island festival, which will be held over three days from Friday, November 13 on Clark Island, went on sale at 9am Tuesday, September 1, but most of the 3000 tickets sold out within 15 minutes.
Some Sydney wine buffs have been left disappointed after missing out on tickets to the latest food and wine event to hit the city.

Winegrape growers are set to benefit from the latest research results and practical management options for the 2016 vintage by attending a National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) vine health field day at Griffith next week.
NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) viticulture development officers, Darren Fahey and Adrian Englefield, will be joined by some of Australia’s most respected scientists and viticulturists to deliver information tailored to meet industry priorities.

Australian wine drinkers are subtly changing their drinking habits, with research indicating that although consumers are drinking on a more regular basis, they are consuming less overall, according to a new report published today.
The Australia Landscapes 2015 report from Wine Intelligence found a slight decrease in volume of wine consumed, as well as a slight overall decrease in the wine-drinking population, with an estimated 11.2 million adults drinking wine at least once every month, down from 11.5 million in 2014.

Treasury Wine Estates chief executive Mike Clarke has collected a handsome pay packet of $4.45 million in his first full year at the helm of the maker of Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Rosemount, with his pay supercharged by the strong turnaround in the financial performance of the group.
Mr Clarke began as the chief executive of Treasury in late March 2014 and the company’s annual report lodged with the Australian Securities Exchange on Tuesday shows his total remuneration for the 12 months ended June 30, 2015 amounted to $4.45 million.

A warming climate means grapes reach maturity more quickly. For some vintners, climate change seems to be a good thing. Then again, they could be mistaken. Researchers in Germany’s central state of Hessen are working to find out how it all affects the vines.
Geisenheim, Germany – The unmistakeable sound of hissing can be constantly heard in the vineyards of Geisenheim, in Germany’s central wine-growing region of the Rheingau.
In a large outdoor testing area, Geisenheim College researchers are pumping grape vines with artificially high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).