Seppeltsfield Wines, FINO restaurant and JamFactory At Seppeltsfield have rallied together to support the South Australian Country Fire Service through a combined donation effort, following the extensive mid-North fires throughout the region last week. The collective businesses have committed to giving all tour takings, gallery donations, a percentage of retail sales and 100% signature dish revenue from this week’s trade.
Delegat Group, New Zealand’s largest listed wine company, forecast record operating profit and case sales for 2016 on growth in the North American market and in the Asia-Pacific region. Operating profit is expected to rise 5 per cent to $36 million in the year ending June 30, 2016, managing director Graeme Lord told shareholders at their annual meeting in Auckland. Sales are forecast to rise 8 per cent to 2.4 million cases, he said.
WHILE their neighbours are pulling out cabernet vines, Glenmaggie winemakers Fleur and Tony Dawkins and planting them. A rapidly heating microclimate has meant they can ripen cabernet grapes perfectly. “Most of Gippsland has trouble ripening cabernet because it’s too cold, but we don’t. We have a very hot site,” Fleur said. “It’s the same sort of climate they have to produce French Hermitage wine.
Some of the district’s first 2015 Rieslings are already proving to be the best since 1971. Winemakers are hoping their Shiraz, other reds and whites will follow suit. Chris Shanahan reflects on a year which could become the best yet. He also reveals an exciting maverick attitude towards growing new varieties.
Energy and carbon management specialists, Pangolin Associates, celebrate a client’s ‘Australian first’. Ross Hill Wine Group in Orange NSW has just received carbon neutral certification under the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS). It is the first Australian winery to achieve the Australian Government-recognised certification. Whilst other schemes exist, they are the tailored creations of a few carbon management companies.
D’ARENBERG Winery has released its first artist’s impressions of its $13 million function centre which resembles a Rubik’s Cube. Work on the building, known as the d’Arenberg Cube, started in spring but artist impressions have remained secret until now. The pictures show the five-storey building set among the McLaren Vale winery’s Mourvedre vines, with the top two storeys turned askew from the rest.
Seppeltsfield Wines, FINO restaurant and JamFactory At Seppeltsfield have rallied together to support the South Australian Country Fire Service through a combined donation effort, following the extensive mid-North fires throughout the region last week. The collective businesses have committed to giving all tour takings, gallery donations, a percentage of retail sales and 100% signature dish revenue from this week’s trade.
It’s a contemporary wine paradox: The more wines we have to choose from, the less emotionally committed we become. This is unique to our time. Indeed, you could go so far as to say that it’s a 21st-century phenomenon, so recent is it. On the surface, the problem—if that’s the word—is sheer abundance. Anyone who follows wine in the United States knows that we’re seeing today a diversity and abundance of wines never previously witnessed.
Authentication experts have publicized concerns over some of the wines on sale at an auction last month. Allegations of wine fraud continue to plague the auction world. Ten days ago, a new Hong Kong company held its first major auction despite being accused online beforehand of – at the least – deceptive marketing.
Is it time to cut down? East Dunbartonshire, a local authority just north of Glasgow in Scotland, is launching a simple initiative to encourage people to drink less. One hundred licensed premises have agreed to ensure that they offer wine in small 125ml glasses alongside their medium (175ml) and large (250ml) measures, taking us back to the days when this quantity was the standard measure that was on sale.