Winegrowers on Waiheke Island will be celebrating the annual harvest with a new format festival in the New Year. The Waiheke Vintage Festival is being changed to the Waiheke Wine and Food Festival to mark the next step in how the island’s boutique wines are showcased to the public. The event will be on April 2 on the land known as the old Onetangi airstrip, owned by Te Motu Vineyard.
The Australian dollar has completed its third year of declines yet John Casella, whose family exports Yellow Tail wine around the world, is only now starting to fully savour its benefits. Casella expects improved earnings as unfavourable currency hedges wind down and his company can lock in the weaker exchange rate with new contracts.
A new year, like the first day of school, has a freshly scrubbed, all-is-possible glow of expectation. The empty bottles behind us, literally and figuratively, are yesterday’s news. What lies ahead? What’s on the jump in 2016? In Australia and New Zealand if you’re in the wine-importing business, the action in 2016 surely lies in renewed market possibilities with Australia and New Zealand wines.
Five generations of skilled coopers. Five eras of Australian winemaking. 125 years of the John family cooperage and 170 years since the family arrived in the Barossa. Peter John reflects on his journey in the family business and the wine industry in this interview with Nathan Gogoll.
Welcome back. While you were away drinking – I trust it was good – something very interesting occurred. In Australia, the 2016 vintage has come very close to starting in 2015. For some in the warmest regions, it probably did. They’ll stay schtum. While harvest has well and truly commenced in some parts of the irrigated Murray-Darling Basin, the usual vintage rains in the sub-tropical Hunter have slowed its ripening and picking.
FEATHERS are flying between two South Australian wineries over accusations a well-known winemaker is using a rival’s trademark name, Peacock’s Fan, to sell bottles overseas. A legal battle has erupted in the Supreme Court between Zonte’s Footstep and Dandelion Vineyards over who owns the controversial plonk label. McLaren Flat-based winemakers Zonte’s Footstep used the title on its pinot noir and claims its former winemaker is now using it at Dandelion Vineyards.
Controversial new rules that make it theoretically possible for anyone to get commercial vineyard planting rights on any piece of land – such as on the banks of the Seine in Paris – have received a cautious reception from French winemakers. The long-mooted and much-debated deregulation of vineyard planting rights across the European Union came into effect on 1 January 1 2016.
The very first vintage from new Spring Grove vineyard Falcon Ridge Estate has impressed New Zealand wine judges. Falcon Ridge’s 2015 Sauvignon Blanc was recently awarded a silver medal at the New Zealand International Wine Show, a bronze at the Bragato Wine Awards, and a pure bronze at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. Owner Alan Eggers was pleased with the result, saying it reflected his commitment to building the right soil and conditions for growing.
Hawke’s Bay’s wine industry is welcoming Fish & Game NZ’s application for a conservation order to protect the waters of the Ngaruroro River. The application was lodged this week by Fish & Game on behalf of Forest and Bird, Jet Boating NZ, Whitewater NZ and iwi group Ngati Hori ki Kohupatiki. If granted, a water conservation order (WCO) would protect the upper Ngaruroro catchment above Whanawhana in its near-natural state.
There are a lot of challenges growing wine grapes in Tasmania, but the rewards balance these out. Wine grapes are in high demand but the vineyard area is being expanded at a steady pace. There seems to be a positive story wherever you look. Nathan Gogoll reports.