Five years ago The Drinks Business interviewed the then newly appointed CEO Rob Blackwell, to get an understanding of the work that lay in front of him in a challenging retail environment and a portfolio of over 1,100 products. Upon hearing that this year he intends on stepping down, The Drinks Business rushed to catch up with the respected business leader to discuss the journey of the last five years and how the this iconic family owned wine business is placed for the future.

RECOVERY could be on the distant horizon for the Australian wine industry. The dollar has once again been competitive, free trade agreements have brought down the price of Australian wine in Asian markets and the value of wine exports has topped $2 billion for the first time in almost 10 years. However, grape prices show only minor increases.

A winery board member says Peter Mondavi, a wine country innovator who led his family’s Charles Krug Winery through more than a half-century of change, has died. He was 101. Mondavi died Saturday at his home in St. Helena, California, said Wendy Lane Stevens, a member of the C. Mondavi and Family Board of Directors.

UK wine agency Connoisseur Estates is to launch its latest premium wine signing, New Zealand producer Tohu, at SITT in Manchester and London next week. Founded in 1998, Tohu was the first Maori-owned vineyard in New Zealand. It is situated in the Awatere Valley, at around 200m above sea level.

Blenheim born Andrew Jeffries, 21, is no stranger to working in vineyards, and it’s this experience that has helped him to win the inaugural graduate internship at Giesen Wines. Andrew, who attended Lincoln University, studying for his Bachelor’s degree in Viticulture and Oenology, has just begun work with the family owned producer, working at Giesen’s premium organic high-density vineyards in Marlborough.

One Day Wine School, an educational event designed specifically for Australian sommeliers and trade will be returning for its fourth year in March and April. The event is targeted towards wine professionals who have a sound foundation of the basics, and are looking to learn more about the history, evolution and revolution of Australian wine, its regions and its unique terroirs.

Just what exactly is this development and why should you care? Because Precinct 75 is a miniature Portland in the backstreets of St Peters. It’s where you’ll find Maniax – an axe-throwing workshop where you can learn to chuck a tomahawk (hey – you know who you want to be standing behind, come the zombie apocalypse). It’s also where you’ll find the Design Twins, purveyors of beautiful, expensive pot planters and Sibella Court – she of the dusty apothecary bottle, deliciously rough linen and just the right tarnish on the brass.

The wine-grape harvest is running one month ahead of schedule in some parts of the Canberra district. The recent run of warm and dry conditions has also ripened significant volumes of fruit further afield across southern New South Wales. Picking often does not start until March but the harvest of white grape varieties at Helm Wines in Murrumbateman was expected to be completed within a week.

Australia’s Oatley and New Zealand’s Giesen families have formed an Australian distribution partnership. Commencing April 2016, the partnership will see Oatley Fine Wine Merchants (OFWM) appointed as distributors of the Giesen portfolio in the Australian independent retail and on-premise markets.

Treasury Wine Estates is more than half-way through culling 30 per cent of its product lines but chief executive Mike Clarke says the products that are “retiring” from the market won’t be sold, with the trademarks being kept in the vault for potential future use. Clarke is overseeing a vigorous cut in the number of individual product lines which numbered more than 3000 across the company’s 100-plus brands.