Drinkers will be able to count the calories as they work out if they are “over the limit”, under new labelling requirements that have been given the nod by the nation’s food ministers.
According to The Australian wine, spirit and beer bottles will have to be labelled with tobacco-style health warnings to tell pregnant women that drinking will damage their unborn babies.
The Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association has moved to expel gas giant AGL from its ranks because of its plans for coal seam gas exploration. Association President Andrew Margan told ABC Radio AGL was accepted as a member in 2010 on the understanding it wanted to work towards the betterment of the Hunter Valley wine industry. But Mr Margan says that is clearly not the case and coal seam gas mining does not belong in an iconic wine growing region like the Hunter.
Offering a veritable smorgasbord of festive feasting, the Kiwi Christmas calls for a similarly diverse range of wines to match its many flavours. Now’s the time to splash out on some special bottles, as well as getting in a good stock of more affordable staples to see you through the season, writes Jo Burzynska in The New Zealand Herald.
Albert Bichot’s winemaker Alain Serveau has described 2010 as having a better expression of terroir than 2009. Speaking to The Drinks Business, Serveau said that while 2009 was “very easy to drink and charming it did mask the terroir”. By contrast he described 2010 as “precise, fresh, a little less tannic than 2005 and with much better potential to show the vineyard in individual wines”.
A little-known winery has lost its battle to sell port and fruit wines in a Porirua shopping mall. Porirua City Council refused to grant Ruahine Wines a special licence to sell unopened bottles of wine and gift packs from a stall in the North City Shopping Centre in the lead up to Christmas. It made the decision behind closed doors after winery director Damon Pratt pleaded for the initial refusal by the Porirua District Licensing Agency to be overturned in order for his business to stay afloat, reports The Dominion Post.
Accolade Wines has announced a £1m marketing campaign for its Banrock Station Light brand in a bid to champion the lighter drinking category. The campaign will include a link-up with Weight Watchers, as it focuses on its “60 calories per 125ml glass, 100% taste”, tagline which has been highlighted as a key category and consumer driver. The six month campaign launches in January and is set to reach 5m UK female ‘Routiners’, reports Harpers Wine & Spirit.
A small-production Australian Shiraz has earned global renown by being named the world’s best label in 2011 by the World Label Awards Association. The label of Alpha Crucis Shiraz 2008, produced by Chalk Hill Winery in McLaren Vale, was named best in Australia before taking on and beating the best from Europe, the US, India, Japan and New Zealand in the global final. The awards are recognised as the peak competition for printing and label associations around the world, reports Decanter.
De Bortoli Wines has taken out the top gong at this year’s National Wine Show of Australia. The Yarra Valley winery won the Len Evans Memorial Trophy for the best table wine of the show, for its 2010 PHI Pinot Noir, at a gala dinner in Canberra late last month. It is the first time a Pinot has received the award in the history of the event, reports the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader.
De Bortoli Wines has taken out the top gong at this year’s National Wine Show of Australia. The Yarra Valley winery won the Len Evans Memorial Trophy for the best table wine of the show, for its 2010 PHI Pinot Noir, at a gala dinner in Canberra late last month. It is the first time a Pinot has received the award in the history of the event, reports the Lilydale and Yarra Valley Leader.
Wine connoisseurs will get a taste of the future at a special Barossa wine tasting this month. Appropriately the tasting will be held on Thursday, 15 December during one of the State’s hottest months of the year. The tasting will feature Barossa wines from grapes grown at temperatures expected to prevail in the year 2050. At the Barossa workshop interested people will have an opportunity to taste wines produced under current climate side-by-side with wines produced from fruit grown under elevated temperature, reports the Stock Journal.