Renowned Danish design house Georg Jensen and premium Tasmanian wine producer Heemskerk have joined forces to release the Georg Jensen Hallmark Cuvée by Heemskerk. The Hallmark Cuvée is a crisp and delicate aperitif style that has been made by sparkling winemaker, Trina Smith, using cool climate chardonnay and pinot noir grape varieties. The wine has finely structured acidity and subtle complexity; the intense structure of the chardonnay combining with flavours ...

The Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) announced its new Board members on Tuesday this week, at its 26th annual general meeting. The appointed Board Directors will step into their new roles for the 2015-2016 year, working alongside Tony D’Aloisio AM (pictured above), who will continue to stand as President of the Federation. The incoming WFA Directors include: Small Winemakers’ Membership Representatives on the Board David O’Leary, O’Leary Walker Wines (Chair) Redmond Sweeny, ...

2015 winners of the Wine Communicator Awards were announced on Tuesday night, including the coveted Wine Communicator of the Year title. It was Tyson Stelzer who was the deserved winner of this year’s Wine Communicator of the Year award, recognising his popular ‘The Champagne Guide’, as well as other published works on the Australian wine industry and his new People of the Vines television show. Also recognising Stelzer’s newly launched Champagne dedicated website and digital resource, the ...

Vic Patrick, Chair of Wine Grape Growers Australia will retire this month. Patrick has been a member of the grape and wine community for 40 years.  Brian Walsh, Chair of Wine Australia thanked Patrick for his contribution in announcement on Tuesday. “Vic has been the Chair of Wine Grape Growers Australia for the last five years as well as one of the South Australian representatives”, Walsh said. “In this time, he ...

Sixteen members of the Australian grape and wine community have graduated from this year’s Future Leaders program, joining over 90 successful alumni since the program began and becoming potential game-changers in the Australian wine industry. Over the past ten years, the Future Leaders program has helped educate graduates in a diverse range of industry fields, including winemaking, grape growing, viticulture, business management, marketing, supply and research. In addition to facilitating an understanding of the ...

Family-owned winery, Kellermeister, will expand its operations in the Barossa Valley to Perth this month, jumping on the back of strong and growing interest from the state. “A large percentage of our cellar door sales are made by Western Australians”, newly appointed Sales Manager for WA, Daniel Fisher said. “There is a strong and growing market for our wines here and so it made sense to seize that opportunity by personally working with WA ...

Champagne Taittinger’s Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs is one of the most prestigious and anticipated releases made by the house. Comtes is the ultimate expression of Taittinger’s 280-year-old style and is only released in years when the vintage is of exceptional quality (so far 2004 and 2005). The latest release is from the 2006 vintage and is made from 100 per cent chardonnay from five of the very best Grand Crus (Azive, Le Menil ...

Boizel Champagne has launched in Australia with newly appointed distributor, Crush Fine Wines. The 180 year old, family-owned brand is located in the Epernay region of Champagne and is well-known for its delicate and complex style, with a focus on creating Champagnes that are expressions of the region. Crush Fine Wines will distribute four of Boizel’s SKUs here, including the brand’s famous Brut Reserve, which will be the main focus within the ...

A first in the history of the NSW Wine Awards, Canberra’s Nick O’Leary has won the coveted Wine of the Year Trophy again. Taking out the show with his 2013 Bolaro Shiraz last year, this year O’Leary stole the show with his 2014 Shiraz. O’Leary’s popular shiraz also picked up the trophies for Best Young Shiraz and Best Dry Red. Each produced from small individual parcels of fruit, Nick O’Leary Wines ...

Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) has announced that it is closing its Matua Auckland winery in New Zealand, as well as its Great Western winery here in Australia. The closures form part of the company’s supply chain optimisation plans. Instead, the winery, packaging and cellar door site in Auckland will be consolidated to the Matua Marlborough winery, while operations at the Great Western winery will cease and potentially be sold, if ...