Winestate Magazine Wine of the Year Awards Annual Issue Jan/Feb 2022

WOW, WHAT A YEAR THAT WAS! Ground hog day! The gift that kept on giving! These platitudes just keep on repeating themselves. I looked at last year’s editorial and it could almost be repeated word for word. But there’s more. This year we added frosts and floods along with the usual fire, smoke, China, of course Covid – now with additional strains to keep us more fearful, and the economy. All we needed was a biblical plague of locusts to round out the scene. Miraculously despite all this it seems that people kept drinking and spending, somehow keeping the economy simmering rather than falling over. Wineries discovered more direct to consumers activities as state borders were closed to cellar doors and interstate visitors. On premise outlets took the brunt of the…

FIVE STAR TASMAN LOCALE HOBART will have a new five-star hotel and a new drinking venue with the opening of the Tasman Hotel, part of Marriott’s Luxury Collection. The Tasman will be the first Australian showcase of the Luxury Collection brand; a global collection of 110 hotels and resorts in over 30 countries. “The Luxury Collection offers a gateway to the world’s most exciting and desirable destinations, so it is wonderful to introduce the brand to Australia and put the rest of the world on notice to the charms of Hobart and our most southern state,” said Sean Hunt, area vice president for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific at Marriott International. “The opening of The Tasman will signify the importance of Tasmania as a global destination for luxury travellers and we are confident…

UK WINE SHORTAGE THE impact of New Zealand’s reduced 2021 harvest is already being felt in its second largest export market. UK reports detail looming stock shortages amid longer-term concerns of importers and retailers replacing own-label Marlborough sauvignon blanc with wines from elsewhere. Supermarket chain Morrison’s successful 64 Edge sauvignon brand is no longer exclusively Marlborough, having now been expanded to South African and Chilean wines. Morrison’s Charles Cutteridge says this allows them to offer wines “as close to the Marlborough style as we can”. Merchant, importer and distributor Lanchester Wines followed suit, subbing in South African sauvignon to fill Marlborough gaps. While its flagship Nika Tiki label will remain Marlborough fruit, director of purchasing Lesley Cook said with shortage of 2020’s remaining wines, upon hearing of NZ’s spring frosts they…

BORDEAUX’S unique trading system, called ‘la place’, is becoming something of a magnet for non-Bordeaux high profile producers wanting to tap into the global sales and distribution network that la place offers. You’d be forgiven for thinking that la place is a geographical place somewhere, akin to Paris’ La Place de la Concorde, at the end of the Champs-Elysées. But La Place de Bordeaux is not a physical location at all, though the key action happens in Bordeaux. La place is a marketplace, a distribution system for the wines of Bordeaux. In Bordeaux, a consumer typically cannot buy wine directly from the producer. Instead, producers reach consumers by selling their wine via la place: selling to brokers (courtiers), who sell to negociants (distributors) in Bordeaux, who link with shippers and distributors…

RECOGNISING regional expression is one of the holy grails in the enjoyments of wine and an aspiration for wine producing countries. Being able to open a bottle and clearly smell and taste the keynotes of a particular region adds value and is a cognitive enhancement that separates wine from other beverages. The French market this as terroir. A term cloaked in mystery. It encompasses the soil, subsoil, and the microclimate that the vine grows in. Many commentators add the impact of the viticulturalist and winemaker into the definition, especially where customs and practices have been developed over centuries. In Australia we don’t have traditional practises engrained in our regions. Innovation, technical advances and trends, some reverting to retro practices, are our winemaking traits. Our industry typically has roving winemakers that have…

EXPERTS are predicting that Australians will continue to holiday at home more even though international travel has opened up again. Not to mention the joy of hitting the open road after months of lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne. My first trip out of town was to Yamba, the increasingly popular beach town about 120 kilometres south of Byron Bay. Many ill-informed writers claim that Yamba has only recently become "the new Byron". Hardly. There has been a millionaires' row overlooking the town’s pristine beaches for nearly 20 years and houses routinely sell in excess of $2 million and up to $4.6 million. The sort of cafe culture and food scene that flows from the arrival of more moneyed residents is very much in evidence. While The Pacific Hotel, long Yamba’s most…