DAN'S WINE BLOG- SPOT NEWS

Friday, May 5, 2022

This week includes a smattering of news from around the place starting with:

Variety is the Spice of Life:?Over the last twelve months I have advised about the addition of Pecorino (various growers) and Sauvignon Gris (George’s Folly) to the growing list of grape varieties produced in Australia, which currently stands at 160 varieties.

Well, Dell’Uva Wines, in the Barossa are hell bent on lifting that number even further. Wayne Farquhar recently advised that they have planted Rabosco Piave, Canaiola Nero, Tinta Cadia and Inzolia to add to the dizzying array of varieties they already grow.

In addition, they are conducting vineyard trials on Raboso Veronese, Grinolino, Ancellotta, Azal, Mammolo, Parellada and Incrocio Bianco.?Awesome!!

Meanwhile, Paulmara Estate, also in the Barossa, have planted the native Cypriot varieties Xynisteri and Maratheftiko –?watch this space!!

It will be interesting to see, in due course, what these wines taste like. The Australian wine industry’s batting average of late has been excellent with some exciting early wines being made from Prieto Picudo (Spain), Fern?o Pires (Portugal), Sauvignon Gris (France), Grenache Blanc (France), Pecorino (Italy) and Bo?azkere (Turkey) in recent times.

So when you come across these strange and exotic sounding wines, have a go, try it and see what you think – it will probably expand your drinking repertoire and your enjoyment of wine.

Recognised:??The venerable family producer, McWilliams, that has been around for 140 years and was recently acquired by Calabria Family Wines, has just been listed in the “World’s 50 Most Admired Wine Brands”, for the first time. This listing is decided by top retailers, Sommeliers, Buyers and Masters of Wine, from across the globe.

McWilliams entered at #45, joining Penfolds #2?(Wow, awesome!), 19 Crimes #18, Henschke #21, Yellow Tail #24 and Yalumba at #33.

A great achievement indeed and let’s hope that other Aussie wineries join this group over the next few years and that the current ones keep on moving up the ladder.

Skyrocketing:??It has just been announced that Chile’s wine exports have skyrocketed by 94% – mainly to China.?Hmm, I wonder if that could have anything to do with Australia’s former 40% of the Chinese market going begging!

Hopefully, the Chileans will focus on the China market (as we did) and put less focus on other markets where we can compete against them. Then we can boost out exports to countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan where Chile have been running rings around us over the last few years as we focused almost entirely on China.

Prohibitionism?:??In an ongoing anti-wine/alcohol movement in China, the city of Puyang (3.7 million people) has issued a decree banning the consumption of alcohol by all civil servants, party members and associated peoples for the five days of the working week. This ban not only applies to work and functions, but also to these people’s private lives outside of work.

Is this a test case/second step by the central government to control the consumption of alcohol and wine in particular within China? The first step being the railing of the President for domestic wine and against imported wines.

I strongly suspect that things are going to keep on getting tougher for exporting wine to China, i.e.?the heydays are over!!

Well that’s it for another week, please stay safe?#chooseaustralianwine?and where possible drink?#emergingvarieties.?Cheers, Dan T.