This Month
Endeavour’s Ari Mervis gets the broom out amid portfolio review
Ari Mervis is using the oldest trick in the book to placate shareholders – cutting costs, starting with staff.
Vestey family puts ‘tariff-resistant’ winery on sale with $20m hopes
One of the UK’s wealthiest clans will exit a long-standing Australian investment portfolio – once it disposes of The Lane.
March
The $3m CBD winery opening in a building where AA meets
A heritage-listed former warehouse on Flinders Lane is home for the new Melbourne Winery. It makes for an unusual tenancy mix.
Barossa Valley wine mecca to get its first luxury hotel
Operator IHG has teamed up with developer Strategic Alliance to develop the 150-room InterContinental Barossa Resort & Spa.
January
Barossa winemaker proves busy people can have it all. Well, sort of
With two vineyards, a winery and a two-year-old, “Life’s a bit ... saturated,” says Brett Grock. Still, he’s found the time to put his artwork on his labels.
The three things needed to lift winery asset sales out of the slump
Lower interest rates and a rise in consumer spending will help but for banks to lend more, margins will have to improve, industry figures say.
Why Chinese-made wine could be coming to a bar or restaurant near you
Top bars and restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide are selling Chinese wines produced by both major players and smaller independent outfits.
It was once worth $1.2b – will Australia’s Chinese wine trade recover?
Australian wine exports to China have generated $612 million since Beijing lifted tariffs last year, but the market’s future remains uncertain.
December 2024
There’s something special about Tasmanian sparkling, and they know it
Move over Champagne, the Apple Isle makes some of the best sparkling wines in the world. And the Effervescence festival is where it’s on display.
Fine wine market in the red as Chinese demand dries up
The falls mark a second consecutive tough year for the industry, which was hit in 2023 by higher interest rates and dwindling sales from Asia.
Bordeaux, Napa, Ningxia? Penfolds elevates China to prestige terroir
Treasury Wine Estates has bought a 75 per cent stake in Stone & Moon winery in a $27.5m bet that Chinese wine will one day rival prestige regions.
November 2024
How one man’s mission to save a rundown vineyard won him global renown
When viticultural expert Dylan Grigg bought his plot of old-vine grenache in the Barossa, it was a mess. Now it’s a destination for travelling winemakers.
Is this Australia’s best shiraz?
These wine show judges certainly think so: the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge turns 30, and it’s needed now more than ever.
October 2024
Ed Peter’s Duxton Pubs appointed wife, sons to roles in business
The decision has inflamed tensions with big investors at the same time as the asset manager contends with broader financial pressures and sells properties.
Bain seeks to quaff up Australia’s Accolade Wines
The local winemaking giant’s first private equity owner made a motza, the second lost it. The new brigade promises its reign will be very different.
Hands down the best non-alcoholic wine I’ve tried
Based in Berlin, Kolonne Null partners with wineries in Germany, France and Spain to source wine that is then de-alcoholised.
September 2024
Melbourne dining powerhouse wins award for country’s best wine list
Gimlet’s head sommelier says the key to success is paying the same level of attention to someone drinking by the glass as to a high-roller ordering a $12,000 bottle.
August 2024
The fundie who unexpectedly became CEO of a wine company
James Williamson has temporarily jumped the fence to run Australian Vintage, and is agitating for M&A. His fund owns shares in the listed wine group.
In ‘diabolical trouble’ – How big wine brands fell out of favour
Wolf Blass, who set up his eponymous wine brand almost 60 years ago, says the cheaper end of the wine sector is in ‘diabolical trouble’ but the cycle will turn positive again.
Treasury Wine to offload Wolf Blass, Lindeman’s, Yellowglen
Australia’s biggest wine group will cop a $354m impairment and shop around its cheaper wine brands as part of a strategic reset for the Penfolds owner.