One-third of grape production in the Adelaide Hills, one of Australia’s leading wine regions, has been lost or damaged in catastrophic Christmas bushfires, and the damage bill is set to exceed A$100m ($69m).

Issue 6, 2019 has landed! Inside you will find news, views and in-depth features about the international wine industry. All the articles can be found gathered together here.

Driven by concerns about the climate crisis and environmental issues, organic wine has gone from a niche category to a significant segment of the wine industry.

Submissions for the Born Digital Wine Awards 2019 are now open. If you wrote, filmed, recorded, photographed or published anything relating to wine this year, make sure you enter it before the end of the month.

Dr Mark Krstic has been appointed the new Managing Director of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), from 1 February 2020. 

After languishing in the legal and ideological shadows for many years, hybrid vines are now seeing French demand outstrip supply. The tight market has led one Italian supplier to claim that France is attempting to limit the supply of foreign hybrids to protect its own breeds. 

Codorniu’s new Christmas TV ad has sparked a backlash in Spain over its alleged use of a pro-Catalan independence slogan.

President Trump has announced that he is prepared to raise tariffs on French wines to 100%, in retaliation for France’s digital services tax, which the Trump Administration says discriminates against American internet companies.

Michelin, the French company behind the famous restaurant guide of the same name, has announced that it had acquired 100% of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Rowan Gormley, the CEO of UK company Naked Wines, will be retiring from the company once Christmas trading is over. Nick Devlin, the current Chief Operating Officer, will take his place.

The label of the 2017 vintage of Château Mouton Rothschild has been revealed – it is a work called “Hallelujah” by artist Annette Messager.

Another casualty of the current historic flooding taking place in Venice is the city’s only vineyard – Venissa, founded in 2002 by the Prosecco producer Gianluca Bisol on the island of Mazzorbo in the Venetian archipelago.

Twelve bottles of Bordeaux red were launched into space on Saturday November 2nd at 9.59am. Not by an angry drinker, but as part of a project designed and financed by Space Cargo Unlimited (SCU).
 

In late October, a truck carrying a load of Mullineux Old Vines White tipped over, spilling hundreds of bottles into the road.