De Bortoli Wines has purchased the Lutasatia Park Vineyard at Woori Yallock in the Yarra Valley from the Shelmerdine family. The 18 hectare premium, mature vineyard will be handed over to De Bortoli after the 2016 harvest. Lusatia Park is one of the most well known independent single vineyards in the Yarra Valley. The majority of the vineyard was planted in 1985 and currently sells fruit to a number o…

Greg West, Camilla Tang and Jye Hosking have left their current positions with McWilliam’s Wines, Taylors Wines and Warburn Estate respectively to join Agnew Wines in the Hunter Valley. Agnew Wines has appointed West as Retail Operations Manager and Tang and Hosking as Account Managers for NSW and the ACT. Prior to joining Agnew Wines, West was National Direct Sales Manager at McWilliam’s. As Retail Opera…

New findings published by Roy Morgan Research this week, further confirm that Woolworths Limited owned liquor stores, Dan Murphy’s and BWS, are dominating Coles owned and independent liquor retailers. The data shows both Dan Murphy’s and BWS are leading by market share and total customers. In any given week, 1.2 million Australians (representative of 23.9 per cent of total alcohol-buyers) are choosing to …

Jo Andrew has been appointed Independent Chair of Wine Grape Growers Australia (WGGA) today. Mr. Brian Walsh, Chair of Wine Australia welcomed the appointment, saying: “We look forward to working closely with Ms. Andrew to help achieve our goal of a prosperous Australian grape and wine community.” Ms. Andrews joins the sector at a time of growing wine exports. In a sign of much needed improvement in p…

Calabria Family Wines has released its long-awaited, most premium red wine, The Iconic Grand Reserve Barossa Valley Shiraz 2012. Made from 100-year-old shiraz vines in the Barossa Valley, The Iconic captures Australian fruit at its very best in the bottle. It is therefore no surprise then that the new release also sits as Calabria’s most expensive wine. Despite the $175 RRP however, The Iconic is a wine s…

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 …

Latest figures released by NAB’s Online Retail Sales Index show grocery and liquor are in growth. Falling only shortly behind electronic games and toys, grocery and liquor sales were the second highest in terms of growth against other online retail segments in September. Specifically, the Index reports that grocery and liquor were up by 1.9 per cent in month on month terms. According to Alan Oster, Group …

Bill Hardy, Global Brand Ambassador and fifth generation winemaking family member for Hardys Wines, has announced that 2016 will be his last year with the family company. Bill has been with the family company for 44 years and will now prepare to pass on the baton to his daughter, Alix Hardy. Joining the company at the young age of 21, Bill has seen Hardys Wines grow from a revered family wine company to t…

Famous duo, Jennifer Hawkins and Jake Wall have announced a partnership with Mextrade for the distribution of their new small batch tequila in Australia, which launched last month. Sesión co-founder, Jake Wall said they had been looking for an authentic distributor that had a strong focus on tequila. “Mextrade have built some great relationships in the on- and off-premise trades and are well regarded by t…

Think Spirits has confirmed that it has signed an exclusive national distribution agreement with 666 Pure Tasmanian Vodka. The acquisition also includes the 666 Autumn Butter and St Ali Coffee Vodkas. The new partnership is significant for the Sydney-based distributor, after it lost the JCI/Proximo portfolio in September. Think Spirits Managing Director, Patrick Borg said the company was excited about the…