Some of the UK's fine dining restaurants such as the Vineyard at Stockcross, several Gordon Ramsay restaurants and the Hotel du Vin chain are using the iPad as a wine list that diners can browse when ordering wine. Vineyard head sommelier Yohann Jousselin said it gives guests a better opportunity to look at their long wine list and access their preferences without replacing interaction with the sommelier.

It's a trend happening on a worldwide scale in New York, Argentina, Italy and Spain and even in France in a few Parisian restaurants.
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Australia has dropped the requirement that all wines to be exported must pass a tasting panel. This is in response to faulty natural wines that often were stopped from being exported. When the current export controls were first introduced four decades ago, Australian table wine was hardly known overseas and there was a risk that even one faulty wine could hurt their reputation.

Exporters will no longer have to submit their wines for approval but they will be licensed and will be subject to audit, and must provide wine for comprehensive testing as required. Auditors visiting wineries will inspect records, examine labels and collect samples of exported wines.

The reality has been that some great (if unconventional) wines have been refused permission, even when they have buyers waiting overseas. One famous case was Gary Mills’ Mon Petite Francine who had buyers waiting in Japan for this bright, aromatic and drinkable Yarra Valley Cabernet Franc, which is naturally made and not altogether clear. But it was refused export permission because of its flavour.

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For the second successive year Camel Valley Vineyard's sparkling rosé has won the 'Best Sparkling Rosé in the World’ trophy at the Bollecine del Mondo awards held on 27th January. Camel Valley beat off stiff competition from many world famous Champagne Grandes Marques, including Bollinger. As well as finishing first in the sparkling rosé class the wine also came second in the overall competition of the world's top 200 sparkling wines, just 3 points behind the winning Ayala Brut Majeur from Champagne with 895 points, but ahead of the world renowned Mumm and Bolly.

Chairman of Judges was Tom Stevenson, author of Christie's World Encyclopaedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine. A spokesperson for Camel Valley said ‘Winning last year with the 2008 vintage was beyond our wildest dreams, but to repeat it with the 2009 and to have Tom Stevenson as Chair of judges is stunning’.
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English wine growers are on a roll, the number of hectares of vineyards planted has risen from 923ha in 2006 to 1,500 hectares today. The boom has been aided by climate change, wealthy investors and a patriotic domestic market, but is the bubble about to burst?

Many growers will be anxiously scrutinising their vines for signs of Phylloxera, but there is a more serious potential problem for the UK which is trunk disease. Also known as Dead Arm, Black Measles and Black Goo, it's caused by a fungus which can impair vine performance and evenutally kill vines. It is particulary prevalent in the UK on young and recently planted vines.

Chris Foss of Plumpton College maintains the industry underestimates the seriousness of trunk disease and a researcher said a lot of producers are in denial about the situation, especially those whose vineyards have had disease for many years and hadn’t seen it. Out of 35 UK vineyards Foss visited all but one had the disease.

Trunk diseases are as graphic as the results. The two most threatening at this stage look to be Botryosphaeria (sometimes called ‘bot canker’), and Cylindrocarpon (sometimes called ‘black foot disease’). The former is easily transferred via pruning wounds. Worryingly, though, both diseases may already be present in recently planted nursery stocks.

Unfortunately there is no cure because it is hard to detect until the vine is pretty sick. However it can be stopped from spreading by removing the infected plants, treating pruning wounds and replanting.
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A Chinese man has been given a life sentence for illegally importing millions of dollars of fine wine into China from France, Britain and Hong Kong. Sun Xitai was convicted of forging invoices and import contracts to evade import duties on 70,000 bottles worth US$7.13m between January 2004 and December 2009, the Beijing Times reported. He changed the name and price of high-end wines claiming they were cheap wines to avoid the tax rate of up to 50% on wine and said the punitive rate left him no choice but to smuggle the goods. The 62 year old has already served a prison sentence for another offence in 2002 and imported other luxury goods such as Nike trainers and Oakley sunglasses.
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Buying a bad bottle of Chardonnay laced with bitter tannins may soon be a thing of the past if Hennie van Vuuren has his way. Together with the Wine Research Centre at the University of British Columbia the genes of 15 known clones of the Chardonnay grape vine will be mapped over 2 years in an effort to identify which ones are best for planting. The project should help growers around the world pick the right clone for their individual geography. And that should mean better production and more consistent results.

There are so many varietals of the Chardonnay clone, each with its own distinct properties, such as early or late ripening, loose or small bunches, seedless or large berries - each of these properties might be important for certain areas.

That's no small matter in British Colombia, where the Chardonnay grape is the second most-planted white varietal grape behind Pinot Gris, and the most popular white wine in the world.



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