The second Australian Wine and Food festival, with over 150 kinds of wine and dishes of Australia, will open in late May in the New World Saigon Hotel.

“We want to prove that Vietnam is a country where tea, beer and whiskey are popular. This event is a chance to popularize Australia to South East Asia”, said Jim Cawood, chief executive officer of Vino Vietnam, the Australian wine importer and distributor and the host of the event.

The festival will have the participation of numerous restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City.

Australian well-known chef, Paul McMahon, from Catalina Restaurant Rose Bay in Sydney will make a perfect menu for lunch and dinner for the whole week, in which Australian food matches the correct wine.

In addition to the two day festival, held by the Australian General Consul and co-sponsored by ANZ, Jetstar, New World Hotel Saigon, RED and the World Magazine, the first Australian Wine Competition will be on May 28th, aiming to name the best Australian wine on the market.

The winning wine will be served at the Gala Evening scheduled for the following day.

[Article Source] — HNM

Translated by Mai Huong

Limited as that might sound, it’s actually the perfect medium to talk about new or interesting wines with other like-minded people. Because of the limitations of the medium, everyone’s comments are short and to the point; all voices are at the same volume; there’s no apologizing for spilling wine on someone else’s rug; and, best of all, no one has to drive home.

There’s no shortage of wine-obsessed Twitter users and, because of that, already there’s no shortage of Twitter tasting groups. And there’s always room for more, whether it’s tasting and talking about organic wines, ports, or even different tequilas and mezcals, if spirits are more up your alley.

Click here to access the full article from Forbes

Twenty years ago New Zealand barely had a wine industry. Now now only are their wines found on shelves in Europe, North America and Asia.

Zealand’s wine exports have grown at an average of 23.8% over the past two years, four times the rate of growth in any other export sector.

Marlborough, one of New Zealand’s primier wine growing regions and home to the country’s most famous Sauvignon Blanc’s, now accounts for 20% of ecomonomy. Not bad for a industry which as I already mentioned did not really exist 20 years ago…

“For the industry the NZIER report represents a very positive analysis of the contribution grape growing and winemaking make to the New Zealand economy. That contribution totals over $3.5 billion of revenue through our own direct sales and the sales we generate in related sectors such as the tourism and hospitality industries,” Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith says, according to a news report by the NZ National Business Review.

India, a relative new comer in the global wine scene is now looking to use growth of New Zealand’s wine industry as a template for nurturing their own infant industry.

Wairau Valley, Marlborough – New Zealand

Here are a few excerpts from a interesting article covering this topic, courtesy of The Indian Wine Academy.

In India, Sula took the lead in wine tourism with a tasting room and a reasonably world-class structure has been commissioned but nothing much has been done by Indage or Grover- though Indage opened a wine bar outside the winery with a modern tasting room inside and Grover has also opened a tasting room recently.

The infra-structure to travel to Nashik is practically non-existent. It takes over 5 hours to reach Nashik from the airport with a private taxi and once you reach there, finding the winery locations is a nightmare for most visitors.

The tourism ministry does not seem to pay much attention to this aspect either. Even Destination India 2009 project to promote tourism in India seems to have ignored this lucrative part of the tourism. Hopefully, the Nashik grape growers association or the newly formed National Grape Board would have a look at the potential honey pot when it gets down to business.

Click here for complete article