Now that the harvesters have been safely returned to the shed and pickers have long since moved on, attention has turned to evaluating the size and quality of the 2010 winegrape harvest.

Despite being described by a panel of wine buffs as ''excellent lighter fluid'', Casella Wines' Yellow Tail brand transformed a small family business into one of Australia's largest wine companies in less than a decade.

Fosters has unveiled Treasury Wine Estates, the umbrella branding for its new demerged wine business. “The announcement today does not pre-empt any outcome for our demerger, nor does it represent fundamental change in our business model. It does, however, represent the acceleration of a cultural change for those of us working in the wine business as we return to a dedicated focus on viticulture, wine making and the marketing and sale of one of the world’s most outstanding portfolios,” said Fosters CEO Ian Johnston.

For Australia's wine industry it is the final frontier. But cracking the enormously lucrative Chinese market, with its 200 million customers, has so far proved elusive.

Vineyards occupy a tiny fragment of the Australian landmass: less than 0.02 per cent of the continent. Their psychological importance, though, is wildly disproportionate to their size. The unparalleled export success of Australian wine over the past two decades has won more friends for the nation than sporting conquest, iron ore or marsupials on yellow road signs.

Security is a reluctant purchase in most markets, but not in the self storage market in most cases. The difference is that self storage operators can use security as a marketing point and therefore, devote more attention to security than virtually any other commercial enterprise. The only other industry sectors that place such reliance on security are the military and prison services.

An industry report on private-label foods has underlined the growth and earnings potential the category represents to the nation's leading supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths. Nearly a third of trolleys are expected to be filled with private-label items by 2015.

Supermarket home brands, once the domain of dried spaghetti, cotton buds and other essentials, are getting an extra kick, with Coles and Woolworths set to greatly increase their ranges of beer, wine and spirits.

The US company Constellation Brands, which owns Australia's largest wine business, BRL Hardy Wine, has called for up to 30 voluntary redundancies at its historic Tintara winery in South Australia as it responds to the drawn-out malaise in the international wine industry.

Keeping a watchful eye over his member's prized bottles, Wine Ark chief executive Dean Taylor. Penfolds Grange has topped the list of most collected wines in the country. One of Australia's largest wine cellaring companies Wine Ark has reviewed more than 3 million bottles stored by its members and come up with a list of the top 50 wines Australians love to keep. Awards were given for the most popular wine of each varietal.