AS Australia's oldest wine-growing region, the Hunter Valley blends tradition and history with innovation and forward-thinking. Recognised as the world leader in the production of dry white wines, the Hunter's low-alcohol, age-worthy semillon is widely regarded as unique in Australia.

SALES of NSW wines have grown 15 per cent in the past year, yet many Sydneysiders are still refusing to buy them. While sales of NSW bottled wine rose $10.2 million to $69 million in the year to December, sales of NSW wine accounted for just 7 per cent of bottles sold, according to the NSW Wine Strategy.

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.