It wasn't the shirazes or merlots that stood out at the Boutique Wine Awards but the rarer types of grape. In Australia's vineyards, 72 per cent of vines grow shiraz, cabernet, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc grapes. That leaves 28 per cent for the other 100 or so varieties we grow.

Foster's Group, Australia's largest brewer, says the split of its beer and wine divisions was on track for next year, but was silent on growing takeover talk for its profitable $12 billion beer unit.

China's impact on the luxury French wine market has been enormous. The French fine wine index (Liv-100 index) is up by roughly 37% from a year ago, 24% year-to-date, and its upward momentum remains strong.

BREWER and winemaker Foster's Group has posted an annual net loss, and says it remains on track for a possible demerger of its beer and wine businesses in the first half of calendar 2011.

I was lucky enough to visit esteemed chef Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar & Grill on Melbourne's Southbank last Monday. It might just have been my most revered long lunch ever.

The Australian wine industry's $143 million trade with China could be threatened following the discovery of fake Australian wines in China.

Shiraz has been Australia's boon and bane. It has taken blame for the tanking of the market for high-end Australian wine - cursed as the grape that strove to be both fancy and populist at the same time.

Local wine grape growers are struggling. The combination of drought, increasing costs of production and a drop in the grape price are conspiring to make life difficult for local producers.

To develop a taste for wine, keep tasting — and write down as many specifics as you can when you find a wine you like. Is it red or white? What grape? What region? And so on, so that over time you can see a profile of the particular qualities that please you.

THE CANBERRA district is the talk of the wine world after a local red picked up one of the country's most prestigious wine awards. Collector Wines scooped the pool at the Sydney Royal Wine Show, picking up four trophies including the coveted gong for best red wine of show.