Home Winemaster v7 Trial Edition* is now available for download from the Winestate site. Some of the features are:

• View a selection of the Winestate Tasting Notes easily on your home PC .
• Maintain and easily organise your wine cellar in multiple cellar locations with multiple notes.
• Search the Tasting Notes based on selectable criteria.
• Add wines in the Tasting Notes to your cellar.
• Perform sophisticated searching on your cellar.
• Print out individual wines or a range of wines in your cellar.

* The trial edition is limited to 24 entries in the cellar section and several past issues of the Winestate Tasting Notes.

Registration and subscriptions for the software can be taken out from the Winestate web site.

Rosemount Estate Winemaker named "2003 Young Winemaker of the Year"

Rosemount Estate winemaker, Briony Hoare has been awarded the coveted title of The Young Winemaker of the Year 2003 by the Wine Society.

Established in 2001, The Young Winemaker of the Year Award has quickly become a prestigious title that recognises innovation and talent amongst Australia's up and coming winemakers.

The Wine Society presented Briony with the winning trophy ahead of nine other finalists at a function in Sydney on Saturday night. The 10 finalists were selected from a field of more than 40 entrants by The Wine Society Tasting Panel of wine and food professionals from throughout Australia.

Briony won the title with wines she has made in her time at Rosemount Estate's McLaren Vale Winery – 2001 Rosemount Estate GSM Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre ( Gold Medals awarded at the 2002 Royal National Association Brisbane Wine Show and 2002 Royal Melbourne Wine Show) , and 2002 Rosemount Estate Diamond Shiraz ( Gold Medal 2003 Cowra Wine Show) .

Briony says: “I am very proud to have won the title. It was a great honour for Rosemount Estate to nominate me and then have this happen after eight years hard work is very special.”

In 2001 Briony joined Rosemount Estate's McLaren Vale winemaking team of four who produce a range of commercial and premium wines from fruit from throughout South Australia. Wines she has a hand in making range from Rosemount Estate's Diamond label through to wines such as Rosemount Estate Balmoral Syrah, Traditional, Show Reserve Cabernet and Shiraz and GSM.

Her interest in winemaking began at the young age of 15, when she took a trip to the Barossa Valley. She completed a Bachelor in Agricultural Science at the University of Adelaide, and began her hands-on training as part of the Southcorp Graduate Winemaker program. This gave her two years experience spread across Australia's major winemaking regions, including Lindemans Karadoc Winery in Mildura, Seppelt Great Western in Victoria, Rouge Homme in Coonawarra, Penfolds and Seppelt wineries in the Barossa Valley.

Following her graduate training, Briony took up a winemaker position at Lindemans Karadoc in Mildura before moving to Tulloch Wines in the Hunter Valley and then finding her winemaking home at Rosemount Estate McLaren Vale in 2001.

Next generation French wine marketer aims to change attitudes

Dispelling the belief that French wine is exclusive and financially crippling to the Australian wine drinker is the aim of Valérie Eymas, a French wine student and marketing representative for French winery Château La Rose Bellevue.

A recent visitor to Australia , Valérie is completing an intensive nine-month course in wine and spirit sales that is funded by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and supported by Château La Rose Bellevue. As part of her studies her mission is to identify niche market opportunities in Australia for the Château La Rose Bellevue wine range.

Providing academic and industry support to Valérie, Chisholm Institute wine educator, Jenny Polack based at its Rosebud campus said the 28-year-old faced a huge task that would take time and patience, but is certainly achievable.

“French wine is considered expensive by most Australian wine drinkers,” Valérie said. “It is also common in Australia , unless you are a wine lover, to know only the major regions of Bordeaux , Burgundy and the Rhône Valley .”

With the assistance of Jenny and Chisholm Rosebud's wine education resources and industry contacts, Valerie is learning about the market and directing her efforts into educating Australian wine drinkers, letting them know that there are many excellent “value for money wines” from the lesser known regions.

Based in the Premières Côtes de Blaye, a sub-region of Bordeaux , Château La Rose Bellevue is owned and run by the Eymas family. The winery offers a selection of red and white wines and a rosé all of which are bottled on-site.

Married to third generation winemaker, Jérôme Emyas, Valérie said the wines of Château La Rose Bellevue are very successful on the French market, however the winery is looking to diversify and is now seeking overseas opportunities.

“We chose to focus on Australia for market opportunities for many reasons,” Valérie said. “Jérôme has worked in an Australian winery so we had an understanding of the industry as well as some contacts.

“We also found the industry to be more dynamic, willing to try new things. Although we have found that most people in the Australian market only know of Bordeaux or its two key sub-regions Médoc and St Emilion, I believe I can work at changing this through working with people in the Australian wine industry. Many Australians think Bordeaux is very expensive; I want them to know that this is not always the case.

“I recently had the experience of marketing Australian wines. I worked for Peter Lehmann at Vin Expo 2003 in Bordeaux . I found that my friends criticised me for working for an Australian winery, but it was the liveliest part of the expo. Because of this it was an excellent networking opportunity for me.”

A vibrant personality, Valérie has been working under the auspices of Select Vineyards. With the assistance of Curtis Marsh from Select Vineyards and Chisholm wine educators, she has met with a range of business people in the sector, including importers, winemakers, restaurant owners and wine sellers.

“Curtis and Jenny have shown me the importance of forming strong relationships with the client and supplier,” Valérie said appreciatively.

“Meeting people has been an excellent experience. I have found many people in the industry to be relaxed and laid back, even in the sales area. Not what I was expecting because in France the sales representative is always pushing.

“Because these people are meeting me face-to-face, they get to know me,” she said. “If you want to be successful in export you need to come to the country and meet the people and get an understanding of the market.”

This has also led her to RMIT University where she presented a talk on the French wine industry to 40 international marketing students, an experience she savoured, as prior to moving into wine marketing Valérie taught French in France and at the Alliance Française in Melbourne.

In realising the niche market opportunities and also the obstacles of the Australian market, Valérie is fully aware that her desire to change the mindset of the average Australian wine drinker towards French wine will not happen overnight.

“Everywhere I have gone in Australia the French wines, particularly Bordeaux wines, were the most expensive. They are between $30 and $80 and sometimes around the $150 mark,” she said. “I aim to break the image of French wine being expensive – when I came here I wanted people to try my wine and like my wine and understand its potential as a good value wine.

“Many wine drinkers also have the impression of Bordeaux wines being ‘wishy washy' – an Australian term I have picked up. I want people to know wine from Bordeaux is more than Médoc and St Emilion, that there are different sub-regions like Premieres Côtes de Blaye, which offer different tasting wine.

“Most of all I have to prove that I can sell these wines. That I can do what I set out to do, change the image of Bordeaux wine away from the high price tags and give an understanding of our culture through the wine.”

Barrel Series Auction 7 reaches new milestone

The 2003 Coonawarra Barrel Series Auction 7 raised its millionth dollar in proceeds and generated the highest ever average barrel price of $19,491, cementing its position as one of the wine industry's annual highlights.

Australia's most unique wine auction attracted more than 350 people at a pre-auction brunch on Sunday with a record number of interstate and international bidders participating over the phone.

For the third consecutive year, net proceeds from the highest priced barrel are donated to the South Australian Autism Association. Katnook Estate and Punters Corner Wines set the benchmark with $27,240.00* for each barrel with approximately $18,000 heading to the Autism Association.

The Barrel Series auction continues to generate high levels of international interest with a simultaneous function held in Hong Kong. For the first time the auction was webcast live via SquizBiz, an award winning video-streaming system.

Those unlucky enough not to be in Coonawarra were able to view all the auction action as it happened by logging on to www.coonawarra.org .

The entire Cabernet Celebration was a huge success with increased visitation from around Australia. Excellent weather attracted scores of people from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria to enjoy the best food, wine and entertainment the region has to offer.

For the second year prestige auction house Sotheby's of London controlled the auction, with auctioneer Richard O'Mahoney at the helm. The Coonawarra Vignerons Association is delighted with the ongoing association with Sotheby's which it anticipates will expose the Barrel Series auction to a broader international audience.

Each barrel was knocked-down in five case lots, with 11 barrels going under the hammer. Prices started at $440 per case with five cases of Katnook selling to a Hong Kong buyer for $1800 per case – the highest ever per case price.

The Coonawarra Cabernet Celebration kicked off with the traditional Coonawarra Cabernet Masterclass on Friday October 17 at the Coonawarra Hall. The masterclass showcased a comparative tasting between 1998 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon and 1997 “Super Tuscan” Cabernet Sauvignon based wines from Italy.

Visitors had the opportunity to get up close and personal with their favourite vignerons on Saturday night as Coonawarra Cooks! invited small groups into the winemakers home, winery or restaurant for a once in a lifetime dinner. After dinner the action continued at the legendary Coonawarra Supper Club where live music and plenty of cleansing ales continued until the early hours.

Coonawarra Vignerons Association President Bruce Redman, declared the 2003 Cabernet Celebration “the best ever”.

“We had record numbers of people at every event, the barrel series was a great success and the sense of community and Australian spirit was clearly identifiable,” he said.

“The Cabernet Celebration continues to raise awareness of the region, its wines and local produce and most importantly is a flag bearer for the Coonawarra region across Australia and the globe.”