Nick Goldschmidt is one of the pioneering forces behind the Atlas Peak Mountain Cabernet Series. He believes that Napa Cabernet is a place of extremes, and that the four mountain appellations surrounding the Napa Valley are the pinnacle. Goldschmidt says: “I began this project in 2003 and I look forward to continuing to create wines of distinction for Atlas Peak.  East vs. west and north vs. south means that these wines are uniquely different and can be measured under one label. With winemaking constant, only the extreme terroir of these rugged mountain vineyards will be revealed in the finished wine.”
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Thierry’s, the UK’s leading wine importer and the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) has announced the winner of the Thierry Cabanne Scholarship Award 2010 at the WSET Awards and Graduation Ceremony which took place at the Guildhall last night (Monday 18 January).
Andy Battman will spend a month working with the Thierry’s team and will be given the opportunity to experience all areas of the wine business including sales, marketing, PR and logistics, as well as producer visits and tastings. A management consultant, with extensive experience in change management, marketing and troubleshooting, Andy has worked across a wide range of industries, in both private and public sectors. He has spent the last ten years advising some of the world’s largest organisations on how to improve their business.
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Alvi’s Drift appoints three world-renowned winemaking consultants

Alvi’s Drift, the award-winning winery from the Breede River Valley in South Africa, has appointed three of the world’s most sought after winemaking consultants to oversee its estate-grown and estate-made wines. John Worontschak and Sam Harrop MW from Litmus Wines are joining forces with fellow consultant Linley Schultz to take charge of the 6 million litre operation, making them one of the most accomplished winemaking teams in South Africa.
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Litmus Wines
Sam Harrop (left) and John Worontschak (right) established Litmus Wines in 2008. They understand global winemaking styles and trends and work to help their clients improve their wines for global markets.

Based in London, John and Sam consult to clients in 12 different countries.

Sir Cliff Richard is currently on tour to celebrate 50 years in the music industry; his wines celebrate their 10th vintage; are they on track to have a career as equally illustrious as their founder?   

David Baverstock, a Portugal based Australian, who has made some of the country’s finest reds in Esporão in the Alentejo first advised Sir Cliff Richard to change his land from growing figs to vines in 1997. Although the Algarve region has never been renowned as a wine growing area due to the hot dry climate; the cool refreshing Atlantic breeze has proved that the area has indeed got the ability to produce excellent wine.

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French wine producers may not have much to rejoice about (French wine sales in the UK have dropped 6.5 per cent in the last year, according to Off Licence News), but deep down in the south of France, Languedoc-Roussillon’s Sud de France brand is pushing hard to make inroads at this tricky time

With a monthly programme of themed tastings aimed at the trade and press, the brand’s central London showroom – the Maison de la Région Languedoc-Roussillon – gives producers the chance to show their wares to buyers, importers, sommeliers and journalists.

A recent tasting focused on the fruits of a dozen female winemakers, two of whom have already confirmed orders with a major UK specialist retailer. Brit Catherine Wallace of Chateau de Combebelle is one of the Sud de France producers in question. She talks to The Drinks Report about being a woman in what has traditionally been a man’s world, and weathering the UK wine trade storm.
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The Sud de France UK Sommelier of the Year competition has been won by 26 year-old Frenchman Romain Henry of Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant    

Sud de France spokesperson Elodie Le Dréan said: “The judging panel was particularly impressed by Romain’s ability to engage with his audience, his confidence, and his in-depth knowledge of the wines of the south of France.”

L-r: Marc-Andrea Levy of Gordon Ramsay’s Murano restaurant, Rebecca Skinner of Green & Blue Wines, and Romain Henry

Felicity Murray talks to Burke Reschke managing director Reschke Wines about luck, polo and fine Coonawarra wine

In just 10 years Burke Reschke, now 40 years old, has developed a range of niche wine labels with growing international acclaim. And his driving ambition to produce the best wine in Coonawarra – one of Australia’s finest wine regions for Cabernet Sauvignons in particular – could be close to being achieved, judging by Robert Parker’s comments on the Reschke top of the range wine Empyrean: “If you see it, do not hesitate. The 2002 and 2004 Empyrean Cabernets may well be the benchmarks for Coonawarra Cabernet."
“Everyone says you make your own luck but I don’t actually believe that anymore," says Burke, "the way the label is going it must be more good luck than my good management.”

But good management there has clearly been in the setting up of this family wine business. Burke’s futures trading background has clearly stood him in good stead for he has successfully turned his passion for fine wine into a reality by structuring and financing the business on a low risk strategy and employing one of the best talents in the world to help him create the wines – Peter Douglas, formerly chief winemaker at the Wynns Coonawarra Estate.

Burke’s father planted the first vineyards nineteen years ago in 1989, which was between college years for Burke, on part of the estate that his family have been farming cattle for over a century. As a reflection of this heritage, the Reschke wine labels bear the logo of a bull. “But cattle farming in the heart the Coonawarra region is akin to having cattle in the best winegrowing regions of Bordeaux,” explains Burke. “So given the value of this land for viticulture it was inevitable that sooner or later we’d be doing something with grapes."
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“When I first arrived in Hong Kong, if you went out for a dinner or a wedding feast and you asked for a drink you were given a choice of either a can of beer – usually a San Miguel and not always a real one – or a full glass of Martell Cognac – nothing in between"