Queensland wine

I'm just back from the 2008 Queensland Wine Conference in Toowoomba where I presented a paper on 'How to attract the eye of a journalist'. The weather was bitterly cold but there was a warm welcome and a good turn out of winery owners.

The bottom line is Queensland's wine industry is doing well and has much potential. Currently there are 223 wine companies in Queensland compared to 2645 throughout Australia. When it comes to the crush, 96 per cent of Queensland wineries crush less than 500 tons a year while the big 13 Australian winemakers account for 73.7 per cent. Basically, Queensland is small fish but still doing very well according to the James Halliday Australian Wine Companion released on Monday. James spoke at the Monday night pre conference dinner in Toowoomba and offered a devil's advocate point of view on climate change, an issue of great concern to wineries.

The guide gave Boireann on the Granite Belt a top mark of five red stars which is awarded to less than 10 percent of Australian wineries. Other wineries to score well included Whiskey Gully, Symphony Hill, Barambah, Sirromet, Pyramid's Road, Witches Falls, Robert Channon, Kominos, Ravens Croft and Lucas Estate. Congratulations to those wineries and watch out for their wines!