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July anything but dry for booming beverage industry in South Australia

Primary Industries

THE winter rains of July failed to dampen South Australia’s booming beverage industry, which is becoming an ever-increasing driver of the state’s economy.

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The Vintage Report 2016, released in Adelaide at the 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference & Trade Exhibition in July, showed South Australia contributed 51 per cent of the nation’s wine grapes and more than 60 per cent of the value of Australia’s $951 million crush.

While the numbers were still being crunched in early July, it was announced that leading global wine consultant Alberto Antonini had teamed up with an Argentinian oil and gas billionaire in a multi-million dollar vineyard and winery development in the Barossa Valley.

Alejandro Pedro Bulgheroni has bought a 40ha Greenock property for $1.95 million and plans to expand its vineyards, restore farm buildings and construct a 180-tonne winery, cellar door and possibly some high-end accommodation on the site.

Also in July, the National Wine Centre, Botanic Gardens of South Australia and Jacob’s Creek announced they would soon release two limited edition wines believed to be the first in the world produced solely from grapes grown within a botanic garden. On top of that, the 16 varieties harvested in the Adelaide Botanic Garden also achieved the rare feat of being grown in a city’s CBD.

Any one wanting to learn more about wine was able to sign up for the new version of the University of Adelaide’s World of Wine: From Grape to Glass course that was launched in July on its AdelaideX platform. The course already has 10,000 enrolments following the success of last year’s inaugural course, which attracted almost 40,000 students from 160 countries via the edX platform.

Coopers continues to lead the way in South Australia’s beer industry and is being joined by a host of new players from the exploding craft beer industry.

Australia’s largest family owned brewery, Coopers is also the world’s largest exporter and manufacturer of home brewing extracts and in July launched its BrewArt home brewing system, which has been likened to a Nespresso coffee machine and can be controlled from a smartphone app.

It is being aimed at tech savvy, time poor beer lovers who like the idea of brewing at home but have thought it to be time consuming, messy and something that took up a lot of space.

The Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards were held on July 8 and all but one of the trophies were awarded to South Australian brewers. Pirate Life Brewing, Coopers and Goodieson Brewery picked up three awards each but the star of the show was Myponga brewery Smiling Samoyed, which took out Best Beer in Show with its Dark Ale for the second year running. Pirate Life also showed its prowess on the national stage in July, being named Champion Large Brewery at the Craft Beer Awards in Brisbane where it also won the title of Champion Pale Ale.

July proved a pivotal month for growing South Australia’s reputation as a home of high quality spirits.

Adelaide Hills Distillery was crowned Australia Aperitif Distillery of the Year at the Melbourne International Spirits Competition after its orange-style The Italian won the Top Gold in the class. The distillery, which launched its first product only last year, also won a Gold Medal for its 78° Gin.

Boutique South Australian gin distiller Prohibition Liquor Co also collected a Gold Medal at the competition for its Bathtub Cut Gin – the highest overproof gin ever produced in Australia.

The 69 per cent gin was released on June 23 and follows the success of the company’s 42 per cent original small batch premium Prohibition Gin, which launched in December 2015.

This is a Creative Commons story from The Lead South Australia, a news service providing stories about innovation in South Australia. Please feel free to use the story in any form of media. The story sources are linked in with the copy and all contacts are willing to talk further about the story. Copied to Clipboard

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