Catering Melbourne Blog

Restaurant & Catering Victoria is delighted to announce the accreditation of Jeffrey Rohde as a Certified Sommelier at this weeks Court of Masters Sommeliers examination in Melbourne.
This week marked the first large scale examination of Australian sommeliers by the prestigious Court of Masters Sommeliers.
The Court of Master Sommeliers is the world leading authority on the service and sale of wine and beverages in the restaurant and the hospitality industry.

Restaurant & Catering Victoria is delighted to be supported in work of the court in Australia with many members businesses having taken part in the week’s examination.

Jeffrey heads up Restaurant & Catering Victoria’s Hospitality Purchasing Network. As a Certified Sommelier he will be able to provide member businesses with expert advice on the structure and design of their beverage offering in addition to a seamless purchasing program to ensure businesses are buying the right products at the right price from the best suppliers.

The Hospitality Purchasing Network has been developed by Restaurant & Catering Victoria to provide direct business advice and systems for purchasing a broad range of products. HPN can assist hospitality businesses in the purchasing of a broad range of items including utilities, cleaning products, insurances, IT, hotelware, stationary, motor vehicles and now wine and beverages.

Restaurant & Catering Victoria congratulates Jeffrey on gaining accreditation as a Certified Sommelier and the organisations looks forward to assisting businesses across the sector with the design, structure and purchasing for their wine or beverage lists.

Coopers Brewery was named the 2008 Telstra South Australian Business of the Year on Tuesday night, after being selected from the state’s best businesses.

The Regency Park-based brewery also won the Panasonic Australia Medium Business Award, which recognises outstanding businesses with 21 to 200 employees.

Coopers Brewery is Australia’s third largest brewer and the country’s only major family-owned brewery. First established in 1862 by Thomas Cooper, Coopers Brewery is now run by fifth generation descendants from its state-of-the-art brewery at Regency Park.

Today, its rapid interstate expansion has seen the business enjoy its strongest growth period ever, with Coopers Brewery products accounting for approximately 3.3 per cent of the Australian beer market. Coopers Brewery is also the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of home brew concentrates and one of the largest producers of malt extracts. “This Award recognises Coopers Brewery for its hard work, determination and business success,” Ms Deena Shiff, Group Managing Director of Telstra Business and Telstra Business Awards Ambassador said. “The judges were highly impressed by Coopers Brewery’s customer focus, innovative thinking, company vision and overall business practices. These key areas are the building blocks of Coopers Brewery’s success and make the company a role model for all South Australian businesses.”

On top of the Best Business Award there are five other categories - micro-business, small business, medium business, innovation and social responsibility.

South Australian award winners will now compete against other state and territory winners at the national final in Sydney on Friday 10 October. Overall winners from each state and territory are also in the running to be crowned the 2008 Telstra Australian Business of the Year.

Weeks after announcing write-downs of up to $700m on the value of its global wine business, Foster’s is resuscitating a forgotten Tasmanian wine label as it seeks to rebuild momentum in the restaurant market. The launch of a new top-shelf brand is a rarity at Foster’s, which is seeking to consolidate its portfolio of more than 50 wine brands and comes as chairman David Crawford embarks on a review of the wine business, which could result in asset sales. Heemskerk, originally launched in 1975, enjoyed considerable success in the 1980s before being hived off into the Cellarmasters wine club business as an in-house brand available only to members. Foster’s sold the Cellarmasters business last year but retained the Heemskerk label, which group marketing manager for specialist brands Nicholas Crampton said would be restricted to restaurants and fine wine retailers. “It’s the same strategy used by most of the top boutiques … it’s one Foster’s hasn’t used as aggressively before,” he said. The ubiquity of Foster’s brands, including Penfolds, Lindemans, Wolf Blass and Rosemount, in retail outlets has been their downfall in on-premise sales, with few restaurant diners willing to shell out $50 or more for a bottle of wine they know they can buy for less than half that price at Dan Murphy’s. Foster’s also lost restaurant customers after the 2005 acquisition of Southcorp by attempting to sell both beer and wine through a single sales team, alienating high-end clients accustomed to more specialised service. Mr Crampton said 95 per cent of Heemskerk wines, which were priced at up to $60 a bottle, would be sold through restaurants. The Australian, July 7.

The soaring Australian dollar is costing major wine exporters millions of dollars and has caused a slowdown in bottled sales. While exports reached a record $3.02bn last year, experts say a combination of drought, the high dollar and foreign competition means the industry now faces significant challenges. Bottled wine exports are still growing but at a declining rate and experts believe the growth may stop within two months. The rising dollar is particularly hitting the price-sensitive cheaper end of the market, as the buoyant Aussie dollar makes exports more expensive. Premium brands that tend to sell on quality and reputation rather than price appear to be more shielded from the exchange rate impact. Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation manager of information and analysis Lawrie Stanford said the rising dollar also was seeing an influx of cheaper wine from South Africa, Argentina and Chile. Sunday Mail, May 4.

Drought and higher temperatures mean some wine-growing areas will be less productive. Climate change could wipe out up to 80 per cent of Australia’s wine production as large parts of inland irrigation zones become too hot and dry to support grapevines, a US academic has warned. Visiting Australia on a fellowship with Melbourne University, environmental scientist Dr Greg Jones said winemakers in the US and Europe were buying up land at higher altitudes and in coastal regions where cooler conditions would provide a buffer to global warming. Similarly, in Australia, as higher temperatures reduce inland rainfall, horticultural zones reliant on irrigation, such as the Murray-Darling Basin, may no longer be productive. “The biggest issue in Australia is how the water situation will work its way out. Without irrigation, 80 per cent of the Australian industry is in peril,” Dr Jones said. The Australian, May 5.

The party’s over Mixed drinks up $1 a bottle in binge war

The cost of pre-mixed drinks will jump by about $1 a bottle from today after a dramatic move by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. The Rudd Government doubled the tax on ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages from midnight last night. Drinks targeted included Bacardi Breezers, rum and coke, Vodka Cruisers and UDLs. Some are equivalent to three standard drinks. Drinkers will pay more for the products, whether sold in supermarkets, bottle shops or pubs. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show young people are more likely to drink RTDs and teenage girls in particular are introduced to alcohol through RTDs. The Rudd Government swooped last night to avoid a rush on bottle shops. But shoppers may still be able to pick up a bargain. Some prices will stay at current levels until stocks are sold. Sunday Herald Sun, April 27.

Rosemount gets back in vogue;

They have changed the shape of the bottle, added a sophisticated sauvignon to their mainstay cheeky chardie and are even marketing the idea that wine should be served on the rocks. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing Fosters’s marketers is convincing a younger generation that Rosemount is the tipple of the trendies. New television advertising trumpeting its sponsorship of Australian Fashion Week appears on screens tonight. Rosemount is into the second of a five-year, multi-million-dollar naming rights deal, and its $8 million marketing campaign aims to go beyond the fashionistas to a wider market. The ads are the latest but perhaps most high-profile element of a campaign aimed at putting the once-mighty brand back on the map. Since Foster’s acquired it from Southcorp for $3.7bn three years ago, along with a swag of other brands including Lindemans and Penfolds, Rosemount has underperformed, leaving investors impatient for a return. Sales are increasing in Australia and Britain but are flat in America as cash-strapped drinkers turn to cheaper brands and old stock stubbornly hangs around shelves. Foster’s insists, though, that when Americans see and taste the relaunched lines, they like them. It is the gains that it has made in Australia that Foster’s is talking up as evidence that it is working. Sales of Rosemount have grown 55 per cent in value and 37 per cent in volume in the three months to the end of March on a like-for-like basis, according to Nielsen ScanTrack Liquor data. The overall wine market grew 4.6 per cent in value and shrank 1.8 per cent in volumes in the same period. Sydney Morning Herald, April 28.

Water cuts to affect flow of premium wines

Drought will force a shortage of some of Australia’s premium wines next year following a deep cut in irrigation water into the McLaren Vale region on the outskirts of Adelaide. Despite improving rains in the Murray-Darling catchment, the South Australian Government has cut irrigation of vines using water from Adelaide’s mains network by 38 per cent for the 2009 vintage as part of tough new restrictions to cut consumption. Mains water costs growers $1160 a megalitre, increasing to $1650 later this year—20 times more expensive than conventional irrigation. As a result, it has been reserved for the top 10 per cent of premium grapes from the McLaren Vale region. These grapes can fetch between $2000 and $10,000 a tonne —more than 10 times the price of bulk grapes—and are used by winemakers as part of the complex tapestry of flavours used in blending top wines. The Australian, February 18.

V for victory all round for Yalumba;

When it comes to viognier, no one in Australia does it better or more comprehensively than Yalumba. Bold statement but true. Consider this: in its line-up there’s the premium viognier known as The Virgilius, aged in oak and made from select parcels of fruit, followed by the excellent Eden Valley viognier that’s much more than a crowd-pleaser, it’s a wine that grabs attention and awards galore. Then there’s the more commercial Y series (at $12 who cares?) made from fruit sourced mainly from South Australian vineyards. Not content with those table wines, so why not add dessert styles of this Rhone white, too, such as a late-harvest or botrytised-style viognier depending on vintage? You’d think that’s all the viognier dallying that can be done. But no. What else can Yalumba do? Well, an eau de vie, of course. Literally meaning water of life, Yalumba’s distilled spirit called V de Vie is incredibly smooth, floral and spicy, a perfect digestive. Only 300 bottles were made and mainly for high-end restaurants (ex-cellar door $60). Chief winemaker and viognier-obsessive Louisa Rose says one of the niceties associated with many European wineries is having a digestive. The Age, February 16.

Attack on drinking

Light beer prices would be slashed, spirits made more expensive and shot glasses and cocktail shooters banned under planned solutions to curb the nation’s binge drinking. The Rev Tim Costello—chairman of the Prime Minister’s committee considering teen binge drinking—also wants venue numbers cut and hotel and club opening hours reduced. Mr Costello will select 100 participants for the strengthening communities part of the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2020 ideas summit. He has outlined a range of schemes that could reduce the nation’s yearly $15bn health cost of boozing. It comes as youths tell of their bottle-of-spirits-a-night drinking habits. Sunday Herald Sun, March 2.