Fair suck of the sav, Aussies... where's the Anzac spirit?

Some of New Zealand's leading wineries have been refused permission to enter their wines in the upcoming Royal Hobart Wine Show, according to an article written by Giles Hine of www.tizwine.com.
Royal Hobart's reason for its stance, as given by chief executive officer Scott Gadd, is that, "after lengthy deliberations over two years the committee has decided to no longer accept entries from outside Australia".
"This difficult decision is the result of a feeling that the original spirit of the agreement to open the show to New Zealand winemakers has not been honoured.
"We believed that efforts would be undertaken to ensure that Australian judges would be invited to participate in the New Zealand International Wine Show in exchange for inviting the New Zealand wine industry to our event. Unfortunately, despite repeated efforts from our end over the past two to three years, no such invitations have been forthcoming.
"It was also hoped that our initiative would lead to the ability of Australian (or at least Tasmanian producers) to enter New Zealand wine shows."
The New Zealand International Wine Show is, and always has been, run by Kingsley Wood of First Glass in Takapuna, who makes the following statement:
"All correspondence for the NZ International Wine Show comes to me. I have never received any correspondence of any description from the Royal Hobart Wine Show, or in fact any other Australian wine show.
"It is a fact that both Huon Hooke and Kym Milne MW have judged at the NZ International Wine Show. On several occasions, Australian winemakers have been invited but were unable to attend. This year, Gynneth Olsen, winemaker at McWilliams Wines in the Hunter Valley will be judging. She is Australian.
"Earlier this year, Kym Milne MW was invited to once again judge at the NZ International Wine Show, but the timing of the event clashed with other judging commitments he has. Kym has asked to be included in next year's panel.
"Tasmanian wines are regularly entered into the NZ International Wine Show.
"In fact, many of the categories are usually dominated by Australian wines.
"The NZ International Wine Show is now in its seventh year. From memory, the Royal Hobart Wine Show has been in place and accepted New Zealand entries for many more than the seven years of the NZ International Wine Show.
"I am therefore at a loss in attempting to understand how there could have been any 'agreement' to open the Hobart competition to New Zealand Wines.
"The timing or in fact the suggestion of any such agreement doesn't make sense."
It is reported on Hines' website that the Perth and Canberra wine shows have also excluded New Zealand wineries from entering. Bugger me days, mate! Where's the ANZAC spirit in all of this? Is Kingsley Wood's International Wine Show being used as a scapegoat for Australian wine industry protectionism?
After all, New Zealand wines are relentlessly gaining market share there and the past two champion pinot noirs (a varietal Tasmanian winemakers pride themselves on) came from New Zealand. Someone is coming the raw prawn.
Marlborough Festival tickets on iPhone
With less than 100 days to go until the Rugby World Cup starts in New Zealand, Wine Marlborough (organisers of the long-established Marlborough Wine Festival) has launched ticket sales for its Marlborough Wine and Cuisine event to be held at Brancott Vineyard on Thursday, October 6, 2011.
Hoping to lure international visitors keen on a wine and food experience, the team at Wine Marlborough hope to sell around 4000 tickets to their event.
Tickets cost $55 and Wine Marlborough is using a new "card ticketing" concept supplied by 1-night.co.nz - an online paperless ticketing service and New Zealand's only card-based ticketing platform.
Each card is personalised with the ticket purchaser's name and account number.
The new system also eliminates the potential issues associated with lost, stolen and counterfeit cards.
If the ticket is lost or stolen, the account attached to the card is cancelled.
Coupled with this is an application, which allows people to purchase tickets using their iPhone.
The iPhone application scans the quick-reference ( also known as a "QR") code on a poster, flyer or advertisement and then the ticket page is loaded automatically.
The ticket can then be scanned from the iPhone for entry into the event.
Wine Marlborough's Event Manager Andrea Craig says she is is excited about the new ticketing solution and sees its potential for the organisation's events long term.
"We are running an international event with Marlborough Wine and Cuisine," she says.
"We felt that by using an innovative ticketing system that international audiences were comfortable using, it would add to this annual event's appeal."