<http://schema.org/description>
"Mildara Blass has moved to strengthen its Hunter Valley operations with the appointment of Neil McGuigan, one of the region&amp;#39;s most noted winemakers, as manager and winemaker at The Rothbury Estate.The appointment is seen as an attempt to stabilize Rothbury&amp;#39;s operations which have been marked in recent years by a succession of management and winemaker changes.The Foster&amp;#39;s Brewing Group subsidiary plans to invest $A5m in production facilities at the 105,000-case winery which was founded in 1968 by industry identities Len Evans and Murray Tyrrell and which it took over in 1996.Mildara Blass has also bought McGuigan&amp;#39;s 50% interest in the 32,000-case boutique winery, Briar Ridge, as part of a package to enable him to take the Rothbury helm.The Hunter Valley, the closest wine region to Australia&amp;#39;s major domestic and tourist market, Sydney, is seen as a the prime shop-window for the industry although Mildara Blass managing director, Terry Davis, said that while other major Australian wine producers had reduced their Hunter operations to little more than shop-fronts, &amp;quot;...we are investing in talent, energy and capital to build world-class infrastructure to further develop our Hunter heritage brands.&amp;quot;Aggressive export growth plans would be pursued to build on 1999/2000&amp;#39;s 50% expansion which saw exports reach 30% of total production which, in turn, was 21.5% greater. McGuigan is a former winemaker and group production director at Wyndham Estate and, in 1992, established the McGuigan Brothers label with siblings Brian and Ross.Chris Snow"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.just-drinks.com/news/mildara-blass-shores-up-hunter-valley-operations_id74833.aspx>