Latest news with #StephenWong
Otago Daily Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Felton Road keeps ‘winery of year' title
Felton Road winery, Bannockburn. Photo: supplied I'm delighted to report that the winner of the 2025 Real Review New Zealand Winery of the Year is Felton Road Wines from Bannockburn in Central Otago. Felton Road Wines has been in the top 10 every year since the inception of the award (its lowest placing was sixth) and becomes the first winery to be a back-to-back winner as they also took out top spot last year. Congratulations to all the team. The Australasian online wine review platform, The Real Review, boasts 10 staff across four countries with the New Zealand arm now headed by Stephen Wong MW, assisted by Jane Skilton MW and Dr Jo Burzynska. They annually publish a classification of both Australian and New Zealand wineries and their wines, distilled from the more than 10,000 wines that they taste and review each year. In 2018, they founded their Winery of the Year Award and last week published their 2025 winners. The judging criteria not only includes the outright quality of a given wine over the preceding year, but also the winery's track record over 10 years or more, the wine's ageing potential and market performance, stewardship of their land and more. This year, The Real Review initiated a new set of awards recognising best sparkling, white, red, rose and sweet wines of the year along with best vigneron and rising star winemaker/s categories and I'm also delighted to report that Central Otago pulled off a trifecta of wins. The trophy for sparkling wine of the year went to Quartz Reef for their 2017 Quartz Reef blanc de blancs methode traditionelle brut. The trophy for white wine of the year went to Prophet's Rock for their 2022 Prophet's Rock cuvee aux antipodes blanc, while the trophy for red wine of the year was awarded to Doctors Flat for their 2021 Doctors Flat pinot noir. It is always exciting to see Central Otago wineries making the news, and I can say from experience that these are three superlative wines. Best rose went to Te Whare Ra for their 2023 Te Where Ra S.V 5182 rose, while the sweet wine category went to Astrolabe for their 2022 Astrolabe Wrekin Vineyard late harvest chenin blanc. The vigneron award went to Anna and Jason Flowerday of Te Whare Ra, while the rising star award went to Simon Sharpe and Lauren Keenan of A Thousand Gods. 2022 Astrolabe Sleepers Vineyard Kekerengu Coast Albarino Price RRP $30 Rating Very Good to Excellent Perfumed nose, gum, honey, white flowers florality, wisps of citrus and salinity, mango and marmalade with air. The nose hints at something fatter but the palate travels a lighter, cooler, crisper path mirroring that salinity on the nose, adding a seasoning of spice and creaminess while grilled nuts/ almond join later. The nose says hedonism, the palate calls out for food. 2024 Riverby Estate Single Vineyard Marlborough Grüner Veltliner Price RRP $24 Rating Excellent Engaging and floral, notes of lime zest and ground pepper are joined by peach and spice aspects, a touch of lanolin later. Fruit sweetness leads with accents of pineapple, pear and peach lifted by lime, ripe yet dry. The texture is a star here, silky, creamy, a lovely mouthfeel while the flavours carry long on the finish. Lots of interest, this just really works. 2024 Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Marsanne Roussanne Price RRP $39.99 Rating Excellent A peppery, quality, dry honey, initially vinous, more about the whole, but really fleshes out with air adding white flower florals, jasmine, seasoned with pepper. The fatness and richness in the mouth is matched by freshness, fruit pastille notes contrasted by a little bittersweet quality, with a wonderfully long, dry close. Fascinatingly different, inherently food-friendly.
Cision Canada
29-04-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
AI Revolution in Housing: UNLOCKLAND Cuts Development Time from Months to Minutes to Tackle Canada's Housing Crisis
VANCOUVER, BC, April 29, 2025 /CNW/ - Canadian proptech company Meton AI has unveiled UNLOCKLAND, an AI platform that promises to revolutionize affordable housing delivery by transforming what CEO Stephen Wong calls "the most uncertain industry" into one governed by clarity, accessibility, and fairness. Amid Canada's deepening housing crisis, UNLOCKLAND's technology reduces site evaluation time from 10 weeks to just 10 minutes—a breakthrough that enables small and medium-sized developers to compete with industry giants who traditionally monopolize development opportunities through superior resources and expertise. "Real estate development might be the most experience-dependent and least standardized field in modern business," explains Wong, who founded UNLOCKLAND after witnessing countless viable projects fail due to information barriers. "Over 30% of potential housing projects in North America are abandoned before launch, not because of poor market conditions, but because preliminary analysis costs are prohibitive and risks difficult to quantify." The platform deploys a sophisticated multi-agent AI architecture where Planning, Design, Market, and Finance Agents collaborate to simulate an experienced development team. Users input an address to receive comprehensive zoning analysis, multiple AI-generated building proposals, financial projections, and risk assessments—all delivered in minutes rather than months. In a country where housing shortages have reached crisis levels, UNLOCKLAND directly addresses Canada's National Housing Strategy goals by removing barriers that slow affordable housing creation. The platform identifies viable development opportunities often overlooked by traditional methods and reduces planning approval times—two critical factors in accelerating housing supply. "This technology helps translate policy intentions into built homes," explains Wong. "When municipalities implement zoning reforms aimed at increasing density and affordability, our platform helps ensure these policies actually result in housing on the ground by making implementation transparent and accessible." Beyond efficiency gains, UNLOCKLAND is fostering improved collaboration between municipalities and developers. Vancouver's planning department is exploring the platform as a front-end service to streamline approvals, potentially reducing the affordable housing delivery timeline by months. Since launch, the platform has evaluated over 35,000 sites across Canadian cities, with expansion to U.S. and Australian markets underway. By making complex development analysis available to community-based developers and non-profits, UNLOCKLAND is helping create diverse housing options that better reflect neighborhood needs and increase overall affordability. By democratizing development expertise, UNLOCKLAND aims to create a more inclusive urban landscape where housing solutions emerge from diverse voices rather than just industry incumbents—ultimately helping translate Canada's ambitious housing targets into tangible communities where families can thrive.
