Wine sellers twitter away

In a world first, thousands of dollars of Australian wine has been sold to the UK, using the online chat service Twitter.

Trade agency Austrade teamed up with a London online wine retailer to sell the wines through an online auction.

Before the evening auction, customers were given the chance to taste the wines, then chat to winemakers back in Australia via the internet.

Northern Victorian winemaker Matt Fowles was one of 20 winemakers involved.

"I guess with export markets I do spend a bit of time on the phone in the dark, but it is a bit surreal when you know that there's been this huge effort over in London," he says.

"And then I'm sitting there with magpies warbling in the background and really interacting with all these people on the other side of the world."