Fri, 21 Nov 2003

Grapes of wrath
Australia may have beaten New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup semi-final, but it's the Kiwis that can lay claim to the best pinot noir. Over the past five days, 16 wine judges have tasted and smelt more than 3000 wines to determine the winners in this year's Royal Hobart Wine Show in Tasmania.

KOREA: The great Beaujolais red hype
Now before you get too excited and start thinking that perhaps Jo-Jo the Dog-faced Boy's snarling mug is finally going to grace the label of a wine bottle, as intriguing a marketing strategy as that may seem, it is highly unlikely that any Beaujolais nouveau producers have incorporated the idea into this year's packaging.

What does it mean to say that a white wine tastes "crisp"?
Used specifically, "crisp" describes the balance between a wine's acid and sugar levels. All wines contain some level of both sugar and acid, but the relationship between them gives a wine its texture. A wine said to be crisp has a higher ratio of acid to sugar, for it's the acid that imparts the crispness.

Beaujolais wine 'polluting rivers'
A French green group on Wednesday blasted Beaujolais Nouveau as a threat to the environment, saying producers of the young wine polluted rivers with huge amounts of pesticides.

Celebrating the virtues of wine
The ancient people of Egypt and the Middle East began growing grapevines around 6,000 B.C. as they adopted a settled lifestyle. They squeezed the grapes to drink the juice, and wine was a natural product of the fermented fruit. The first man recorded in literature to have enjoyed and gotten drunk on wine was Noah, the biblical leader of the Ark.

The Wine Clip: New Product Ages Wine in an Instant!
The Wine Clip is a new product that uses the principles of physics to treat wine as it is being poured. The action of the wine passing through a specifically designed magnetic field, some of the most powerful permanent magnets available, disperses natural tannins and other impurities.

US: Wine industry enjoys second-best harvest
The state wine industry enjoyed its second-best year on record in 2003, based on final crush numbers, trailing only last year.

Wine conference in Auckland
An international wine conference is underway in Auckland to pinpoint the future of the industry in New Zealand.

AUS: See the movie, drink the wine
Wine buffs, backpackers and caravanners are the key targets of a $235 million plan to haul the tourism industry out of a slump. Developing niche markets is the focus of a Federal Government White Paper released yesterday.

Thu, 20 Nov 2003

New York Retailers Consider Wine in Supermarkets
The debate over whether supermarkets in New York should sell wine has re-ignited, spurred by the state's lifting of a five-year moratorium on new liquor-store licenses that passed last summer.

European Heat Wave Makes for Ideal 2003 Cork Harvest
The blistering heat wave that scorched Europe this summer actually contributed to wine cork quality, according to Jochen Michalski, president of Cork Supply USA, the nation's largest provider of premium natural cork wine stoppers.

Southcorp to review wineries
Troubled winemaker Southcorp Ltd has reportedly begun a review which will consider whether it should sell or shut down any of its 12 wineries. The Australian Financial Review reported that the move is part of the company's cost cutting program, Project Veraison.

SPAIN: Wine exports rise, prices fall
Figures released yesterday show a rise in Spanish wine exports for the first eight months of 2003, but a drop in prices. The Spanish wine federation FEV said yesterday that exports totalled Ä882m (US$1.05 billion), a rise of 4.4% year-on-year.

What Chance Do We Have?
A few years ago respected Australia wine professional, James Halliday (as the guest of the cork industry) took a trip to Portugal to investigate current events. Halliday stated that prior to the trip he was very sceptical about the claimed advances being made by the cork manufacturers. However after the trip he had some very positive comments about the improvements being made.

SA: Wine Industry in Ferment Over Flavourants
SA's R4bn wine export industry is working feverishly to counter claims that certain winemakers are illegally adding flavourants to their wines, particularly Sauvignon Blancs.

US: Vive le Rapprochement!
Sooner or later the diplomatic rift between France and the U.S. will heal, and the two nations will be able to resume their traditional roles. The French will send us burgundy, and we will send them dopey comedies to pay for it.

New Tops On Wine
If you've gone shopping for wine lately you may have noticed a recent trend in the market. More and more winemakers are using screw tops instead of corks. It's the negative connotation that goes along with a screw top that turns consumers away. But if you want the honest truth, wine experts say, it creates a better taste.

Tackling wine refrigeration
If you have chilled a bottle of wine for serving, but then do not serve it, can it be taken out of the refrigerator and put back in storage?

US: Too many vacancies at county farmworker camps
Sometimes, there is too much of a good thing. Housing monitors recently found something unheard of at county farmworker camps in past years -- extra space. And that's expensive, according to the Napa Valley Housing Authority's newly-released audit of the finances from its four camps.

Dinner fork new vineyard tool?
Pina Vineyard Management has been reworking the humble dinner fork into a tool for quick preharvest removal of unwanted berries without wasting whole clusters.

Wed, 19 Nov 2003

AUS: Hess offer for Lehmann shares ends
Hess Group AG announced today that it has closed its offer for Peter Lehmann Wines. The group has reached an 85% stake in the Australian winemaker, while company founder Peter Lehmann and his family will retain 10.7% of shares in the company.

French wine makers woo cautious motorists after sales dip
France's wine industry wants drivers to know: It's OK to have a drink for the road. Or three.

Strong rand knocking SA wine exports
The strong rand is hurting South Africa's 230 million litres of wine exports, with at least one producer already having suffered a substantial loss. Lourens Jonker, the outgoing KWV chairman, alluded to the loss in an interview last week.

Laurent-Perrier Merges With Another Champagne Producer
Laurent-Perrier, a publicly traded Champagne house, has signed a binding agreement to merge with Chateau Malakoff, said Laurent-Perrier CEO Yves Dumont. The final transfer of shares will occur in early 2004.

Boisset Pays $17.5 Million for De Loach
With De Loach Vineyards mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Burgundy-based negociant Boisset has agreed to pay $17.5 million for the Sonoma County producer's brand name, key trademarks, inventory and original winery.

FRANCE: Ricard to stand down in five years
The chairman of Pernod Ricard has said he plans to step down in five years' time, according to French newspaper reports. Patrick Ricard, speaking with Les Echos, said he expects to move to become chairman of the supervisory board five years from now, when he turns 63.

Mon, 17 Nov 2003

Wine Industry Urges Drinking and Driving
France's wine industry wants drivers to know: It's OK to have a drink for the road. Or three. The $18 billion-a-year wine industry is fighting back against a government campaign to discourage drunken driving.

'Few bad berries' stain wine industry's rep
The department of agriculture has condemned South African winemakers manipulating flavours by introducing additives to wines such as artificial sweeteners, saying it could bring enormous losses to the industry.

Speaking of trends...
Six months before the opening of the Brussels Wine Expo, the number of registrations already received provides a good indication of the dominant trends among exhibition participants. They accentuate - and thereby confirm - the market dynamics that provide the impetus for an increasingly international offer.

The First Vintage
Long before grapes grew on Trellises in Napa and Sonoma, long before vineyards flourished in Bordeaux and Bourgogne, a sophisticated wine industry arose along the banks of the Nile.

On the road to wine-country romance
There has always been a friendly rivalry between Napa and Sonoma, California's two premier wine-growing regions. We think of Napa as Kyoto -- containing stunning vistas, but marred by a tour-bus mentality.

Event honors French wine
The event of the year has arrived. It's the 2003 Beaujolais Nouveau wine party at the Pump House Center for the Arts, an annual affair celebrated all over the world.

Wine & Vine: A 'plonkers' revolution
When Spain entered the Euro Community in 1986, her wine-makers caught up with the 20th century, a prominent English wine-writer told me some years ago.

Sun, 16 Nov 2003

White wine's aroma secrets
New Zealand sauvignon blanc grapes are to be put under the microscope in the first of several long-term wine research projects kicking off after the University of Auckland Wine Industry Research Conference next Friday.

Why does red wine give me a headache, but white wine doesn't?
Why does red wine give me a headache, but white wine doesn't (assuming I haven't had too much of either)?

Wine on the nose
South African wine producers have been using artificial flavouring to achieve the deliciously fruity sauvignon blancs that have become a hit around the world, a top wine expert said yesterday.

Hot chocolate brews health benefits
Break out the marshmallows, hot cocoa lovers. Your beverage of choice contains more cancer-fighting agents than tea or red wine, according to a new study.

US: Wine Health Labels Questioned
The U.S. Surgeon General has testified that labels on wine bottles urging consumers to learn more about the health effects of wine would probably lead to irresponsible drinking.

Why the French are drinking less wine
These are hard times for French winemakers. First came the global economic doldrums, then Americans angry with France over Iraq kept their dollars to themselves, hitting France's wine exports.

Fake wine claim threatens $250m South African industry
South Africa's wine export industry has been hit by an exposé of alleged illegal doping of its widely admired Sauvignon Blanc vintages. An extraordinary number of cellarmasters in the Cape have this year managed to produce sumptuous Sauvignon Blancs redolent of pineapple, gooseberry, melon and cassis.

Wine Industry Fights Back Against Drink-Drive Crackdown
The 15 billion euros-a-year wine industry (9 billion Pounds) is fighting back against a Government campaign to discourage drink driving. It claims the Government is scaring people away from ordering a glass when they go out and points to a 15% drop in wine sales at restaurants.