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Fri, 16 Apr 2004
- It's true! Alcohol gives you gout
London - Confirming the wisdom of ages, researchers have found that drinking alcohol
- particularly beer - can more than double a man's risk of developing gout. One of
humankind's most ancient diseases, the painful joint condition is the leading cause
of arthritis in men. It is less common in women, occurring only after menopause.
The connection to drinking has been believed for centuries, but a study published
this week in The Lancet medical journal verifies it for the first time and found
that even light indulgence increases the risk.
Three glasses of
wine a day 'a health risk'
Heavy social drinkers show similar patterns of brain damage as that seen in hospitalised
alcoholics, researchers have warned. Consuming as little as half bottle of wine each
day can result in loss of memory, reduced intelligence, poor balance and impaired
mental agility.
US:
Tourism uncorked in wine country
Visits to Washington's wine country have increased dramatically since 2000, a survey
released Wednesday by state tourism officials says. The study focused on Benton,
Franklin, Walla Walla and Yakima counties and showed that the state experienced a
29 percent increase in overnight visitors from three years ago and an 8 percent increase
in visitors staying with friends and family.
On reconsidering
German wine
Although I used to pilfer mom's Andre sparkling wine and guzzle it with my post-pubescent
friends, the first "serious" wine I ever tried was Black Tower. I still
remember the syrupy-sweet sensation smacking of steel not fruit and the cloying aftertaste.
I'm surprised I ever tried wine again.
SA: Wine industry
benefits from transference of skills
The internationally acclaimed Wildekrans Wine Estate, situated in the prestigious
Walker Bay region near Hermanus, has been named one of the 'Hottest New World Wineries'
- quite an achievement for an estate that only started producing wines in 1995
Vintage
2004 Update: Harvest On Track
In a mid-vintage update, New Zealand Winegrowers has reiterated its pre-vintage announcement
that the wine industry is on track for a record grape crop in 2004. Reporting on
progress to date, Philip Gregan, CEO of New Zealand Winegrowers said "The
vintage has now been underway for nearly two months. March weather was favourable,
and was marked by lower than average rainfall in many areas. This weather has continued
into April, providing good conditions for ripening and flavour development."
Grapegrowers
picking a top vintage
Despite a season of seesawing weather, Hawke's Bay is well set up to pull off another
great vintage. About 80 percent of the region's 840 hectares have now been harvested.
Late red varieties - cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and syrah - as well as grapes
being left to botrytise for dessert wine are still hanging out.
Antinoris
of Tuscany to Launch Second New Zealand Brand
The Antinori family of Tuscany has paid US$1.8 million dollars for 31 acres of vineyard
land in New Zealand's Marlborough region and plans to launch a new Sauvignon Blanc
label starting with the 2004 vintage.
Thurs, 15 Apr 2004
- Vintners
search globally for oak with distinction
Where a visitor in a winery cellar might see wood barrels stacked in neat rows, winemakers
see a spice rack. There, locked inside the oak and awaiting the alchemy when wine
and wood age, are flavors hinting at vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and coconut.
Belthazar,
world's largest wine bar opens at V&A Waterfront
The largest 'wine by the glass' wine bar in the world has been the talk of the town
since it opened recently at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.
Winery red-faced over spill
Montana Wines could face prosecution for a red wine spill into a Glen Innes creek.
The firm spent $110,000 cleaning up Omaru Creek after the leak was discovered during
regular testing by Auckland Regional Council (ARC) staff last November. They found
low oxygen levels and a red discharge, says the ARC's pollution response team leader,
Steve Tyson.
Sauvignon
blanc research wins $9.6 million
The art of making a sauvignon blanc that tastes and smells just right is about to
become a science. The Government's science funding agency, the Foundation for Research,
Science and Technology, has given $1.6 million a year for the next six years to a
sauvignon blanc research consortium led by Auckland University.
Days
of wine and art appreciation
The outgoing chief executive of Lion Nathan, ebullient Scotsman Gordon Cairns, flinches
at the thought that the company's foray into wine will be his legacy. "I think
it would be immodest of me to try and write my epitaph, but if was only wine I think
people would forget me very quickly," said Cairns from Australia last week.
AUS: Annual wine
export figures released
Australian wine exports remain buoyant but value per case is declining sharply, according
to latest official figures. In the year to 31 March, exports reached 62m cases, a
rise of 13% year-on-year, with red table wine accounting for 80% of the growth, the
Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation reported.
FRANCE: Bouchard
invests in wine facility
Burgundy trader Bouchard Pere et Fils is investing around euro 13m in a new 10,000
sq.m wine-making facility at Savigny-les-Beaune. The company says the aim of the
new facility is not to increase production capacity but rather improve the quality
of its wines.
Wed, 14 Apr 2004
- Moderate Drinking
Cuts Health Risks for Men With Hypertension, Study Finds
Men with high blood pressure who drank moderately every day showed a 44 percent lower
risk of developing cardiovascular heart disease than men with hypertension who did
not drink, in a new study from the Worcester Medical Center in Massachusetts. Men
who drank a few times a month or each week also had less chance of having a heart
attack or stroke than nondrinkers.
It's
geek-meets-grape as wine gets wired
SAN MARTIN, Calif. - Once, wine meant horse-drawn plows and barefoot workers stomping
in a tub. These days, winemakers are more likely to depend on the juice running through
their personal computers as they turn grapes into the premium vintages.
AUS: New wine producer
every 35 hours
Over the past three years, a new Australian wine producer has opened for business
every 35 hours. There are now 1798 wineries across Australia, according to the 2004
edition of Wine Industry Directory. The top 20 companies account for 89% of sales
of branded wine and 94% of exports, however.
Winners and losers
in research funding
The foundation said the 67 new research programmes were the result of long-term investment
strategies, to provide economic benefits to all New Zealanders. A number of research
programmes, including those for the development of new biomedical and manufacturing
industries, additional varieties of sauvignon blanc wine for export, and a system
to reduce the impact of flooding, have received funding.
AUS:
Rann, Kerin join forces to cut wine tax
PREMIER Mike Rann, Opposition Leader Rob Kerin and National MP Karlene Maywald have
joined forces to push for cuts to taxes on wine. The trio has sent a letter to Prime
Minister John Howard warning the viability of the wine industry in South Australia
is under threat.
US: Wine Group ups
GSV buyout offer
The Wine Group has submitted a fresh buyout bid for Golden State Vintners (GSV).
The Wine Group, whose previou offer of US$7.25-a-share was rejected by GSV in favour
of a bid from a group led by chief executive Jeffrey O'Neill for the same amount,
announced late last week that it has upped its offer to $7.75 per fully diluted share.
United
States to Allow Wine Labels to List Calories and Carbohydrates
The U.S. government is now allowing alcohol-beverage producers to cite calorie and
carbohydrate content on their labels and in their advertising -- as long as the statements
are truthful and specific.
Tue, 13 Apr 2004
- A passion for pinot
It's being touted as New Zealand's signature wine of the future. Jude Petheram talked
to Nelson winemakers about pinot noir. Pinot noir is the wine on everybody's lips
these days, even if they can't afford to drink it.
Wines
too hot to handle
Hawke's Bay wines are now to be "hot red" instead of "red hot".
Organisers of a regional red wine promotion were well into planning their Red Hot
Roadshow, to display wines in Wellington and Auckland, when they discovered a group
called Conferenz had trademarked the term "red hot".
Undrinkable? Mon
dieu!
Wine producers in Bordeaux are starting to think the unthinkable as they try to halt
a plunge in sales of one of the world's most prestigious tipples. Growers and sellers
are considering tearing up some vineyards, changing their ways to adapt to markets
and consumer tastes and improving the quality of their product. The measures were
put forward at a closed meeting over the past few days of 300 professionals in Bordeaux,
the city synonymous with fine wine.
Right
on track with a better grape cure
One of the striking things about Botry-Zen is that, for a new biotech company, it
has been remarkably good at meeting its own forecasts. The company was started with
the late Howard Patterson's backing in 2001 and forecast a $991,667 loss for the
year to March 2002. The actual result was a $891,987 loss.
London
listing a first for Australian wine
WESTERN Australia's Palandri Wines will become the first wine company to list on
London's Alternative Investment Market. Palandri executive chairman Darrel Jarvis
said private placements ahead of the float on May 14 were expected to raise between
$5 million and $11 million.
Another
bitter from Fosters
Foster's shareholders may have to swallow another bitter pill this year with analysts
anticipating writedowns of up to $300 million as the new chief executive, Trevor
O'Hoy, clears the decks. The brewing group has been rangebound between $4.30 and
$4.60 since 2002 because of the US wine glut which has caused major discounting.
Group's
export success paves the way for full-time expert
Barossa Valley vineyard group Thorn-Clarke Wines has built up enough export sales
in North America and Europe to employ a full-time winemaker. Thorn-Clarke said Derek
Fitzgerald would move from Langhorne Creek after experience in the Hunter Valley
and Frankland in Western Australia.
Riverina winery
is toast of US
Casella Wines boss John Casella says he has no plans to float the family-owned business
behind Yellow Tail wine after it racked up a bumper sevenfold rise in net profit
amid growing competition in the $1 billion US wine market. Mr Casella said he planned
to plough the profits back into the Griffith business in an effort to maintain its
extraordinary rate of growth at a time when Australian wine heavyweights Southcorp
and Foster's Group are struggling to turn a serious profit in overseas markets.
Mon, 12 Apr 2004
- Mick's red is not
so simple
Mick Hucknall is best known as the singer with the pop group Simply Red but his Il
Cantante label, produced in Sicily, is beginning to make music in wine circles. Mick
Hucknall bounded on to the stage in Verona, his audience's excitement followed by
a reverent hush. "Il Cantante!" - "The singer!" - cried a breathless
voice from the crowd.
South Australian
wine grape growers diversifying
Wine grape growers in South Australia's Riverland are being encouraged to diversify
into dried fruit growing. With some wine grape varieties literally being left on
the vines to rot due to dramatic price falls, growers are looking for alternative
income sources.
Painful
Measures Urged to Help Bordeaux Wine Sales
BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) - Wine producers in Bordeaux are starting to think the
unthinkable as they try to halt a plunge in sales of one of the world's most prestigious
tipples. Growers and sellers are considering tearing up some vineyards, changing
their ways to adapt to markets and consumer tastes and -- painful as it is to admit
for the aristocrats of the world wine trade -- improving the quality of their product.
China,
Moldova cooperate to cultivate high quality grapes for winemaking
A grape cultivation base featuring breeds imported from Moldova, a leading grape
producer and winery, has been put into operation in Penglai City, the eastern province
Shandong. Shandong is China's major wine producing province where the leading winery
Zhangyu Group, with a history of more than 110 years, is based.
Sun, 11 Apr 2004
- Who'll drink all the wine?
Fancy the idea of starting your own little vineyard and winery? Join the throng.
New wine companies are mushrooming around the country at the average rate of one
a week. But will they all be able to sell their wine?
A
famous year for Bordeaux?
Jancis Robinson travels to Europe's most important fine wine region and finds the
long, extremely hot summer of 2003 produced good news for a few of France's world-renowned
chateaux but not their less illustrious neighbours.
A
glass act that's proved hard to follow
A brief stint as an apprentice glassblower on Sado Island in the late '80s left me
with a great appreciation of the aesthetics of a well-made wineglass. The weight,
the balance, the cut of the lip, the curve and thinness of the bowl -- and the subtle
ring after a toast -- are all factors that, when they come together well, elevate
a glass far beyond the merely functional.
More Southern Italians
Last Wednesday's delicious Nero d'Avola-Syrah blend from Sicily put me in the mood
to explore the warm and hearty reds of Southern Italy, so I've pulled corks from
three more interesting wines of the region in recent days. Let's start today with
a quick survey of the wines, their grape varieties and regions, then move right along
to the tasting notes.
US: Liquor, wine
bottles soon may list carbs, calories
Washington (AP) -- Consumers counting carbohydrates and calories soon may see that
information on the labels of their favorite rum, scotch and other liquors.
Sicilian
vintner blends tradition with technology-driven present in fruit-packed wines
Sicily -- The extent of the sprawling 1,250 acre Regaleali estate is hard to comprehend
as we drive along winding two-lane roads south from Palermo and up into the interior
of this sun-drenched Mediterranean island. It must have seemed even more puzzling
to visitors a century ago who had to rely on horse-drawn carriages to transport them
from the populous cities of Catania and Palermo to the hilly center of this large
Italian island state that separates the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas.
Grape
harvest delayed
Cold weather had delayed the grape harvest in Central Otago by about two weeks and
most growers would "hang out" for as long as they could, Central Otago
Winegrowers Association president Heather McPherson said.
New International
Wine Competition Underway for World Wine Market Exhibition April 29 - May 1
World Wine Market LLC has announced the 2004 World Wine Market International Wine
Competition, which will be coordinated and conducted by Affairs of the Vine. Wineries
from five continents participating in the World Wine Market Exhibition will be eligible
to submit entries for awards.
US:
The Wine Group Submits New Bid for Golden State Vintners
The Wine Group LLC ('TWG') announced today that it has submitted an offer to acquire
all of the outstanding common stock of Golden State Vintners, Inc. ('GSV') (Nasdaq:VINT)
at a price of $7.75 per fully diluted share.
US:
Are we on the verge of another wine boom?
Say what you will, talk to the numbers guys, speak with the vintners -- but I think
wine consumption in this country has reached critical mass. That is, we've turned
the corner and are becoming a wine culture. Some would say that corner is no more
than a cul de sac and we're just spinning our wheels if we think Americans are finally
going to drink more wine. The naysayers would opine that we're jaded, too close to
the situation. We're like that famous "New Yorker" map which shows a compressed
United States with NYC on the right and "Frisco" on the left coast with
nothing in between.
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