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Thu, 07 Oct 2004
- French winemakers go naked for calendar
First the UK Women's Institute
went naked, then the New York fire department and British prison officers, and now
the winemakers of the Côtes de Bourg are releasing a nude calendar.
Wine Lines by Bob Johnson
This week we focus on
the area's true specialty: dessert wines. Some of the greatest sweet wines this side
of Chateau d'Yquem are crafted by vintners in the "other" Niagara.
Consumers still prefer cork to screw tops
Regular wine drinkers
may turn up their well-cultured noses at the thought of synthetic corks or - gasp!
- screw on tops for their favorite merlot or chardonnay, but a new study has found
they can't tell any difference in the taste.
South American Wine Guide: Chile
The wine producing nations
of South America are making great strides in improving the quality of their product.
In the second part of this series we will look at the wines of Chile. Next week look
out for the contribution of Uruguay and Brazil.
UK: Wine consumption eating into beer sales
Consumption of wine in
the UK is expected to increase some 16% by 2008, according to research released today.
The growth will come at the expense of beer sales in the on-trade, the research says,
as people increasingly drink wine at home with their meals.
US: Grape harvest
95 percent complete
Winemakers expect outstanding
quality as crush moves toward earliest completion in a century after near-perfect
growing season
AUS: Wine sales up
The trend estimate for
domestic sales of Australian-produced wine was 35.5ML in August 2004, an increase
of 0.4% on July 2004 and 4.1% on August 2003.
Compounds found
in wine could inhibit Alzheimer's
New Japanese research
could explain why drinking wine appears to prevent the onset of Alzheimer's. Scientists
have found compounds that inhibit an enzyme implicated in the disease.
Wed, 06 Oct 2004
- US: Sheriff's sale
features 10K cases of wine
More than 10,000 cases
of Australian wine will go on the auction block Friday morning at an Eighth Street
East warehouse, the result of a court judgment against the distributor.
After 3,000 years, sherry still a favored
wine
Near the southwestern
coast of Spain, about 10 miles in from the Atlantic, is the town of Jerez de la Frontera.
For three millennia, wine has been made and exported from this region.
US: Top Wine Educators Join Forces in Philadelphia
The top wine gurus are
now in Philadelphia. The Wine School of Philadelphia is announcing the recent addition
of Dr. Lynn Hoffman to its already robust teaching staff this week.
Chinese wine sector
attracts growing interest
Investors monitoring the
huge growth potential and high profit margins of China's burgeoning wine market are
beginning to dip their toe in, writes Anthony Fletcher.
British Wine Drinking
to Rise 16% as Pubs Fall Out of Favor
Britons will consume 16
percent more wine by 2008 as they increasingly abandon beer drinking at their local
pubs and adopt continental-style drinking with meals at home, a study showed.
Biggest ever harvest for Champagne?
The Champagne harvest
this year is set to be the biggest in history as the French government gives the
green light to increasing the maximum yield. The French appellations body (INAO)
is debating whether or not to increase Champagne yields by 1,000kg/ha. Their decision
will be made public on 4 November.
Rand blow to SA
wine industry
The Western Cape wine
industry is facing a major shake-up as producers battle to adapt to the strong rand.
The robust rand could lead to a "rash of bankruptcies", Colin Collard,
chairman of the Wine of the Month Club, has warned.
US: America's First Certified Brunello
Clone Sangiovese Wine to be Produced with the 2004 Harvest
Cuneo Cellars of Carlton,
Oregon, is making the first wine in America to be produced from certified Brunello
Sangiovese grape stock. Brunello is one of the great wines of the world, and this
Pacific Northwest version will the first-ever North American rendition of this venerable
Italian classic wine.
Tue, 05 Oct 2004
- Bordeaux must open its doors to visitors
The future of Bordeaux
depends on opening its doors and losing its reputation for being dismissive of visitors,
CIVB head Christian Delpeuch said at the Great Wine Capitals Awards last week.
US: Grape broker
says glut could end by 2006
While most large California
vintners have been grappling with the problem of too much inventory, the industry
should be concerned with not having enough, according to a leading broker of bulk
wine and grapes.
US: Mondavi Director
Quits Under Pressure
Michael Mondavi, a director
of wine maker Robert Mondavi Corp., has resigned from the board after his comments
in the press undermined the company's efforts to overhaul its business, the company
said.
Big Turkish export push
Turkish wines are set
to hit the UK as importer Alaturka teams up with two major producers to concentrate
on exports. In an industry not noted for cooperation, Alaturka is spearheading an
export drive for wines from Turkey in partnership with Doluca and Kavaklidere, the
two largest wineries in the country.
Americans win Nobel
for studies of sense of smell
American researchers Dr.
Richard Axel and Linda B. Buck shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine
on Monday for their work on the sense of smell -- showing how, for example, a person
can smell a lilac in the spring and recall it in the winter. Their genetic work revealed
a family of "receptor" proteins in the nose that recognize odors, and they
illuminated how the odor information is transmitted to the brain.
US: Former Online
Wine Dealer Indicted for Fraud
The former owner of an
online and mail-order wine merchant has been indicted in federal court on 21 counts
of fraud and accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that scammed more than 50 clients
out of approximately $10 million.
US: Wineries spending
big on ad campaigns
Some of the North Coast's
largest winemakers are dramatically increasing advertising spending this year as
they vie for sales in a highly competitive market, signaling what some experts said
could be an overall upturn in ad spending.
Mon, 04 Oct 2004
- Thieves steal award-winning Amarone
Technically advanced thieves
struck top Amarone producer Masi last weekend, stealing 12,000 bottles of the cult
classic Vaio Amaron 1999. As well as the Vaio Amaron, from the Serego Alighieri estate,
bottles of the Masi Costasera Amarone 2000 were also stolen.
The rain in Spain...
Vintage 2004 was looking
good for Rioja. Hopes were high for a large crop of healthy grapes. Then, on September
5 and 6, the rains came. Tropical and lit up by continuous spectacular lightning
lasting several hours.
US: Prices are rebounding
as grape glut eases off
No one's popping champagne
corks yet, but the oversupply of wine grapes in California appears to be drying up.
"We are seeing the market rebound, especially in the Central Valley," said
Glenn Proctor, grape and wine broker for the Joseph W. Ciatti Co., an international
bulk wine and grape brokerage based in San Rafael.
SA: A shake-up for the wine industry?
In a press release sent
out last week, Colin Collard, Chairman of the Wine of the Month Club stated his concern
about the effects of the strong rand on an already over-stretched industry.
US: Rieslings start
to regain some noble ground
Riesling is showing up
on more restaurant wine lists. Wine merchants report more inquiries about riesling.
The comments in this column that prompted the most enthusiastic and numerous responses
over the past year have been about riesling. And when I take a bottle of riesling
to a gathering, it almost invariably generates the most buzz, and is the first to
be emptied.
US: 360 local employees
pink-slipped by Mondavi
Robert Mondavi Corporation
has laid off 360 Napa Valley employees, about a third of the company's total workforce.
Sun, 03 Oct 2004
- South American values
Chile and Argentina may
be neighbours, but their wine industries, not to mention their economies, have little
in common except for the relative bargains that can be found on both sides of the
Andes.
AUS: Not a bad drop,
for wine worth $50,000 a bottle
This bottle became Australia's
most expensive wine at $50,200 when Adelaide businessman Lance Vater bought it in
June. The identity of its buyer was revealed for the first time last night when Mr
Vater took it to the Penfolds Red Wine Re-corking Clinic at Penfolds Magill Estate
for a check-up.
Laurent-Perrier is a notable exception
to the rules for French champagnes
Now that the 35th Ryder
Cup has slipped into the record books, one of its most popular sponsors, Laurent-Perrier
Champagne, is touting its own unique and convoluted past. In France, champagne is
largely associated with three towns, Reims, Epernay and Ay.
American oak gets
wine world's attention
With wine-producing regions
on the other side of the equator gaining prominence, Schulz said, his business from
wineries looking to capitalize on the low price of American oak barrels, compared
to the more highly regarded French barrels, has increased.
Constellation Brands'
2Q sales top $1bn
Constellation Brands,
Inc. (CBR) today announced that its net sales increased 14% for its second quarter
ended August 31, topping $1 billion for the first time in any quarter since the company
was founded in 1945.
US: Colorado Man Indicted In Rare Wine
Scheme
An Internet wine merchant
from Colorado was arrested at his home in Basalt Thursday on federal fraud charges,
the Denver District Attorney's Office said.
US: Mondavi sees
value in wine for the masses
You'd think wine enthusiasts
and beer guzzlers are very different people. But plug them into a business model,
and Robert Mondavi Corp. reckons they look quite similar.
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