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Thu, 30 Sep 2004
- Champagne vs Champagne now in European courts
The tiny village of Champagne in Switzerland is fighting its better-known French
namesake in the European courts in an attempt to protect its name.
Ireland tries
to end its love affair with drink
'First it was the fags, now it's the drink," came the murmur from the street
corners outside Ireland's pubs this week. With smoking banned from bars, drinkers
are braced for a different government crackdown after statistics revealed a country
killing itself with alcohol.
Beaujolais shows
perfect timing
The extreme heat in France
during the summer of 2003 produced very ripe grapes and atypical wines. In many areas,
grapes ripened weeks early, in mid August, forcing producers to scramble to harvest
because workers were still on their sacrosanct monthlong vacations.
Highs and lows of part-time winemaking
What do a dentist, psychologist,
barrister and hotel proprietor owner have in common? Jeni Port meets these and others
like them, all part-time winemakers in Australia living their dream.
US: As Glut Abates,
Grape Shortages May Lurk
While most players in
the California wine industry have been grappling with the problem of having too much
supply, the industry should be concerned with not having enough, Bill Turrentine
of the Turrentine Wine Brokerage, said this week. He was speaking during the Wine
Industry Financial Symposium in Napa, California.
US: Wine Market
Council Testing Potential for $4 Million Print Ad Campaign
Wine Market Council, which
is striving to make wine a more widely accepted and enjoyed part of American culture,
is planning to blitz the Columbus, Ohio market in a test marketing campaign equivalent
to what a $4 million national advertising campaign would look like.
Wine world coming to see Kiwi screwcap
initiative
Marlborough's International
Screwcap Symposium is just seven weeks away, and people from throughout the wine
world are registering for the event.
Tue, 28 Sep 2004
- CHINA: Capital pours into wine sector
The huge growth potential and high profit margins in China's wine market have lured
more and more capital investment into the industry, reported China Daily on Tuesday.
Georgian vine growers stage protest
Residents of several villages
in Georgia's Kakhetia region on Monday blocked the highway linking Tbilisi and Telavi
to demand that the authorities force wineries to accept this year's grape harvest.
No Thanksgiving
for Turkeys in California Wine Country
A new state law, which
goes into effect Jan. 1, allows grapegrowers to kill wild turkeys that are damaging
their crop. After passing with unanimous votes in both the Assembly and the Senate,
the legislation was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sept. 10.
Chalone's buyout
offer under eyed
The deadline for a response
to the proposed buyout of Chalone Wine Group came and went last Friday, but Chalone
CEO Tom Selfridge would only say that "the offer was not extended, although
discussions are continuing."
Italian Wine
Exports to US hold but Australia still top
A Coldiretti survey from
the start of the year up until July 2004, on the basis of ISMEA-USDA figures, reported
at the presentation of ISTAT figures on foreign trade, has reported that "in
the first seven months of the year exports of French wine to the United States registered
a dramatic loss of 13.3 percent whereas Italian wines hold with a rise of 1.4 percent
but have to deal with the aggressive attack by Australian wines which gained a market
value of 18 percent.
Global dimming? Global warming? What's
with the globe, anyway?
The director of the Zurich-based
World Radiation Monitoring Center, the organization that measures the amount of solar
radiation hitting the ground around the globe, has a strange talent. Give Atsumu
Ohmura a glass of white wine and tell him only its vintage, and he'll swish a mouthful
and -- without referring to legs, bouquets, or mango backgrounds -- announce where
the grapes were grown.
Wines From John
F. Kennedy's Collection Purchased by Manhattan Restaurant
Twenty-five mixed cases
of Bordeaux, Burgundy and German Riesling that once belonged to President John F.
Kennedy have a new home in the cellar of Nice Matin, a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence-winning
restaurant on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
The red wine revolution: no food
The way we drink wine
is changing so rapidly that wine itself is having a hard time keeping up with those
changes. And different cultures have quite different ideas about the function of
wine.
Red wine - good for the breasts
Red wine is the latest
craze in the beauty salons of Buenos Aires where it's said to tighten the stomach
and firm the breasts.
Mon, 27 Sep 2004
- Mulled wine debuts at chilly Munich
beer fest
MUNICH: The world's biggest
beer festival, the Munich Oktoberfest, has broken with tradition to allow the sale
of mulled wine to warm up drinkers during an unusually cold spell.
Alsace vines
sabotaged
Winegrowers in northeast
France are puzzled over the mysterious destruction of large swaths of two vineyards
in Alsace, a region along the German border known for full-bodied white wines.
UK: Wine Connoisseurs Happy to Pay the
Price
Up to 50 percent of wine
buffs in the South West are prepared to pay over the odds for varieties they know
and love rather than shop around for a bargain, it was today revealed.
Marilyn Merlot
Bares All With Peek-a-boo Label
The owners of the Marilyn
Merlot label know sex sells. Their new Velvet Collection brand features the famous
"Red Velvet" nude photo of Marilyn Monroe on a peek-a-boo label, a first
for the wine industry. The movie star's figure is partially covered with iridescent
sparkles; to see all of her, you simply peel away the overlay.
Vine to wine
online
Not even Dionysus, the
Greek god of wine, could keep track of the millions of bottles on the market today
-- let alone their prices, tasting notes and food pairings.
US: Demand for
'super-value' wines declining
California wineries are
recovering from a severe slump by streamlining operations, focusing on core brands
and reducing costs, according to an annual survey released Wednesday by an industry
expert at the University of California, Davis.
Salaries in wine
world are on the rise
Salaries for wine business
employees are on the rise, according to the 2004 Wine Business Monthly Salary Survey.
The survey revealed an average salary increase of 14 percent from 2003 to 2004 --
a trend that could continue as industry competition and consolidation heats up.
California Gains
Three New Appellations in Two Weeks
The federal government has approved three new American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)
for California, making them official in late August and early September. The new
wine appellations are Red Hills Lake County; San Bernabe, in southern Monterey County;
and Salado Creek, in western Stanislaus County.
Riedel Crystal
Buys Spiegelau
Wine fanatics may continue
to debate the merits of Riedel stemware versus Spiegelau for their home wine service.
But now the competing brands are both owned by the same company
US: Mondavi estimates
its sale properties at up to $500 million
Robert Mondavi Corp. chief
executive Greg Evans said Monday he expects to realize $400 million to $500 million
in net proceeds from the sale of his company's luxury brands -- substantially exceeding
Wall Street forecasts.
Sun, 26 Sep 2004
- Decanter panel
tasting: New Zealand Pinot Noir 2001 & 2002
The best of New Zealand's
Pinot benefits from balance and restraint
Spectator Selections
The issue's most impressive
wines. Includes top-scorers and wines that represent optimal purchases based on their
combination of score, price and availability.
Red wine (and
sex) good for men's health
Life keeps getting better
for red wine drinkers. Now scientists say a glass a day sharply reduces men's risk
of prostate cancer.
Breakout for
California Pinot Noir
Vintage 2002 is the year
Pinot Noir lovers have been dreaming of. For decades, this grape's progress in California
has come in fits and starts, marked by occasional moments of grandeur. But more often
there's been a frustating sense that the wines could be better.
Champagne bubbles over with harvest
hopes
PARIS - Grape vines in
the Champagne region are sagging this year with an abundance of fruit. But this won't
mean increased supply - or cheaper bottles of bubbly for consumers.
US: Sharpshooter infestation near Napa
Californian wine country
could face widespread devastation if an infestation of the glassy-winged sharpshooter
cannot be contained.
Alsace: viticultural 'terrorist' at large
Three Alsace vineyards
have been heavily vandalised in apparently motiveless attacks across a two-month
period.
US: GMO vine
pest research continues as organic methods are tried
Since the discovery five
years ago that a ravenous insect was spreading grape-killing Pierce's Disease in
California, grape growers have contributed millions of dollars to fund research projects
they hope can end the scourge.
AUS: Research to explore science of
wine making
A new project in Western
Australia investigating the relationship between vine management and wine quality
aims to enhance Margaret River's reputation as a premier wine making region.
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