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Thu, 14 Oct 2004
- Furry teeth can be a wine drinker's friend
Professional wine tasters
face a hidden occupational hazard, rotting teeth, according to an Australian researcher,
who says she has a practical solution.
Washington's Big
Mo
Washington wines are getting
better with every vintage, in large part thanks to the string of warm, nearly ideal
growing seasons the state has had since 2000. The only trouble is, with a few exceptions,
the very best wines are made in quantities so small that you might need to hire a
private detective to find them.
Wine / Wines of Rhone heaven in a bottle
When wine connoisseur
and future U.S. President Thomas Jefferson visited southern France in 1787 he enthused,
"What more can a man ask of heaven?"
Trial Involving
Fraud at Burgundy Shipper Chanson Set to Begin
In a continuation of the
biggest scandal to shake Burgundy in recent years, four people connected to shipper
Chanson Père & Fils go on trial on Oct. 13. Although the case, which involves
the illegal blending of Burgundies with wines from other appellations, has been in
the works since 2001, there is one surprising new twist.
Argentina's Mendoza
Wins Ruling to Move Ahead on Debt Talks
Mendoza province, a wine-producing
region in western Argentina, won a U.S. court ruling allowing it to proceed with
rescheduling payments on $250 million of bonds.
Lebanese vineyards
eye lucrative foreign markets
BEIRUT: Exported since
the time of the Phoenicians 5,000 years ago, sun-drenched Lebanese wine is spreading
as mushrooming estates refine strategies to satisfy domestic and lucrative overseas
markets.
Screw-off tops make no difference in wine,
study finds
A blind taste test done
by researchers for Oregon State University has found that the stopper - be it natural
cork, synthetic cork or a cap - makes no discernible difference in taste.
US: Growers, winemakers
at odds when to pick fruit
As Andy Beckstoffer's
staff began testing sugar levels in grapes this summer to see if they were ripe,
the winemakers purchasing his fruit used a different test: Their palate.
Wed, 13 Oct 2004
- Alcohol Consumption May be Associated with
Irregular Heart Beat in Men
Archives of Internal Medicine,
one of the JAMA/Archives journals, evidence for a link between alcohol consumption
and atrial fibrillation is conflicting.
Screw Tops: Get
Used to Them
Picture this scene: At
the finest restaurant in town, at the most romantic table, a young man nervously
readies himself to pop the question to the young woman beside him. To express his
tender feelings, he has ordered a super-expensive wine. (Let's say, for the sake
of the story, that it's a highly rated Merlot from New Zealand.)
The World's Rockiest
Vineyard: Vintner Makes Home in Quake Central
When a nasty 6.0 magnitude
earthquake hit central California on Sept. 28, it was just another day to Parkfield
Vineyards owner Harry Miller. That's because the 800-mile-long San Andreas Fault
runs right through Miller's 170-acre vineyard in the tiny town of Parkfield (pop.
37), known as the "earthquake capital of the world."
New Franco-Russian project takes off
A new Franco-Russian project
called Chateau Le Grand Vostock is about to launch its wines on the Russian market.
There are four ranges in total, all of which are blends of between two and six grape
varieties. The first vintage to be released is the 2003, an outstanding one for southern
Russia.
CHILE: Wine exports rise, but by how much?
Chilean wine exports are
on the rise, according to recent figures.
Croatia wine producers race against time
as EU looms
Croatia's small wine producers
are racing against time to expand their vineyards and compete on the European market
as the former Yugoslav republic prepares to join the European Union.
Revolutionary inventions could 'transform' winemaking
Two revolutionary machines
that could transform winemaking have just been launched in Bordeaux. The first, introduced
by Andre Lurton, is La Tribaie, a grape sorting machine that ensures levels of selection
and care previously only available with the costly and time-consuming manual triage.
Tue, 12 Oct 2004
- Longtime Sonoma Vintner Pete Seghesio Dies
at 85
Eugenio Pio "Pete"
Seghesio, patriarch of one of Sonoma County's best-known wine families, died Sept.
30 at a hospital in Santa Rosa, Calif., after a long illness. He was 85.
Something for everyone in international
wine top 100
The Liquorland Top 100
international wine competition results have been released, and the underwhelming
response of the media suggests such shows are quickly becoming an irrelevance ? but
are they really?
US: A Persian Palace
Opens in Napa
Napa Valley vintners keep
topping themselves with the lavishness of their new wineries. The latest to open,
on Silverado Trail in eastern Napa, displays more than just a hint of Persia. After
five years of construction, Darioush has been transformed into a 22,000-square-foot
winery and visitor center that evokes the memory of the ancient Persian city of Persepolis.
U.S. Wineries Are
Booming in Number
The number of wineries
throughout the United States has jumped more than 15 percent in the past two years,
based on the latest figures from the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau
(TTB), which tracks winery permits.
US: Wine industry
makes plans for decades of vintage years
The current buzzword in
the agricultural community is "sustainability," and no one has taken the
concept further than the wine industry. In essence, sustainability is doing the right
thing - managing environmental, human resource and community issues so that the industry
survives and prospers far into the future.
US: Mondavi will be more bourgeois
With its famous Mission-style
bell tower and elegant arched entrance, the Robert Mondavi Winery looks every inch
the Napa Valley landmark it has been for four decades. Behind that gracious exterior,
there is momentous change.
Former Southcorp
Winemaker Now Chasing Clouds at Australia's New Cumulus Winery
Former Southcorp executive
winemaker Philip Shaw, who left the Australian giant that produces Penfolds and Rosemount
last year, has resurfaced in the New South Wales wine region of Orange. There he
is overseeing the new Cumulus Wines, launched from the estate formerly known as Reynolds.
Yeast gets rise from vintners' serenade
Plants like being talked
to, right? Well, Spanish researchers want to know whether yeast used to age sherry
grows better with music loosely based on its own DNA.
Mon, 11 Oct 2004
- US: Law allows wine
to go
At Water's Edge Restaurant
in Long Island City, owner Marika Somerstein placed her first order yesterday for
special plastic wine bags that will allow customers such as Stuart Super, a physician
from Manhattan, to enjoy the bottle of wine he couldn't finish later at home.
A Banner Year for
White Burgundy
The 2002 crop of white
Burgundies has generated much interest, and demand has been high despite the continued
weakness of the dollar, which is pushing prices higher. Our recent blind tastings
confirm that the vintage deserves its accolades. I give it a rating of 95 points,
or classic on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale.
In praise of day-old wine
By and large, people view
food and wine as opposites when it comes to aging. A basket of tomatoes a little
past its prime just won't do for most, although there are those (like me) who love
the idea of paying just a dollar for a pile of "yesterday?s tomatoes,"
as one farm stand I know calls them, knowing that even with a few bruises they?ll
be fine for a delicious sauce.
Wine Enthusiast
Magazine Announces Winners of Annual WINE STAR AWARDS for 2004
Wine Enthusiast Magazine
is pleased to announce the winners of its annual Wine Star Awards for 2004, recognizing
excellence in the wine and spirits industry. These winners will be featured in the
magazine's Special Awards issue, which hits the newsstands on November 22.nd . They
will be honored at a gala dinner and awards ceremony in New York City on January
24, 2005, in Astor Hall and the Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Library.
US: Virginia wine owners expecting good
harvest
October is Virginia wine
month, and many growers across the Old Dominion are optimistic about this year?s
crop, despite excessive rain. Heavy rains throughout the growing season caused wine
grapes to mature early, forcing producers to harvest some varieties ahead of schedule.
US: 2004 Harvest
Report - Week 9
A rundown on harvests
from producers in the US.
Wine producers must use EU cash for quality not
quantity
Wine producers in the
European Union will use their share of a ?450m subsidy payout to uproot high-yield,
low-quality vines and replace them with better varieties. The EU executive announced
the subsidies yesterday. New joiners Hungary and Slovakia will receive the payments
for the first time.
US: Blood letting
at Mondavi
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
and Zinfandel are not the only crimson liquids flowing out of the Robert Mondavi
Oakville Winery. Late last week, the company announced that 350 employees received
termination notices to be effective over the next few months ... and there may be
more to follow.
Secondary labels
can be good buys
American winemakers often
put out what the wine industry calls first and second labels. Made by the same company,
the second label wines have a different name, a lower price and usually lower quality.
Sun, 10 Oct 2004
- California vintners rescue 19th-Century
Rhone vines
As a pun, the term Rhone
Ranger may be a groaner, but as a label for a group of maverick California winemakers,
it's an intriguing success story.
Paso Robles offers
an unpretentious destination for wine lovers
Equidistant between Los
Angeles and San Francisco, and just inland along the Central Coast, Paso ? as locals
call it ? doesn't get as much tourist traffic as its wine-country cousins in Napa,
Sonoma and Santa Barbara counties, which might account for its hospitality and lack
of pretension.
Some Europeans putting
cork in wine guzzling
London - The French remain
Europe's biggest wine drinkers, closely followed by the Italians, but their consumption
is set to level off or even fall amid health concerns. However, in Britain and Germany,
wine consumption is growing and is expected to continue to do so over the next five
years, according to a study by market analyst Datamonitor.
Belgium Enjoys Bulgarian Wine
At special presentation
in the Bulgarian Embassy in Brussels the representatives of the Belgian business
tasted the special Bulgarian wine.
SPAIN: La Rioja wine sales on the up
La Rioja wine sales have
increased in the first eight months of this year, according to recent figures. Sales
of wine with the protected denomination of origin (PDO) La Rioja rose by 3.6% in
the period from January to August, hitting 156.6m litres.
Tim Mondavi resigns
Tim Mondavi has stepped
down as vice chairman and winegrower of the Robert Mondavi Corporation, the company
announced today.
ARGENTINA: Wine exports up, home sales
falling
Per capita consumption
of Argentine wine in the domestic market fell 9.72% in August compared to the same
month last year.
Kiwi wine cracks
Quebec
Canadian-owned but New
Zealand-based wine company Kim Crawford Wines has made a major exporting triumph
in the Canadian market. And it's a triumph the company believes will have positive
implications for other New Zealand wine exporters.
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