|
Thu, 21 Oct 2004
- Americans losing
their aversion to wine in a box
Football and feasts are
a fall tradition, but those tailgaters you may spot sipping wine out of boxes or
cans are true trailblazers. Rugged, portable and able to go places old-fashioned
glass bottles can't manage, wine boxes and wine in cans represent a growing market
segment to the wine industry around the world. American vintners, aware they're behind
the trend, are extremely interested in alternative packaging, which ranges from bags-in-boxes
to cartons and cans.
Moderate Red Wine Drinking May Help Prevent
Cataract
Leading Japanese beverage
manufacturer Suntory has announced that it has confirmed a preventive effect of moderate
wine drinking against cataract in collaboration with Kanazawa Medical University
and the University of Iceland.
Welcome to the New Wine Spectator Online
When we launched Wine
Spectator Online in 1996, the Web was still in its infancy. Since then, people have
responded with enthusiasm, and today Wine Spectator Online is by far the Internet?s
most popular site for wine. Page views exceed 4 million per month, with millions
of visitors annually from around the world.
Vineyards of France's
Rhone Valley
One of my favorite places
in the wine world to visit is the Rhone Valley in France. The moment you arrive at
a winery, you're greeted with a smile, often by the winemakers, who are dressed in
jeans and checkered shirts. Out will come dried sausage and cheese to nibble on while
the winemakers explain their philosophies and what their wines are about.
UK Wine Market will grow 15% by 2008, predicts
Datamonitor
Wines sales in the UK
will reach £7 billion by 2008, up some 15% compared to last year, according
to recent research.
France mulls cure to wine sector's hangover
PARIS: France's beleaguered
wine industry is giving the government a headache. Paris is torn between promoting
public health and supporting French wine, which has been hit hard by competition
from "New World" rivals such as Australia and South Africa and become less
fashionable at home.
Mondavi mulls offer
for company takeover
The Robert Mondavi Corporation
announced Monday that it recently received an unsolicited offer for all shares in
the company, and that it will continue to mull the offer while it goes forward with
plans to sell assets including its Oakville winery and Napa Valley vineyards
US: Shares of Robert
Mondavi Surge 30 Percent
Shares of The Robert Mondavi
Corp. surged 30 percent Tuesday, despite the company's cool reception to an unsolicited
$970 million bid from alcoholic beverages giant Constellation Brands Inc. that would
keep the venerable winery intact.
Wed, 20 Oct 2004
- Wine Named For Kite Surf Victim
Craggy Range Winery in
Hawke's Bay plans to name one of its special Pinot Noirs after Doug Wisor.
Authentically South African wines are the
answer
The recent article in
the Cape Times headlined "Rand Blow to SA Wine Industry" highlighted again
the precarious living made by farmers. If it is not a drought or disease that gets
you then it's a glut or a change in fashion that will. Never mind regulation and
legislation or the rand.
Rioja rebounds
Throughout the past century,
if you asked a wine lover to associate a word with "Spanish red wine,"
the likely response was "Rioja." But those days are over, and today the
same question might well draw a response of Priorat or Toro or Ribera del Duero.
ARGENTINA: Wine exports value leaps, volume
drops
Wine exports from Argentina
have soared in the first seven months of this year, according to recent figures.
The Argentinean wine institute, INV, has said that wine exports for the seven-month
period rose by 32.64% in value on the corresponding period last year, hitting US$117.4m.
US: Constellation
offers $1.3B for Mondavi
Constellation Brands Inc.
has offered $1.3 billion in cash and assumed debt to buy Robert Mondavi Corp.?a California
maker of table wines such as Woodbridge.
SA: Atmospheric CO2 - boom or bust for
vineyards
Atmospheric carbon dioxide
(CO2) levels are increasing worldwide due to the burning of fossil fuels. For the
Western Cape this will mean a significant increase in temperature and decrease in
rainfall, warns Leonie Joubert in her contribution on climate change this month.
Tue, 19 Oct 2004
- Cork Sales Seen
Increasing in 2004
Despite increasing competition
from alternative closures including wine boxes, the French Cork Federat
Portugal seeks foreign
markets for its 'green wine'
Most people outside of
Portugal have never heard of "vinho verde", or "green wine",
a light sparkling wine with a slightly biting quality which is only produced in the
country, but makers of the beverage hope to soon change that.
Lion puts lid on cheaper wine
Lion Nathan has not got
the bottle for cheap wine. The company wrote A$71 million (NZ$75.6 million) off the
book value of its wine business yesterday and said it would focus on the premium
end of the market from now on.
SA: Wine exports to UK continue to climb
Exports to the UK of South
African wine for the first nine-months of the year seem to suggest that total volumes
for the year will be up 14% on last year.
UK: Californian wines target UK consumers
The Wine Institute of
California has launched a new campaign to promote wines from the region. Brand California,
announced today (18 October) in London, will look to increase the presence of Californian
wines in the UK, focusing particularly in the £4 to £6 segment.
Amcor invests $8m in screwcaps
The packaging company
Amcor has decided to invest $A8m in equipment to produce screwcap wine closures,
it has been reported in the press.. Production of screwcaps will start in mid 2005,
when the facility will turn out 100m screwcaps a year, more than doubling existing
production capacity of wine screwcaps in Australia.
John Cleese offers
a Python's guide to wine
Since when does a Python
worry about what kind of wine to have with a meal? Monty Python comedy veteran John
Cleese decided to crush his grapes of ignorance and explore just what all the gourmet
magazines and wine experts are talking about.
US: The presidential
wine experience
While the world natters
about who will occupy the White House for the next term, I can't help wondering what
will occupy the White Cellar. Do presidents pay much attention to wine, or do they
just defer to some White House Jeeves who makes the decisions?
NZ winemaker killed in freak kite-surfing accident
New Zealand winemaker
Douglas Wisor has been killed in a freak kite-surfing accident. American-born Wisor,
31, was pulled from the sea by a gust of wind, dragged through trees and into the
side of a caravan. He died from multiple head and chest wounds.
Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc celebrates 20
years
Celebrating its 20th birthday,
the rock 'n' rolling Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc is music to the ears of wine lovers.
It's tempting to talk about the temperate climate, the long, slow ripening season
and the record-breaking sunshine hours of New Zealand's Marlborough, but these alone
do not explain the international success of its favourite son: Cloudy Bay sauvignon
blanc.
Wine Tasting in
the Shadow of the Andes
Touring the Catena Zapata
bodega near Mendoza, Argentina, I noticed that three young men in my little group
of tourists smelled like a wine bar. One even had blueish-purple stains around his
lips.
Tame spicy food with riesling wine
Enthusiastic devotees
call it the world's most important and versatile grape, creating the world's greatest
white wine. Fans of the riesling grape say it's the best because, among white grapes,
it's the most complex and has the most nuance and variety to it.
Mon, 18 Oct 2004
Australian Wine
Pioneer Jim Barry Dies
- Pioneering Australian winemaker
Jim Barry, who was among the first university-trained winemakers in the country when
he arrived in Clare Valley in 1947, died on Oct. 14. He was 79.
New Zealand's latest
enological success has wine lovers seeing red
Burgundy wine expert and
author Clive Coates once wrote that Pinot Noir can "... seduce like the first
kiss from someone you are just about to fall in love with." In the enologically
short period of 20 years, an infatuated Pinot Noir has planted a big wet one on the
lips of New Zealand.
US: Zachys' First
L.A. Auction Breaks Numerous Records
Zachys' first Los Angeles
wine auction, held on Oct. 8 and 9 in concert with leading Los Angeles retailer Wally's,
set significant new auction records. The sale's $4.24 million total makes it the
highest-earning wine auction worldwide so far this calendar year, as well as the
biggest wine auction ever conducted in California and the biggest conducted by Zachys,
which has previously operated only in New York.
Red wine beats alcopops
Dutch scientists have
confirmed that red wine is healthier than an alcopop. A binge drinking experiment
showed those who hit the bottle might do better to choose Cotes du Rhone over cocktails.
Web guides to New
York's Finger Lakes wine district
Combine a vacation trip
through scenic lake country with a tour of some of the best wine country in the East
in New York state's Finger Lakes district.
Tourists, pigs go
wine-tasting
On the hills of Katsunuma,
Japan's main wine-producing region, girls in velvet dresses crush grapes with their
bare feet, re-enacting the traditional method of extracting grape juice. Winemakers
believe this makes their wines taste different from their world-famous competitors.
US: Wine industry
begins rebound
The wine industry is emerging
from a four-year depression, with per capita U.S. consumption at an all-time high
and consumer demand on the verge of overtaking supply.
Supermarket owners say vote win-win for
Ashburton
New World owner/operators
Murray and Gay Speden are concerned the competition poll on beer and wine sales in
supermarkets is being positioned as a pro or anti-Ashburton Trust vote.
Lion Nathan result to take hit from write
downs
Australian brewer Lion
Nathan Ltd this morning said write downs on its wine business and other assets would
see its full year result reduced by $A42.6 million ($NZ45.83 million).
AUS: $106m punch
lands on wine
SHAREHOLDER lobby groups
launched a broadside at winemaker Southcorp on the weekend, claiming a lack of financial
disclosure over a $106-million writedown and called for a board shake-up, in a fiery
start to the upcoming round of annual general meetings.
AUS: Wine sales
to Britain rebound
After losing ground over
the past two years and having been accused of losing sex appeal in its biggest market,
Australian wine has bounced back with prospects of sales growth in Britain.
Wine Exports Continue Upward Swing
Wine exports are continuing
their strong start to the year according to data released by New Zealand Winegrowers.
September exports of 4.7 million litres were up 67% on September 2003, which followed
growth of 61% in both July and August this year. For the first quarter of 2004/05
exports are 13.5 million litres, 63% up on the same period in 2003.
Orchards need permit
to smoke
Orchardists and grapegrowers
have been told they need a resource consent to fight frost by burning oil in "frost
pots" without chimneys. The Environment Ministry's new national environment
standards, which came into effect last week, prohibit burning oil in the open air.
Sun, 17 Oct 2004
- Closed liquor forum is put on the wagon
New Zealand's alcohol
advisory body has been forced to cancel a high-level summit because the Health Ministry
fears it's getting too cosy with the liquor industry.
Size is relative
- an Antipodean analogy
As every loyal partner
will assure you, size is relative, a message that really struck home after a recent
visit to Australia to attend the Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference and
to explore some of the country's wine producing regions.
GERMANY: 2004 a good year for winemakers?
German winemakers are
set for a strong year, according to the chief of one of the country's wine associations.
The favourable weather and increased demand for red wines suggest a good year financially
for the country?s premium wine producers, Michael Prinz zu Salm-Salm, president of
the country's top wine estates VDP said yesterday (13 October).
Cru bourgeois listing 'not impartial'
The procedure of classifying
the Médoc cru bourgeois was 'not impartial' and 'tainted with illegality'
according to a French government representative at a Bordeaux tribunal this week.
FRANCE: Wine advert restrictions to be
eased?
French lawmakers have
moved to ease rules on the advertising of wine in the country. The move has been
opposed by France?s administration but still requires Senate approval.
Bumper Growth In Wine Exports
Winegrowers say a big
increase in exports in the last three months will go a long way to meet unsatisfied
demand. Exports were up 63 per cent in the three months to September, totalling 13.5
million litres.
ARGENTINA: Wine exports poised to set new
record
Argentina's wine exports
are set to reach a record high this year, according to local press reports. The Latin
America News Digest said yesterday (13 October) that the country?s exports of wine
are expected to hit US$290m in 2004, compared to US$225m in 2003.
AUS: In a First,
an Australian Wine Becomes the No. 1 U.S. Import
If you think you've been
seeing Yellow Tail wines everywhere lately, you're probably right. The value-priced
Australian brand has become the largest-selling imported wine in the United States,
increasing in sales by more than 3 million cases from 2002 to 2003, according to
the recently released 2004 edition of The U.S. Wine Market: Impact Databank Review
and Forecast.
|