MAY 21, 2020 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• Grapes left out of USDA’s $19 billion Coronavirus direct relief program for farmers
• Napa Restaurants Open, Tasting Rooms Stay Shut
• Why wine writers don’t hold the trade to account
• How to sell wine in a post-Covid-19 world, according to Liv-ex
• Lighten up! Consumers are fed up with somber “these uncertain times” advertising!
• Grow Your Delivery and Curbside Pick Up Business (Sponsored)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• In bid to reopen sooner, Napa County asks California to lift restrictions on wineries
• With odd weather, pandemic, growing season off to strange start in Napa Valley
• Napa County looks at wine country growth
• BottleRock to offer weekly online series in place of annual Memorial Day weekend festival
• Monterey County’s wine industry adapts, but the future economic outlook is uncertain
• Boutique winemakers: Save time and effort this harvest season with this new production app! Click now to learn more! (Sponsored)

COVID-19 OPENING UP

• Restaurant-Reopening Reality Check
• US on-trade reopening gives near-future glimpse of path ahead for UK
• Many Napa Valley restaurants reopen, to few customers
• Oregon Wine Reopens Pt 3 (podcast)
• Wine Institute and Paso wine alliance push for safe wine tasting reopening
• State Updates On Reopening Restaurants Post COVID-19

COVID-19 SURVIVAL

• New Wine Shop on the Block
• ‘You Don’t Go to a Bar for the Alcohol’: Seeking Community in Quarantine

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Cal ABC: More COVID Relief – Expanded Footprints, Club rules & Catering Auths
• Vineyard House, Constellation Trial over To Kalon to start in Aug.
• JaM Cellars files for new preliminary injunction against Wine Group’s Franzia

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Napa wine prices sold directly to customers slow value growth in April
• Australian alcohol consumption hits 50-year low
• From overwhelmed to organized: See how well Vineyard 29’s first harvest went with Vintrace (Sponsored)

HEALTH

• After 7 1/2 Months Sober, I Relapsed During Quarantine. Here’s What Happened.

WILDFIRES

• Smoke Exposure Research in Grapes Begins Taking Shape

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• Wineries are creating new channels to drive direct to consumer channels (Sponsored)

DROUGHT/WATER

• California: 5 Counties Designated Natural Disaster Areas to Drought
• Predicting and planning for extreme precipitation from atmospheric rivers

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Impact of Organic Viticulture Management Practices On Wild Bee Biodiversity

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• Is your bar, brewery, winery or distillery helping out by soliciting for a charity in Illinois? First – Great Job! Also, be advised – there are statutes and regulations that govern that and you need to follow them.

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Social Distancing Installment #11: Deliveries, pandemic style
• Grow Your Delivery and Curbside Pick Up Business*(Sponsored)

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Treasury Wine hoping its luck holds

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Louis Latour continues quest for affordable sites outside of Burgundy

BREXIT

• What the UK’s post-Brexit tariffs mean for the wine industry

DISTRIBUTORS

• Quintessential Adds A Number Of Key Brands From Top Australian Wine Company Accolade Wines

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Summer campaign for Bordeaux En Primeur
• Vintage declarations and the Port market

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Thinking Differently about Objectivity

MARKETING & SALES

• A new, new normal: brands need to be thoughtful about their reopening ad strategy
• Wineries are creating new channels to drive direct to consumer channels*(Sponsored)

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Zeitgeist Ünion: ‘the moment is now’ for Grüner Veltliner in a can

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• Top Social Media Metrics Your Winery Should be Tracking

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• Oregon lawmakers provide funding to comply with new worker rules

WINE PEOPLE

• Denis Durantou 1957-2020
• The downfall of the ‘King of Good Times’, Vijay Mallya
• The Women Behind Some Of Napa And Sonoma’s Best Wines
• Wine Trailblazers: Pieter Walser
• A Hard-Headed Amarone Family
• Coronavirus conversations: Richard Burch
• How these sisters turned their investment in a vineyard into an Instagrammable wine brand
• Chris Howell of Cain and W. Blake Gray talk about the meaning of wine (video)

WINE EDUCATION

• WSET takes exams online

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Winemaking in Post-COVID world webinar (video)

EUROPE & THE UK

• Why Switzerland is paying producers to sell gourmet wine on the cheap

DOWN UNDER

• Hunter Valley wineries look forward to tourism boost as travel restrictions lift

AROUND THE GLOBE

• Russia: Putin urges higher competitiveness of national agriculture on world markets