AUGUST 17, 2020 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• Wine’s Next Big Thing: Not Wine
• The New Wall of Wine & Why Some Wineries Aren’t Even Making it to the Shelf
• COVID’s keeping people home, but those who venture out drink red wine most of the time
• Is this the road ahead for North Coast wine business?
• Update On Cannabis’ Impact On Wine Sales: Don’t Worry At All
• Oracle and Salesforce hit with GDPR class action lawsuits over cookie tracking consent
• Power shut-offs are in your future. Keep crush moving. Click to reserve your generator NOW! (Sponsored)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Harvard-controlled LLC in $120+ million deal with anonymous LLC connected with Canadian pension fund.
• Ruby Grapes sues Intercoastal Wine charging criminal pandemic profiteering.
• Gallo PR tries to distance winery and Gallo Cattle Co., but no proof available.
• At least 244 California wineries and vineyards received between $145 & $328 million from Paycheck Protection Program
• Streamlining a Large Custom Crush Operation for Clients and Cellar Staff (Sponsored)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Spain’s vineyards destroy record harvest as wine sales crash
• Wine prices could soon go up while some bottles will become harder to find in the US, thanks to a dangerous ‘one-two punch’
• 2020 Grape Harvest Ramping Up Around California
• 2020 grape harvest underway in China
• Grapes for sparkling wine kick off the harvest season in Paso Robles wine country
• France still dominates wine lists in Chinese on-trade
• How To Really Send Your Samples To Prospective Distributors and Importers (Sponsored)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• First Fires, Now Heat: Millions of Californians Back in the Dark
• $50 million lawsuit against Silverado Resort partners alleges Napa resort in ‘dire’ financial shape
• Napa County’s Cain winery request involves detective work
• Two new wineries open in Sonoma
• Results Are Out For The First Edition Of Paris Wine Cup (Sponsored)

COVID & HOSPITALITY

• How the pandemic is upending business in wine country
• Creation Wines’ Carolyn & JC Martin on innovating to get through Covid-19
• OZ: ‘There’s no way we’d go back’: will Covid-19 end free wine tastings forever?
• Craft distilleries sit on gallons of unsold hand sanitizer

DIVERSITY

• A Call to Action for the Wine Industry: Diversity Organizations Need Your Support
• Industry needs more people of colour in ‘critical roles’
• A New Scholarship Aims To Help Fix The Wine Industry’s Diversity Problem
• How Women In Hospitality Are Changing The Narrative

HEALTH

• Wine Institute urges status quo in new dietary guidelines

WILDFIRES & WEATHER

• Monterey County fire near Salinas grows to 2,800 acres, 10% contained
• Fire season: Napa Valley’s wineries dig their heels into lowering their risk
• Dangerously intense, prolonged, and humid heatwave for most of California
• California heat spurs first rolling power outages since 2001

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• How To Build Your Online Presence To Drive Your Delivery & Curbside Sales? (Sponsored)

DROUGHT/WATER

• Are you on a private well in the Central San Joaquin Valley? The Fresno Bee needs to hear from you

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• WineGB announces first certified sustainable wineries
• Chile: VSPT aiming for 100% sustainable packaging by 2030
• Going green dramatically benefits businesses – it should be central to their coronavirus recovery strategy

RECYCLED WASTEWATER

• Napa Sanitation District harvests Napa’s sewage sludge for fertilizer

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• China property developers sued for infringing Lafite’s trademark

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• As Italy shows us, retail is future for wine sales.
• A smart DTC strategy is helping sales fizz for ‘wine in a can’ brand Babe
• Hard seltzer shakes up North Coast alcoholic beverage sector
• Grow Your Delivery and Curbside Pick Up Business*(Sponsored)

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Diageo to buy Aviation Gin, Davos Brands in $610 million deal

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• New tariffs on imported wine could be final straw

DISTRIBUTORS

• Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits Promotes Adrian Ruiz to Vice President, Chains, California

WEBINARS/ONLINE MEETINGS

• Wine Institute Hosts Webinar on Creating Virtual Wine Experiences to Boost Sales

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Talking Trade on Liv-ex – Australian wines lead trade

DATA & TRENDS

• The Wine Opinions 2020 Second Quarter Wine Consumer Trends Report

MARKETING & SALES

• Bordeaux Tries Youth Appeal Again

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Wine labels can be vague, and drinkers are thirsty for clarity
• To Attract More Drinkers, Wine Needs Clearer Labels
• Why good design is even harder than the ‘F***, Marry, Kill’ game
• AVL reports ‘tsunami of demand’ for bag-in-box in the UK
• Heineken launches cardboard topper for Heineken, Foster’s, Kronenbourg 1664

MEDIA MATTERS

• Wine Writing in 2020: Where Do We Stand?

MATTERS OF TASTE

• If You Want ‘Authentic’ Wine, You Need to Understand Terroir
• Creativity in Winemaking – Intuition and its Empirical Foundation
• Bordeaux and Me-Too-Ism

WINE PEOPLE

• Cultivating History and Fostering Change: A Live Chat with Brenae Royal
• Gary Farrell’s Theresa Heredia on Early Picking, Great Vineyards and Overripe Bananas
• Meet David Nemarnik of Alloro Vineyard
• Meet the man who developed a wine brand that raises funds for US soldiers
• Janie Brooks of Brooks Family Winery and enduring the pandemic (podcast)
• Quinn Roberts – Master Cooper from Tonnellerie O (podcast)
• The Women of Nederburg: A Force to be reckoned with

WINE PLACES

• From the sublime to the ridiculous in winery architecture

WINE EDUCATION

• Wine.com partners with WSET Americas to Enhance Wine Access for WSET Course Providers and Students
• Everything You Need To Know About Taking WSET Diploma

WINE TOURISM

• Wine Tourism: A New World Approach Comes To Sussex

WINE HISTORY

• Tracking down Stalin’s wine cellar

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• Restaurant Award Winners That Have Permanently Closed During the COVID-19 Pandemic

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• WA: Inslee sets up COVID-19 fund for farmworkers

ACADEMIA

• Plumpton College responds to Covid with re-training programme

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Pioneering study ‘fingerprints’ Russian River Valley sites
• Phenolic composition, quality and authenticity of grapes and wines by vibrational spectroscopy

EUROPE & THE UK

• First A Pandemic, Now A Drought: French Government Promises More Aid To Farmers

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Wilyabrup producers believe formal recognition of the GI is inevitable

SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa allows alcohol sales once again
• South Africa’s alcohol industry welcomes end of alcohol ban
• Vinpro: “Still a long road to recovery”