OCTOBER 12, 2020 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• Copa di Vino investment scammer sentenced to prison related to Shark Tank wine product
• Wine Wholesalers and Lawmakers Are Playing Chicken With Amazon
• Saving Grapes: How Winemakers Are Repurposing Smoke-Tainted Grapes From the Wildfires
• Programs aim to break up the wine world’s ‘stuffy white boys’ club’
• Water and Wine: The Irrigation Equation
• Fewer Americans have filed for bankruptcy in 2020 than in 2019. (But the reasons why tell a depressing tale.)
• Power shut-offs are in your future. Keep crush moving. Click to reserve your generator NOW! (Sponsored)

OBITUARIES

• Lucie ‘Lulu’ Peyraud, Matriarch of France’s Domaine Tempier, Dies at 102

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Just when we need a drink, the U.S. wine industry faces an existential threat
• Vintage Wine Estates smoke-taint insurance lawsuit scheduled for trial; Could set precedent
• Read how Golden State Cider stays nimble and compliant. (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Exciting 2020 crop in the Douro but pressures mounting
• 2020 Best wines list for on-premise sector is out (Sponsored link)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Gentrifying Robs More Than Land in Napa Valley
• Visitors have been pumping up Napa’s economy for 150 years
• Is Napa’s wine-based economy too one-sided? Some argue for diversification
• A smaller harvest spells trouble for Napa Valley’s agricultural workforce
• Mendocino County Earns Long-Awaited Conjunctive Wine Label
• How Has The Role Of The Sommelier Evolved During COVID? (Sponsored link)

WILDFIRES & WEATHER (scroll down for extended wildfire coverage)

• Update: Glass Fire containment reaches 92%; warmer weather to return to Napa County this week
• Catastrophic Glass Fire marks new, dangerous era for Napa wine industry (possible paywall)
• Napa County faces big cleanup job following Hennessey and Glass fires

COVID-19

• Here are 12 Covid-era wine consumer trends

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• The Good Earth: Can terroir translate beyond wine?

DROUGHT/WATER

• La Niña may signal scant relief from California’s seemingly endless loop of hot, dry weather (possible paywall)

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• The U.S. Wine Industry Endorses Carbon Pricing
• Why have we left it so late to deal with climate change in the wine industry?

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Selling Wine, Beer, And Spirits In America*(Sponsored)

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• iDealwine update: When in Rhône

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Judging Wine Quality

MARKETING & SALES

• What Do Women Drink?

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Why we all need to rethink packaging design

CUSTOMER RELATIONS

• The Importance of Public Relations Cannot Be Underscored Enough, or How I’d Like to Bop a Few CEOs Over the Head

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• Monika Christmann named keynote speaker for upcoming ICCWS 2021

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• Yelp now alerts users to racism at businesses… sort of (possible paywall)
• How to Avoid Social Media “Pods” and Still Build an Audience

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• The Gender Pay Gap: How The Wine Industry Stacks Up

MEDIA MATTERS

• A book review of “Firing Blancs”
• My First Wine Road Map

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Taint or Terroir?
• Valentina Passalacqua and the politics of natural wine
• Understanding wine’s more abstract attributes
• Politics and alcohol don’t mix

WINE PEOPLE

• Dino Illuminati: A Remarkable 90 Years in the History of Italian Wine
• A Chat With The Man Behind ALLBAER
• The Winemakers Behind England’s Sparkling Future

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• In Defense of Facts, Virginia’s Grape Farmers and the Virginia Wine Brand — An Open Letter to Drew Wilder, Julie Carey, NBC 4 Northern Virginia Bureau

ACADEMIA

• New research to tackle vineyard challenges

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Dead spotted lanternfly found in Oregon nursery

EUROPE & THE UK

• Compulsory purchase contract for Pays d’Oc making life difficult for wineries

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Peter Fogarty leads $8.3m raise for ‘rock star’ wine retailer
• New Zealand Winegrowers appoints new chair
• OZ: Bushfire support for wine grape growers a welcome move

LATIN AMERICA

• Emiliana reports organic sales up despite global pandemic

SOUTH AFRICA

• South Africa: DGB Acquires unique Fryers Cove Winery on the Cape West Coast