DECEMBER 23, 2020 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• Weak Thanksgiving Raises Worries for Wine
• Why diversity? Because the US AlcBev market is growing rapidly away from white guys and toward drinkers of color, especially women.
• How the $900 Billion Stimulus Helps — But Mostly Fails — Restaurants and Workers
• Farmers, Conservation Groups Challenge EPA’s Unlawful Re-approval of Dangerous, Drift-Prone Dicamba Pesticide
• ‘Roaring 20s’ will return post-pandemic, analyst predicts
• The Outlook For California Restaurants (possible paywall)
• Read how Golden State Cider stays nimble and compliant with vintrace.(Sponsored link)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Wine DtC Shipments and Off-Premise Retail (November 2020 Sovos Special Report)
• Ohio State Attorney General Has Commanding Lead In Direct Shipping Litigation Tournament 4-2-1
• Winc’s actual customer retention rate — here’s how the math works
• 2020 USA Wine Ratings Winners Announced (Sponsored link)

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• How An Innovative Website Is Changing The Market For Independent Italian Winemakers (possible paywall)
• Selling Wine, Beer, And Spirits In America*(Sponsored)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• What’s new at the 2021 Sommeliers Choice Awards and how that will help wine brands. (Sponsored link)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Signorello winery’s rebirth from Atlas Fire gets Napa County boost
• SLO County restaurants are defying stay-at-home order: ‘We’re in survival mode’
• Vinventions makes give to SSU Wine Industry Scholars program
• California brewers sue governor over pandemic rules requiring food with beer
• Looking on the bright side of fading old vine plantings in Lodi

COVID-19

• Brewers, Winemakers And Distillers Have A Little-Known Reason To Cheer Federal Covid Relief (possible paywall)
• Relief package ‘not nearly enough’ to save US on-trade
• 8 key things restaurant operators should know about the new COVID-19 relief bill
• Oregon approves cocktails to-go at last, sending lifeline to struggling restaurants and bars

HEALTH

• Scientists Explore the Unexpected Potential Benefit of Excess Tannins

WILDFIRES & WEATHER

• Spending bill includes added $1.5M for research into smoke taint in wine, an Oregon priority
• Ag Pass program aims to improve wildfire preparedness
• The Impact of Wildfire Smoke on California Raisins

DROUGHT/WATER

• Preparing for possible dry times ahead in the Delta

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Doing What’s Right Should be Good for Business. Is It?
• 3 % of French winegrowers use horses

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• House & Senate Vote to Make Craft Beverage Bill Permanent

REAL ESTATE

• 831,000sf Solano County e-commerce center sells to industrial real estate investor

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Rivals ready to pounce as Australian winemakers eye China exit

BREXIT

• Brexit; an open letter to the Prime Minister

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Rare Lafite and Napa wines sold from Joseph Phelps private cellar
• HDH caps off year with ‘record-shattering’ sale
• Sotheby’s fine wine and spirits sales top US$92m
• The best-performing wines in 2020 on Liv-ex

DATA & TRENDS

• 2021 – The Year of the Wine and Spirits Buyer
• Quintessential Brands’ Neil Anderson: Top 5 trends for 2021
• Wine and 2021 — Predictions

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• We’re all qualified to talk about wine, so let’s just do it
• Don’t Over Think It, Just Drink It
• How Much Should You Spend on Sparkling Wine, Really? (podcast)

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• Sonoma County Winegrowers event to be held virtually next month

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Manischewitz Doesn’t Have to Be Good
• What Do We Mean By the “Body” of a Wine
• The many forces behind a wine industry in change

WINE PEOPLE

• Interview With Veronique Dausse of Bordeaux’s Chateau Phelan Segur
• Champagne Krug’s CEO Earned A Doctorate This Year: Maggie Henriquez, Newly Minted PhD, Tells The Story (possible paywall)
• The big interview: António Rios de Amorim

WINE PLACES

• California Vineyard Series: Monte Rosso

WINE HISTORY

• The icy backstory to that ‘clink clink’ you’ll hear when raising a toast to the end of 2020

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• Would you buy a subscription to a restaurant? Bay Area businesses turn to regulars in new model (possible paywall)

LATIN AMERICA

• Wines of Argentina ends ‘successful’ year

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Mr Grumpy: how to kill a computer

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• The First and Only African American-Owned Distillery in Kentucky Has Opened for Business