FEBRUARY 10, 2021 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• No/low-alcohol drinks consumption to rise 31% by 2024
• Bespoke Capital’s Paul Walsh on Vintage Wine Estates SPAC: ‘we see a lot more scope for growth’
• 15 Programs That Support a More Diverse Wine, Beer, and Spirits Industry
• Retailers uncork big profits with private label wine
• The Fine Line in Contracts
• The Blueprint For Fixing the Wine, Beer and Spirits Industry
• Less booze & bravado + biology are why women don’t die from COVID-19 as often as men
• Ganau launches EPIQ – Corks with threshold of ≤0.5 ng/L TCA — below level of human perception. Process backed by peer-reviewed science.(Sponsored link)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Sonoma County’s Foley Family Wines selling wholesale arm Epic Wine & Spirits to Southern Glazer’s
• Reviews and 5-Star are so useless for recommendations that Netflix tossed its prized $1-million algorithm. They’re even worse for wine
• Bespoke Capitol to take Vintage Wine Estates Public in SPAC offering
• Solving the “Paradox of Choice” is a major reason Netflix’s recommender is worth $1 Bil/yr. And why wine fails at that.
• 2020 USA Wine Ratings Winners Announced (Sponsored link)

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Online Liquor Sales Are Booming Amid the Pandemic (possible paywall)
• Building a Retail Wine Empire: A Live Chat with Costco’s Annette Alvarez-Peters
• 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

• Acumen Napa Valley Appoints John Derr to the Position of Viticulturist and Grower Relations Representative
• Sonoma County’s Bartholomew Estate winery names LaVine general manager
• Napa Valley’s Alpha Omega winery names new winemaker; Tedeschi winery promotes club manager; other professionals news
• See how Phase 2 Cellars streamline systems and provide exceptional customer service. (Sponsored link)

COVID-19

• Local grants still available for Sonoma’s small businesses affected by COVID
• DoorDash is providing independent restaurants on its platform discounted rapid COVID-19 tests
• The dangers of COVID-19 to serious wine lovers

DIVERSITY

• The Drink Black Movement Must Tap the Source
• Imbibe 75 Organization To Watch: The Roots Fund
• Rania Zayyat and Cara Bertone’s Lift Collective Is Bringing Access and Equality to Wine

HEALTH

• Drink wine, have sex, advises leading French doctor

WILDFIRES & WEATHER

• New Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire Could Guide Lifesaving Research and Action

AMAZON

• Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Focus on ‘Going Into Grocery’

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Four-fifths of Calif. wine production certified sustainable
• What Role Can Vineyards Play in Conserving California’s Biodiversity?
• Projected changes in the rioja doca vines under climate change scenarios

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• Bill criticized for discouraging farmworker housing in Washington (possible paywall)

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Where Politics Meets the Wine: ABC’s Dan Abrams Buys New York Winery

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Aussie farmers warn China trade dispute will cost them $37 billion
• The Trouble With China
• Africa’s miners and winemakers toast China’s row with Australia
• American taxes on wine “are one of France’s top priorities”

BREXIT

• UK wine importer slams government for Brexit-related “carnage”, denying it is “teething problems”

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Buying fine wine: logistical challenges and opportunities
• Bordeaux profile: Château Climens
• Bordeaux Index: ‘2020 saw unprecedented Burgundy sales’
• A Bottle of Black Bowmore Whisky 1964 Offered at a Sotheby’s Flash Sale

DATA & TRENDS

• Outlook and Trends: What We Can Learn from 2020

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Wine judgment day

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Valentine’s Day Wine Mood, The COVID Edition: Poet Regine T. Rousseau Gets Creative (possible paywall)
• Scientists reveal Malbec terroir secrets in Mendoza
• A Paradox for Wine Lovers
• Wine Thoughts in the Middle of Our Pandemic Winter

WINE PEOPLE

• Interview: Kelby Russell of Red Newt Cellars, a leading producer from the Finger Lakes, New York State

WINE PLACES

• Piero Busso: in the vineyard we trust
• Castello di Gabiano of Piedmont – Part 2
• Seven reasons why Tasmania’s Tamar Valley is better to visit than France’s Champagne

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• How President Biden’s executive order will help the government pay restaurants to feed Americans in need

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• Hard seltzer draws away Canadian wine drinkers during pandemic
• Grants support Michigan’s craft beer, hard cider, spirits, and wine industries

ACADEMIA

• Online wine, beverage management graduate program set for fall launch at The Culinary Institute of America

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Study targets grapevine sources and sinks
• Brettanomyces biofilm: elimination made more difficult
• Viognier and Grenache blanc: a decisive harvest date

EUROPE & THE UK

• UK: ‘Significant growth’ for organic wine
• Chapel Down winery to drop beer with Curious Drinks disposal

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Hillbille Wines sues Forest Products Commission over smoke taint from Lewana bushfire
• OZ: A minimum price for alcohol helped curb problem drinking in the Northern Territory — is it time for a national rollout?

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• This Ultra-Luxury Tequila Borrows Winemaking Techniques To Redefine The Reposado Category
• Pandemic fails to halt UK distillery boom
• Bye Belgium: Anheuser-Busch Will Brew Stella Artois in the U.S.