MARCH 1, 2021 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• A close look at the Vintage Wine Estate acquisition path that’s led to its upcoming public offering
• Discover 2021 Consumer Trends! Participate now in Silicon Valley Bank’s Annual DTC survey
• Online wine sales continue to grow, but can they — or should they — replace local shops?
• Wine Embraces an Online Future
• California’s Wineries and Women’s Ownership: An Empirical Study
• Have we reached peak alco-seltzer?
• Does wine compliance make you cry? We’re here to help with that but need your input!(Sponsored link)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• 9th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Orion Imports Challenge to Calif Law
• The Duckhorn Portfolio files for an estimated $300 million IPO
• How genes wreck wine recommendations
• SPACial Report: Pat Roney on the Vintage Wine Estates Merger (Podcast)
• Sommeliers Choice Awards launches Shelf talkers and Tasting notes for entrants – (Sponsored link)

DIVERSITY

• Keeping Black Wine Professionals Up Front And Center (possible paywall)
• These Female Entrepreneurs Create Digital Communities with Wine
• Wanted: Wine Tastemakers – Older White Men Need Not Apply?

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• The Alcohol E-commerce Battle Heats Up
• A Year Into The Pandemic, The Wine Delivery Landscape Continues To Evolve (possible paywall)
• The huge opportunity for wine e-commerce in 2021
• Will Tennessee Lawmakers Commit Perjury To Defend an Anti-Wine Shipping Bill?
• Becoming a Master Sommelier in the midst of a global pandemic (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Bordeaux Adapts with New Grapes
• France: Exports Of Wines And Spirits Fell 13.9% In 2020 (possible paywall)
• OZ: Wet growing season for wine grapes brings plentiful fruit but there’s no-one to pick it
• Grow Your Wine Brand In USA with 2021 Sommeliers Choice Awards (Sponsored link)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Napa Valley Grapegrowers Report: Pruning season — setting the stage for success (possible paywall)
• California North Coast lenders expect less demand for latest pandemic-relief loans
• California Releases New Website to Assist Employers with COVID-19 Compliance
• Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery names Mark Beaman head winemaker
• Spotted Lanternfly on California’s Radar Screen
• See how Phase 2 Cellars streamline systems and provide exceptional customer service.

COVID-19

• Wine, Covid and the Smell of Success
• The House passes Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, including $25 billion in restaurant relief
• Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs bill waiving liquor license fees for restaurants, wineries, etc during pandemic
• Vaccine rollout for farmworkers is fraught with confusion and bad timing

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• He was jailed for illegally growing pot in Calif. Now his cannabis farm has a tourism license.

DROUGHT/WATER

• Drought impacts on key secondary metabolites: new insights from grape berries to wines
• Drought Status Update for California-Nevada

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• In Valpolicella, Red Is Leaning Green

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• Three TTB Websites For Managing Your Winery Compliance

REAL ESTATE

• French wine château in Bergerac listed for $3m

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Economic Confidence in U.S. Improved but Still Negative

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

• Chinese investment in Australia plunged last year as tensions worsened
• EU-China pact on ‘geographical indications’ protects wine

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Talking Trade on Liv-ex – Hope on the horizon for US tariffs?

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Do different wine critics agree on value for money?
• Do Organic and Biodynamic Wines Get Higher Scores? That Isn’t What the Evidence Says.

MARKETING & SALES

• Knead Wine’s Pricing Structure Is Creating Loyal Customers (podcast)
• How The Pandemic Changed The Spending Habits Of The Super-Rich (possible paywall)

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Motto creates ‘first of a kind’ aluminium-bottled wine packaging
• California Wine a Virtual Reality
• Pilot study tests smart tags for Montenegrin wine protection

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• OWB hosts pandemic-proof virtual symposium

MEDIA MATTERS

• Kwame Onwuachi Joins FOOD & WINE As Executive Producer

MATTERS OF TASTE

• The ‘Monumental’ Role Soil Microbes Play in Wine
• A New Breed of Anti-Terroirist?
• Oak decline
• A review of “Le Nez du Vin – Oak”
• La Trompette’s Donald Edwards on Radical Wine Pairings: Salsify
• Seven reasons to drink Austrian wine

WINE PEOPLE

• Burgundy Golden Boy’s Great Expectations
• Alisa Jacobson’s Resolve To Turn The Tide
• Michelle Moyer: Taking academic research to the vineyard
• Naoko and Maya Dalla Valle on The Taste with Doug Shafer (podcast)
• Piettro Buttitta, Prima Materia Vineyard & Winery, Oakland (podcast)
• Patrick Mata of Ole & Obrigado and imported wine during the pandemic (podcast)

WINE PLACES

• Adelsheim and Sokol Blosser combine for a century of Oregon wine

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• If We Want Restaurants to Survive, Here’s What We Need to Do

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• OR: Long-term growth trajectory in 2019  encounters 2020 headwinds
• OR: New hires in Willamette and Rogue valleys

ACADEMIA

• Plumpton Wine Division expands online learning

EUROPE & THE UK

• Disparaging Bordeaux wines costs an anti-agrochemical association €125,000
• UK scientists confirm arrival of brown marmorated stink bugs in Britain
• As online grocery booms in Britain, will new habits die hard?
• Europe’s Wine Dilemma

DOWN UNDER

• The end of free wine as we know it: How COVID changed Victorian cellar doors
• NZ: New owners at Trinity Hill

LATIN AMERICA

• Wines of Argentina launches new innovation programme

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• COVID-19 Slows But Doesn’t Stop Africa’s Craft Beer Brewing Women (possible paywall)