MARCH 22, 2021 – WINE NEWS FETCH

TOP NEWS

• How Women Winemakers in Northern and Central California Are Rising Above the Flames
• Spirits have overtaken wine as the top-selling category for alcohol e-commerce platform Drizly due to the popularity of at-home bartending.
• Wow, We Sure Drank a Lot Last Year
• 2020 harvest, cut short by North Bay wildfires, ‘devastating’ for wellbeing of farmworkers (possible paywall)
• Wine DtC Shipments and Off-Premise Retail (February 2020 Special Report)
• Bayer will not appeal $20.5 mln Roundup judgment to Supreme Court
• American whiskey distillers still hammered by massive UK, EU tariffs
• Does wine compliance make you cry? We’re here to help with that but need your input!(Sponsored link)

OBITUARIES

• Australia’s Don Francois has died

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• DEADLINE EXTENDED: Silicon Valley Bank DtC Winery Survey NOW ends March 26
• Duckhorn eyes potential for more winery acquisitions following IPO
• Sommeliers Choice Awards launches Shelf talkers and Tasting notes for entrants – (Sponsored link)

DIVERSITY

• How four North Bay women shattered the wine industry’s glass ceiling
• NBA Players Are Making Wine More Inclusive
• Women’s History Month March 2021 Before Our Eyes: Two Women, Two Milestones
• The ‘Purple Corkscrew Ladies’ Steffini Bethea and Racquel McCreary Are Creating a Community Haven for Atlanta Wine Lovers

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Chasing winery events disregards change in demographics
• Becoming a Master Sommelier in the midst of a global pandemic (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• The USDA Drops New York Grapes from Annual Crop Statistical Summaries
• Grow Your Wine Brand In USA with 2021 Sommeliers Choice Awards (Sponsored link)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Rombauer Vineyards promotes longtime winemaker Richie Allen (possible paywall)
• Calif: Court to consider clash between property rights advocates, union organizers
• See how Phase 2 Cellars streamline systems and provide exceptional customer service.

COVID-19

• Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation Donates Over $60,000 to St. Helena Hospital Foundation COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic to Support Ag Workers (PDF)
• PARRIS Law Firm Class Action Forces LA County to Reopen Breweries and Wineries Per State Guidelines

HEALTH

• One Surprising Side Effect of Drinking Red Wine for Women, Says New Study

DROUGHT/WATER

• Spring Arrives With Meteorologists’ Grim Forecast for California Water Supply
• That Time Warren Buffett Got Involved in California Water

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Mouton Cadet ventures into organic wines

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Diageo boosts RTD operations with US investment

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Economic Studies Reinforce Efforts to Safeguard Specialty Crops in the United States

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• There’s Unprecedented Access to Rare Wine—If You Know How to Find It
• Investing in fine wine is nothing new. But an app is now making it more accessible
• Sotheby’s named auction partner of the Hospices de Beaune
• Talking Trade on Liv-ex – First Growths find favour in March
• Latour 2013 – the fair value question
• Record Prices at Burgundy’s Other Hospice Auction

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Where on Earth does James Suckling think the best wines come from?
• Our Model of Wine Criticism is not Giving Wines the Attention They Deserve

MARKETING & SALES

• Managing Marketing Budgets as Tasting Rooms Open
• CurrencyWave’s Jamie Holmes: dos and dont’s of a FX strategy

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• Shining global attention on old vines with first international conference
• Eastern Viticulture and Enology Forum Offers Research Insights
• Global Voices Highlight Remote B.E.V. New York Conference
• Virtual wine event addresses COVID-19, climate change

MATTERS OF TASTE

• How Chateau Lafaurie-Peyraguey Is Rejuvenating The Old-Fashioned Image Of Sauternes Wines (possible paywall)
• Tedeschi wines: technique versus terroir in Valpolicella
• Is there an impact of Sound Vibration on Grape Wine?
• Malbec: Southern Oregon’s Rising Star

WINE PEOPLE

• Steven Spurrier blew up the wine world with the Judgment of Paris. His legacy lives on.
• Remembering Steven Spurrier (podcast)
• Talking Monterey Wine With Chris Miller Of Seabold Cellars
• db meets: Davide Rosso of Giovanni Rosso

WINE PLACES

• The Scilly Isles – the newest frontier for English wine
• Summiting Mount Etna – The Revitalization of a Volcano’s Ancient Viticulture

WINE TOURISM

• Burgundy: Work begins on ground-breaking Cités du Vins projects

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• OR: Major hike in beer and wine taxes to fund treatment lacks support; backers pivot
• B.C. wineries look to improve market share as restaurant sales plummet
• NY: New vineyard management planning calendar provides easy access to seasonal management tasks.
• How Vineyard Acreage and Varieties in New York have Changed Since the mid-1950s.
• IL: Mattoon Planning Commission to consider rezoning request for proposed winery

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• A Novel Grape Downy Mildew Resistance Locus from Vitis rupestris
• Vineyard Measuring, Modeling and Management: An Overview of Remote Sensing (PDF)
• Downy Mildew is caused by an Oomycete. What’s an Oomycete? Why does it matter?
• Measure and Manage Crop Load to Meet Your Vine Balance Targets

EUROPE & THE UK

• Irish customs seize counterfeit wine worth €302,000 in Cork

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Wine producer backs domestic organic regulations

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Sula Vineyards Makes Wine In India’s Unlikely Terroir (podcast)