DECEMBER 6, 2021 – WINE NEWS FETCH

• 39% of wine drinkers drinking less
• Inflation’s Hitting Wine
• Venture Funding To Booze Startups Boomed This Year, But Will The Buzz Linger?
• Good behaviour – how companies treat their employees matters as much as how they treat their vines
• This Is How COVID Unraveled The Supply Chain
• Bye, Bye Wine Direct: The Quick Books of wine DTC has launched! – (Sponsored link)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• U.S. wine direct-to-consumer sales continue to climb even as pandemic lessens
• Fine wine prices continue to rise as markets react to new Covid-19 variant
• Future Drinks Expo Exhibitor registrations are now open. Take advantage of the early bird pricing. – (Sponsored link)

WILDFIRES & WEATHER

• Western U.S. could become nearly snowless due to climate change [paywall?]

DROUGHT/WATER

• Napa County unveils groundwater strategy [paywall?]
• First-ever well water regulations coming to Sonoma County [paywall?]

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Top 3 Reasons to Monitor Brand Labels for Beverage Alcohol
• Add to cart: e-commerce activations to grow your wine and spirits’ online sales – (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• No Christmas Wine Bargains This Year
• Georgian Wine Exports to US Increased Fivefold Over 10 Years
• Normalizing Sparkling Wine Consumption
• The New Emergence: Upcoming Wine Regions in the USA – (Sponsored link)

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• RD Winery starts Napa Valley collective [paywall?]
• The return of Temecula [paywall?]
• Get smart on Wine Chemistry with Clark Smith’s new online course – (Sponsored link)

COVID-19

• The pandemic will not be over for a while yet
• Beaune Auction a Covid Super-Spreader Event
• UK: Extra travel restrictions threaten Christmas
• Disinformation hinders California’s Central Valley COVID fight [paywall?]

DIVERSITY

• Hoosier making history in wine industry

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• Why CBDs are good for business

AMAZON

• Amazon is making its own containers and bypassing supply chain chaos with chartered ships and long-haul planes

REAL ESTATE

• Napa Valley wine estate on Howell Mountain for sale [paywall?]

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Italy’s least-well-known giant wine business invests in Veneto
• Shaw + Smith buys Australia’s Blewitt Springs Vineyard
• Vintage Wine Estates (NASDAQ:VWE) and Jones Soda (OTCMKTS:JSDA) Head-To-Head Comparison

BREXIT

• UK wine business face additional new Brexit challenges in 2022

DISTRIBUTORS

• How Wineries Can Boost Their Restaurant Distribution – (Sponsored link)

WEBINARS/ONLINE MEETINGS

• LIFE Green Grapes Project: New approaches for protection in a modern sustainable viticulture: from nursery to harvesting

NFTs

• French startup brings vintage wines to the NFT market

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Fine wine prices continue to rise across all regions
• Barolo Wine Auction: €600,000 for Barolo in a Barrel

DATA & TRENDS

• Here Are the Names and Words You Will be Hearing in 2022

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• British Airways is looking to recruit a Master of Wine to improve its drinks offer
• Seasoned Sommelier and Wine Buyer Thomas Brenner talks us through his focus while evaluating the effectiveness of a wine program – (Sponsored link)

MARKETING & SALES

• Bread, wine, mind control: supermarkets could be using music to change our shopping habits
• Why digital marketing as we know it is dead

MEDIA MATTERS

• Wine’s New Advocate Takes the Reins
• The Year’s Best Wine Books

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Are Wine-Based Hard Seltzers ’80s-Era Wine Coolers in New Clothes — or Something More?
• To Catch a “Unicorn” Wine
• Beyond mysticism and shibboleth: embracing wine’s practical allure
• Why the secret of Ramon Bilbao’s new Lalomba wines is… concrete
• Cabernet’s New Home: How Some Winemakers Are Opting to Ferment and Age Cabernet in Concrete, Not Oak
• Great Wines and Transcendence

WINE PEOPLE

• Talking Windy Oaks Wine With Spencer Schultze
• Brad Warner, Leto Cellars & Glenn Workman, Robert Mondavi Winery (podcast)
• José Luis Lapuente: “In wine we must avoid political interference”
• Mentzendorff’s Andrew Hawes on keeping ahead of supply & demand
• Wang Fang on Kanaan Riesling, dogs vs horses & her new winery
• Bouncing back Q&A: Steve Finlan, CEO, The Wine Society

WINE PLACES

• Two Great Wine Estates That Are Part Of Portugal’s Wine History [paywall?]

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• 2022 Global Restaurant Trends Forecast

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• Pennsylvania wine and liquor sales set another record, annual report shows

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Correlating wine astringency with physical measures – current knowledge and future directions
• Researchers observe the same genetic adaptation in two yeasts
• Characterized one of the largest collections of grapevine rootstocks (non-vinifera) by molecular markers
• Model ageing effects on the formation and evolution of minty terpenoids in red wine

EUROPE & THE UK

• Government reveals new plan to boost UK food & drink with specialists

DOWN UNDER

• Wine Australia looks to expand its reach through high-profile partnership

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Could South Korea be Asia’s next cultural superpower?

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• Fermenting brewers’ spent yeast into protein: ‘It’s the tastiest vegan protein in the world’