SEPTEMBER 16, 2022 – WINE NEWS FETCH

• Price Hikes Turn Off Wine Country Visitors
• Champagne and Sparkling Wine – Booming US Sales
• The Revenue States Get from DtC Shipping
• Regenerative farming might make better-tasting wine
• Keeping Wildfires Out Of Your Wine Glass
• August Sales At Restaurants & Bars Outpaced 2021 By 10.9%
• Does Anyone Still Care About Wine Certifications? — (Sponsored link)

OBITUARIES

• How Fred Franzia kept “Two Buck Chuck” wine so cheap
• How Fred Franzia Changed the Way We Drink Wine
• Fred Franzia obituary: Mastermind behind Two Buck Chuck wine dies at 79: WaPo
• Fred Franzia, 79, Dies; Upended Wine Industry With Two-Buck Chuck: NYTimes [paywall?]

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• District Court Rules for Ohio in Retailer Shipping Challenge
• Exchange Rates Unlikely to Impact Wine Prices
• Vintage Wines Estates stock falls over 40% amid inventory issues [freewall?]
• You want weigh tags, not a TTB summons. Click Now To Get Your Harvest Regulatory Training – (Sponsored Link.)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Napa Valley 2022 harvest report: Cabernet harvest begins [paywall?]
• Ciatti California Report – September 2022 (PDF)
• Growers see good wine vintage for Europe, stable volumes despite droughts [freewall?]
• Heatwaves Force Early Spanish Wine Harvests, Nighttime Picking
• The heatwave is changing the grape harvest season in Santa Maria
• Grow your wine brand awareness in restaurants and bars of USA – (Sponsored link)

LOGISTICS

• What the rail strike deal tells us about the fragility of the supply chain

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Napa Valley’s Cuvaison Estate hires hospitality manager
• Petaluma’s Springboard Wine Company hires new general manager
• The French Laundry was almost a San Francisco restaurant
• Garagiste Festival Celebrates Explosion of Micro-Winery Movement in Paso Robles: November 11th & 12th
• Can Cutting-Edge Technology and Character Coexist in Winemaking? — (Sponsored link)

WILDFIRES/SMOKE TAINT

• Mosquito Fire: Overnight rains did not help firefighting efforts [paywall?]
• California Fire Map
• Oregon Wildfire Tracker

WEATHER

• Some Fresno farmers concerned about late summer rain forecast [paywall?]

DROUGHT/WATER

• The Mad Rush for Groundwater in the Central Valley

CLIMATE CHANGE

• The Rise of Micro-Managed Cover Crops in the Battle Against Climate Change

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Ohio Court Rejects DtC Shipping from Illinois Retailers
• Time to get your visitor pass for USA Trade Tasting and meet the world Chicago – (Sponsored link

UKRAINE WINE

• Making Wine in Wartime: Giorgi Lukuridze of Shabo, Ukraine
• Moldovan Wine Industry Partners with Sommeliers – and Supports its Neighbours in Ukraine

DIVERSITY

• Hispanics In Wine Enters Its Third Year With Exciting Initiatives And Announces The 2nd Annual “Latinx State Of The Wine Industry” Summit

HEALTH

• Anxiety and Alcohol: Does Drinking Worsen Symptoms?

NFTs, BLOCKCHAIN, & THE METAVERSE

• $ADA: Georgian Wine Is Going on the Cardano Blockchain

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• No More French Vermentino
• The Origins and Justification for the Three Tier System of Alcohol Regulation [paywall]
• Staying compliant amid new beverage alcohol industry regulations: On demand – (Sponsored Link.)

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Naked Wines Appoints Former CEO as Advisor to Review

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Gérard Bertrand buys French organic wine estate

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Golden Vines Awards return in October after raising £1.3m for Gerard Basset Foundation
• 30th vintage of Casa Real released on La Place de Bordeaux
• Louis Roederer Cristal 2013 leads weekly trade – Liv-ex
• Nicolás Catena Zapata 2019 released – Liv-ex

DATA & TRENDS

• International Grenache Day by the Numbers

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Alternative Packaging: Everything But Glass

MATTERS OF TASTE

• To age or drink [paywall?]

WINE PEOPLE

• Meet the Forward-Thinking Young Wine Director at Healdsburg’s Little Saint
• Ana Paula Bartolucci: Chandon Argentina
• An American in Provence—Act III
• Keeping a Family Business Family Owned w/ Aly Wente, Wente Vineyards (podcast)

WINE TOURISM

• UBCO team examines the roots of great wine tourism

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• Yes, It’s Possible To Make Wine In Wyoming And To Grow The Grapes Too

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Optimize pesticides treatments in the vineyard (video)

EUROPE & THE UK

• English wine: then and now
• Garage Wine Co.’s Old-Vine ‘Revival’ project comes to the UK
• UK wine producers tap into tourism trend as cellar door sales spike

SOUTH AFRICA

• A slow death to a curable disease

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• ‘No Rulebook Anymore’: The Art of Beer Label Design