DECEMBER 12, 2022 – WINE NEWS FETCH

• Suppliers Amp Up Holiday Offerings To Drive Retail Sales
• Champagne Producers Rebel Against Environmental Reverse
• Wine Labeling Could be a Blessing in Disguise
• A Case Study of Iconic Napa Valley Wineries with a Change in Ownership and their Women Winemakers
• Four Trends Impacting the Beverage Alcohol Sector in 2023
• Wine Pairing Tips from a Robot Sommelier
• This Is How Much Consumers WON’T Be Spending On Christmas Gifts This Year.
• Hate filling out the CA Grape Crush Report? Now There’s help! – (Sponsored Link.)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• Fine Wine Market Cools Off
• WSWA’S SipSource Q3 Data Shows Continued Success for Spirits and Struggles for Wine
• Premiumisation continues, but showing signs of slowing
• Consumer Holiday Spending Is A Mixed Bag This Year.
• Grow your wine brand awareness in restaurants and bars of USA – (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Switzerland’s Most Exciting Wines Are Finally Coming to the U.S.
• Ribera del Duero completes milestone vintage

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Napa, Marin, Sonoma counties retain pandemic-era ‘parklets’ as permanent fixtures

WILDFIRES/SMOKE TAINT

• Cain Winery: the vineyard that almost lost it all to Napa wildfires
• California Fire Map
• Oregon Wildfire Tracker

DROUGHT/WATER

• Calif. sets initial water allocation at 5%
• Sonoma Valley water agencies hope for rain amid lowest water levels at reservoirs
• The 2020-2023 drought continues for a fourth year?
• How California’s Drought Is Changing the Politics of the Nation’s Largest, Notoriously Thirsty Farming District

COVID-19

• Chinese consumers wary of splurging after Beijing relaxes COVID strictures
• Severe COVID Looks Scarily Like Old Age in The Human Brain, Study Finds

DIVERSITY

• Mac McDonald’s Outsized Impact on the Black Wine Community
• Napa’s Vincent Morrow wins Michelin’s Sommelier of the Year [paywall?]
• NY: Pronghorn Announces Investment in 3 Black-Owned Spirits Companies
• An Employee-Driven Partnership to Uplift Disadvantaged Communites

HEALTH

• What gives you a wine hangover? It’s probably not the sulfites

NFTs, BLOCKCHAIN, & THE METAVERSE

• South Africa NFT Market Intelligence Report 2022-2028: Auction Houses are Partnering with Wine Producers as Art Galleries Look to Capitalize on the Global Trend

TAKING THE HIGH ROADS

• Increased Cannabis Abuse and the Future of Alcohol [paywall]

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Experimental Future Vineyard

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Duckhorn reports drop in net income for the first quarter [paywall?]
• Brown-Forman ‘more successful than competitors’ in pushing through price hikes
• Pernod Ricard finalises partnership with Château Sainte Marguerite

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• Economic Confidence Shows Slight Uptick; Still Negative

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Forensic science & the signature of fine wine
• Château Angélus leads weekly trade – Liv-ex

DATA & TRENDS

• Increase in U.S. per capita wine consumption / expenditure this century

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• The Unsolvable Problem

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Winners and Losers in New Consumer Study on Nutritional and Ingredient Wine Labeling
• Are Magnums Really the Ultimate Wine Format? (podcast)

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• American Wine Society meeting recap

MEDIA MATTERS

• Wine Book Find: Blood From A Stone

WINE PEOPLE

• Lisa Strid, Winemaker, Aridus Wine Company, Wilcox, Arizona. (podcast)
• Q&A: Masi export manager Giacomo Boscaini
• An Imprisoned Man’s Resilience Keeps Hope Alive For Wines In Southern Portugal [paywall?]

WINE PLACES

• Inside Château Mouton Rothschild: The Holy Grail Of Art In Wine [paywall?]

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• Arguments abound over whether Oregon should raise alcohol price

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Challenging canopy conventions

EUROPE & THE UK

• AOC Médoc Blanc likely for 2025
• UK: Majestic to freeze wine prices for pubs and restaurants until spring

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: WISA seeking next executive officer as it prepares for newly elected management committee
• OZ: Ashmead family welcomes the Wilton Hill Vineyard in Eden Valley to their vineyard holdings
• OZ: Partnership blends leading wine research capabilities

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Did Sula create a wine renaissance in India?

LATIN AMERICA

• Argentine Wine Falls out of Favor

SOUTH AFRICA

• Land reform in South Africa: 5 myths about farming debunked

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Wrapping Wine Bottles Is Famously Hard. Here’s How to Do It Right