JANUARY 30, 2023 – WINE NEWS FETCH

• Trade Practice Reform and the TTB
• The Wine Industry is Headed For Self-Inflicted Decrepitude
• Uncorking millennials wine interest: Smarter wine marketing may be key to attracting younger consumers [paywall?]
• Wine Holds Its Own As #2 Preferred Fine Dining Drink, But Spirits & Cocktails Rule.
• Hate filling out the CA Grape Crush Report? Now There’s help! – (Sponsored Link.)

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

• US Direct to Consumer Sales Stall, but Demand for $100 and $200 Bottles Grows
• The American Wine Industry Has an Old People Problem [paywall?]
• Less Affluent Consumers Reducing Frequency Rather Than Trading Down In Wine
• Bankruptcy Judge Rejects Creditor Objections, Approves Winc Sale To Stalking Horse
• Grow your wine brand awareness in restaurants and bars of USA – (Sponsored link)

WINE SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION

• Sparkling resilient as alcohol sales decline across Europe

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Women for WineSense presents “Connect Symposium,” with Wine Market Council, Thursday, February 9, 2023
• Hirsch Vineyards hired a winemaker who’d never made wine before [paywall?]
• From the Symposium, A Brighter Outlook
• Freemark Abbey Winemaker Ted Edwards Announces Retirement

WEATHER

• Why forecasts for La Niña turned out to be all wet [freewall?]

DROUGHT/WATER

• Napa Valley Grapegrowers Report: Investing in the aquifer [paywall?]

CONSUMER SALES: DTC, ON- & OFF-PREMISE

• Washington considers allowing out-of-state retailers to ship wine to residents

HEALTH

• Does Dry January Work? Health Benefits of Cutting Alcohol Are Real [paywall?]
• Are we right to demonise drink?

NFTs, BLOCKCHAIN, & THE METAVERSE

• Crurated raises $7.2m to further innovate blockchain-based wine community

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Champagne Drives Moët Hennessy’s Full-Year Sales To $7.7 Billion
• How do the numbers stack up for the big three?

FINANCE, INVESTMENT, M&A

• E-commerce alcohol platform Speakeasy secures fresh investment

DISTRIBUTORS

• Winebow Awarded Portfolio of Fine Wine and Spirits Importer Dreyfus Ashby & Co. in NY

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Bordeaux wins back its share of trade – Liv-ex
• Wine Investment: How it works, returns, companies, platforms and opportunities
• Sotheby’s appoints new Head of UK wine sales amid shuffle of Asia

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• If you can’t taste wine faults, can you taste wine? Part I: Oxidation

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• Top design accolade for novel wine label that illustrates a ‘dilemma’

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• Napa County to participate in Switzerland wine conference [paywall?]

WINE CRIME

• Wine Blogger Fined for Sexist Post

MEDIA MATTERS

• Turning the Tables on Allison Wallace

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Blaufränkisch – what sort of future?
• Millennials and La Dolce Vita

WINE PEOPLE

• David & Nadia: Rugby Player and Bookworm Find Love in Swartland
• The two amigos putting Garnacha on the map
• Talking California (& Texas!) Wine With Greg Stokes
• Natasha Williams of Bosman Family Vineyards
• Arizona’s Maynard James Keenan (podcast)

WINE PLACES

• (Failing) to visit the wineries of India

WINE HISTORY

• Craiker on growing wine grapes: Why the Vikings tried it but California mastered the idea

WINE TOURISM

• France to become the world’s most visited country by 2025

FOOD & RESTAURANTS

• Americans Are Gobbling Up Takeout Food. Restaurants Bet That Won’t Change. [paywall?]

NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• NY: Fox Run Vineyards Hires New National Sales Manager
• Inflation takes its toll on Virginia wine country

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• How to Use the Wine Industry’s 2023 Directory and Buyer’s Guide

EUROPE & THE UK

• Luca and Elena Currado Leave Vietti
• Austria finally fell in love with red wine. It wants you to do the same
• Hungary: A Sparkling 2023 Likely to Follow a Bubbling New Year
• UK: Ecommerce site Thedrinkshop.com calls in the administrators
• Alcohol sales slump by €2.7bn for European retailers, report says

BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS

• US spirits sales come under pressure – NABCA data
• Whiskey World Keeps Growing