NEWSFETCH – October 3, 2011

TOP NEWS

• Wine Volume Jumps 7.3 %In Control States, Spirits Up 6.4 %
• Wine clubs and what their success says about the wine business
• Wastewater treatment bedevils wineries
• Palm Bay’s Lunetta Rides Prosecco Trend, Approaching 150,000 Cases
• The boomerang effects of wine-making standardization: the case of defoliation
• Value Added: Tasting success by creating wine ‘experiences’
• Lytton Springs Winery founder seriously injured
• Winemaker Pahlmeyer’s house burned all night
• State Department taps Wine Train chef for culinary mission
• Worldwide Issues With Winegrape Contracts
• Cattle Call: work with drop-in salesman
• W.J. Deutsch Signs Five-Year Agreement With Martignetti Companies

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Lafite Fails to Find Buyer for First Time in 17 Sotheby’s Hong Kong Sales
• Petrus, Latour Top Sellout $3.5 Million Auction on Asian Demand
• Sotheby’s wine sale draws Asia buyers despite turmoil
• Vici Wine & Spirits gets $2 Million in financing
  
• Fortune Brands aims to divide, conquer

HARVEST 2011

• North Coast harvest scramble is on with rain on the way
• Impending rain worries Salinas Valley grape growers
• Machines replacing men in North Coast vineyards
• A very late Napa season
• Grapes in Demand: Wine and raisin growers fighting for crop share
• Santa Cruz: Cool weather, fewer grapes, better quality
• Sparkling harvest at Domaine Chandon is over!
• Grass Valley/Nevada County: “season off to a late start”
• Spain and Portugal begin harvest after ‘difficult’ year
• Bordeaux 2011 ‘rollercoaster’ vintage comes to an end
• Bordeaux: post-harvest conference brings positive news
• ‘V’ is for Vendange: A Look at a French Grape Harvest
• Selling Grapes…Get in Line with the Others

DIRECT SHIPPING & THE THREE-TIERED SYSTEM

• Using the History of Prohibition to Understand Today’s Wholesaler Corruption
• Winemakers speak out against proposed bill on interstate shipments
• California wineries fight House bill
• OR: CARE supporter Schrader earns scorn of Oregon wineries
  

MEDIA MATTERS

• End of debate: Jamie Goode cuts blog post about Chinese wine
• Natural wine column provokes record comment volume

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Why women make the best sommeliers
• Understanding Wine: It’s About Wisdom, Not Knowledge
• A Wine Tasting for 1,000 With Robert Parker
• 10 Esoteric Wine Descriptors And What They Really Mean
• Nothing new about today’s Pinot Noir debate

AROUND THE UNITED STATES

• MI: Boosting State’s exports one baby bottle or wine bottle at a time
• OK: Let task force that’s studying wine, hard beer sales do its work
• VA: Trump Vineyard Estates to Open This Week
• WA: The arguments for and against closing state liquor stores

EUROPE

• Demand Truth in Labeling: Port and Douro Valley Wines

THE UK

• Booze deals ban comes into force
• Leader of £1.8m alcohol duty fraud gang jailed
• Liberty Wines to double UK warehouse space

CANADA

• BC: MP hopes to let wine pour across provincial borders

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Winery fined for poor safety standards
• OZ: Fire burns vineyard, not business
• OZ: Days of wine now a long-running war among roses
• NZ: Okurukuru winery, event venue goes on market
• NZ: $11m price for Martinborough winery ‘about right’
  
• NZ: A fine time for winery staff at RWC

SOUTH AFRICA

• Zero alcohol limit proposed in South Africa
• Booze deals ban comes into force
• Ad industry unites against booze ban

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• How One Small Wine Company Is Using QR Codes
• New firm connects Napa and the world

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Wi-Fi equipped cork keeps a digital eye on your wine.