NEWSFETCH – October 27, 2011

TOP NEWS

• Niner Wine Estates Buys San Luis Obispo’s Jespersen Ranch
• Spanish Wine Importer Expounds On The Category’s Rise
• EPA gives money to Central Valley pesticide watchdog groups
• Customers turn to tap water in restaurants
• Argentina’s 10 best-selling brands
• Fine wine served by the ounce in Manhattan
• SB County needs strategic plan for wineries
• Alcohol Tax Threatens Cook County Hospitality Industry
• Paso Robles’ gangs are becoming harder to ignore
• Young wine makers make splash in Livermore Valley
• The Sale and Use of Cork Wine Closures Continue to Surge
• Put a Cork in It? Not So Much

DIRECT SHIPPING & PRIVATIZATION

• PA: Gov Receives Privatization Plan for Liquor Control Board
• PA: Pull cork on state booze sales
• WA:  Don’t Let Big Box Stores Buy Washington State’s Vote
• WA: Questions about liquor initiative focus on state revenue, availability
• Why I Am Voting No on Initiative 1183
• Why I’m Voting “Yes” On on Initiative 1183

DIRECT SHIPPING EDITORIALS

• Occupy Big Beer!
• Free My Drink!
• Wine Shipping and Serving Wine To Moose: Both Illegal

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Chateau Michelle Reports Robust Growth (scroll down past the Altria info)
• Boom Boom! On Money and Wine
• Panache Beverages Retains Scarsdale Equities to Explore Strategic Direction

HARVEST 2011

• Harvest’s Global End
• Allied’s SJV 2011 wine grapes ‘sold out’
• WA: Frost Brings Growing Season To an End for Some, Spares Others
• No hang time issues this year
• Napa Valley Harvest Update – Merlot

MEDIA MATTERS

• Wine & Spirits Mag Excludes Bordeaux from  Top 100
• Journalism’s Slippery Slope
• Wine Industry Network Launches WIN Media Services
• How wine commercials on TV have changed — or not

WATER

• Near-record numbers of chinook in Russian River

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• OH: Wineries Embrace QR Codes
• TX: Speak No Ale: Beer Men Sue for Free Speech
• UT: Lawmakers expected to consider doing away with DABC Commission

ACADEMIA

• Washington State University Rhone Rangers Ride Again
• OZ: Hi-tech research vineyard set up in Wagga Wagga
• North Central Michigan College to host wine industry workshops

THE UK

• Boom in fine dining drives UK fine wine sales
• IMW seminar to uncover the secrets of Chablis

CANADA

• Okanagan icon is InterVin’s winery of the year

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Chinese buy their favourite Bordeaux by the vineyard
• Hong Kong Foodie Festival Raises Wine Hub Profile
• HK the world wine trade communion platform
• Wine Market Growing in Hong Kong

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• Social Nets and Shopping: A World of Men?
• Are You Building a Social Brand or a Social Business?
• SymphonyIRI : the Power of Scanner Data for the Retail Consumer
• TastingRoom.com Walks Wine Tasters Through the Wine Tasting Process
• Top 10 Songs About Wine

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Acidity key to aged wines
• Hein’s winemaking inspired by great-great-great-grandfather
• Success in Wine Starts on the Vine
• Richard Sanford inducted into Vintners Hall of Fame