NEWSFETCH – December 14, 2011

TOP NEWS

• Chinese Wines Beat Bordeaux In Blind Tasting
• Restaurant Recovery: Not This Year, Not Next, NPD Says
• Consumers cut back on restaurant spending
• Gancia family sells wine business
• Direct Wines reshapes its buying and merchandising team
• Memorial Service Planned for Professor Emeritus Ralph Kunkee
• Report: Online coupons help consumers and restaurants
• Chilean Wine at the Crossroads
• Calif to spend $6.4 Million to retrain farm workers
• Pasco winery turned soured business deal into sweet success
• Three Top Portuguese Winemakers Team Up
• Uncovering the Secret Buyers of Robert Mondavi’s Home

DIRECT SHIPPING & PRIVATIZATION

• Pennsylvania Pols Pass Potent Potables Perestroika
• PA Liquor Bill Won’t Help Consumers, Taxpayers
• Pennsylvania May Get Out of Wine Business
• Google Executive to Speak at 2012 Direct to Consumer Wine Symposium

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Constellation Q3 Results
• Magnotta Winery Corporation Announces Quarterly Results
• Liv-ex, Fine wine volatility falls: A sign of reduced uncertainty?
• Burgundy and Bordeaux Super Seconds fill First Growth trade gap

HEALTH

• UK Health experts call for minimum pricing
• Drunk Driving Biggest Road hazard: MADD

MEDIA MATTERS

• Food and wine lovers will devour these books
• How To Judge A Wine Critic—Use The Caesar’s Wife Rule
• A Wine Publicist’s Vow of What He’ll Never Do
• David Schildknecht on Nossiter, Natural Wines
• Wine Books Worth Reading
• Robert Parker distances himself from Campo as he announces investigation
• Jay Miller: a second set of unanswered questions

MATTERS OF (BAD) TASTE

• A call for a little humility in the wine world

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Allergenic Egg White Proteins in Wine: New Methods Detect Measurable Amounts in Finished Wine
• UC Davis: Wine grapevines and native plants make a fine blend

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Conservation easement preserves Rutherford ranch

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• MD: Coke plant to become a winery?
• MN: Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery to open Dec. 1
• VA: The Cases have big plans for Sweely
• VA: The Donald aims for award-winning wines and weddings

EUROPE & THE UK

• Shake-up at Laithwaites Wine
• Christian Seely Of Axa Millesimes Talks Bordeaux
• Italy winemaker sends literary message in the bottle
• Champagne entering a new and great period
• Yvon Mau tackles Bordeaux’s middle tier
• VIDEO: Big Wine Festival wants to attract families

PACIFIC RIM

• OZ: Yearly farm exports expected to grow by 6%
• Downturn in Chinese Wine Collecting?

LATIN AMERICA

• Wine Australia to explore Brazil wine opportunities
• “In the World, the Argentine wine is considered one of the New World’s highest-quality wines”

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• The State of Social Marketing 2011 – 2012
• A rare and hilarious interview with @Shitmysommsays
• Lot18 Poaches Tremor Video’s COO Mark Pinney
• WineExpress.com Debuts Mobile Wine Shopping Platform
• Catching the Buzz: Mining Digital Word of Mouth

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Wines of Jewish Origin to Toast the Season
• Everyday bubbles: Fancy image does sparkling wine an injustice
• From Vente to Vino – Starbucks Brings Wine and Beer to the Java-Loving Masses
• It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over: Women Who Wine

AN AMAZINGLY OVER-WROUGHT, SELF-CONGRATULATORY HEADLINE

“Acker Merrall Amazes Wine World with Gifts of Unprecedented Rarity and Value”

Really?

The only amazing thing is how embarrassingly bad this headline really is. Will someone tell these people that arrogance is not becoming?

On the other hand, UK Publication, Harpers took the time to to dig beneath the verbal dreck and self-congratulatory frosting to write the following headline that’s actually professional and informative:

Acker Merrall & Condit launches “Twelve Days of Christmas” wine auction

Which headline are you most likely to read?

Acker Merrall continues to churn out nauseatingly unprofessional news releases like this. One hopes that they will find a professional one day who actually has a sense of news.