NEWSFETCH – December 20, 2011

TOP NEWS

• Wine in cans selling out Stateside
• Treasury Wine Estates lays off 30 from Napa workforce
• Champagne sales hit by cocktails and cava
• Napa Vintner Emily C. Miner Dies
• U.S. Underemployment in Mid-December Similar to a Year Ago
• New Employer Obligations for 2012 – Wage Theft Protection Act
• Lynmar Estate’s Anisya Fritz Launches Sonoma State Winter Wine Entrepreneurship Program
• Winemakers Int’l 2012 Hall of Fame: Antinori, Gaja, Guigal, Jayer, Moueix, Mondavi, Torres

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Fitch: M&A Activity and Improved Credit Measures Will Drive U.S. Beverage Industry Ratings
• Liv-ex: Sell in September and go away; don’t come back ’til Christmas Day
• Lafite Demand Cools as Auction Growth Slows to 14% in Global Debt Crisis

HEALTH

• Social Media Magnifies Exposure to Alcohol for Underage People
• Wine May Help Ease Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms
• Prescription for Health

MEDIA MATTERS

• Over-The-Top Promo: How about some restraint and self-editing in wine social media?
• Social media and the evolution of the fourth estate
• Bobby Parkerchuk resigns from Winery Advocate TV
• Wine Advocate in Sonoma County: No scandal, so far
• N.Y. Times Co. to sell Santa Rosa Press Democrat

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Could Supertasters Be the Key to Knowing That Organic Wines Are Truly More Delicious?
• I Accept Full Responsibility For Ruining My Friends’ Palates

WATER & SUSTAINABILITY

• VIDEO: Suspicions remain about Bay-Delta planning
• Brown, Salazar continue to push for Peripheral Canal
• Napa Valley vintners committed to staying green

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Using Fungi-Treated Oak Chips to Increase the Extraction of Oak Character into Aging Wines

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• SoCal: Tiered Winery Ordinance Appeal Moves Forward
• Shoe Shine Wine launches new LGBT labels

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• FL: If anti-prohibition bill is repealed it could mean more business for some
• NJ: Wine sale law faces uncertain prospects in Assembly
• PA: New bill would allow beer distributors to sell wine, 6 packs
• PA: Different picture of 2011 harvest beginning to develop
• VA: At Trump Winery – Renovations, not demolitions

EUROPE & THE UK

• Con artists selling potentially ‘harmful’ bottles of fake Blossom Hill rosé wine
• Tesco to engage with consumers via online wine community
• Polish Wines – From Zero to Nearly Hero
• McGuigan Wines breaks into UK top 10
• Wine Society keeps prices static for 2012
• French Wine Does Well, Other Farm Income to Fall 2.3%

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Few immediate problems for Riverland growers from weekend rain

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Bull shift: Modo in Beijing switches to all-Spain wine lineup
• WineFuture HK: CavesMaître – ‘one of the most important importer-distributor of wines in China’

SOUTH AFRICA

• Leading Wine Farms in South Africa – Creation Wines

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• Eat.Drink.Tweet. Market. Win.
• Nielsen: Why We Add and Remove Facebook Friends

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Why do we like local wines?
• A Few of the Best Wine Bottle Christmas Trees!
• N. Korea’s Bed Head is Dead, Fine Wine Market Loses t a Major Buyer
• Grower Champagne trend puts cork in wine snobbery
• RedNek Wine Glass makes $5 million

FAIL!

If you expect to get your point across, you have to do a LOT better than this amateurish, over-wrought headline

• Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) Charts Alcohol Industry’s Digital Marketing, Questions Adequacy of Industry’s Self-Regulation to Avoid Exposing Youth to “Alcohol Experience”