NEWSFETCH – January 10, 2012

TOP NEWS

• Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners to acquire Winebow
• Gallo Wins Country Vintner Distributor Lawsuit
• Key US wine sales decline for Treasury Wine Estates
• Treasury US wine sales dwindle (TV news video)
• US demand for sparkling wine growing
• Silicon Valley Bank Expands to Arizona
• How it happened: The largest US importer of black-produced wine from Africa
• Flipflop Jumps Out To 600,000 Cases In First Year
• Luxury Branding and Two Buck Backlash
• Poor Winery Marketing: Not Much Has Changed
• Wine Sales and Distribution 2012 – A Look Forward
• Policing Booze And Beer (And Wine) Online
• NJ Wine Shipping Bill Wins Legislative Approval
• Outlook 2012: Menu prices will rise
• Center for Wine Origins Announces Jan 27 as Port Day

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Wine enterprise investment scheme launches
• Liv-ex indices see bright start to 2012
• SABMiller interested in Castel’s African business
• Majestic Wine soars on strong Christmas trading statement
• Sotheby’s in Hong Kong to hold first global wine auction of 2012 on Jan 14

HEALTH

• Play It Safe With Red Wine and Breast Cancer
• Red wine, red grapes and resveratrol

MEDIA MATTERS

• More analysis of point scores
• I Despise The Hundred-Point System
• PR Strategists Need to Kill Ad Value Equivalency (AVE) and Get Serious about Bottom-line Results
• Bane and Hope

MATTERS OF TASTE

• How scientists learn to speak ‘the language of flavor’
• Admitting What We Don’t Know: Aging Potential for New York Wines

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Conergy to power agricultural water pumps
• Inverse Correlation Between Wine Grape Yield Levels and Price Points

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Balzac Appointed Agency for Chianti Classico/Franciacorta/Collio
• Riverbench Vineyard and Winery Greets the New Year With a New Winemaker
• UC Davis Appoints Wine Industry Relations Manager
• Italian Wine Masters Comes to New York and San Francisco in 2012
• Truffle fans gathering in Napa this weekend for Festival
• Balzac Opens Information Office for Franciacorta

EUROPE & THE UK

• No German ice wine this year
• Moldova to Be the Next France?
• UK Shoppers treat themselves to expensive wine
• British Retail Consortium – December figures up, but 2012 will remain “challenging”
• Las Bodegas adds 30 wines to its list
• Thierry’s expands senior management team

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Murray Darling Basin: work together on water
• OZ: Push to exclude vineyards from gas exploration

LATIN AMERICA

• Brazil’s largest grape grower plans new variety upheaval

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• Why Social Media Is The Catalyst For Telling The Truth
• Gmail as database for tasting notes

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• In a restaurant, feeling like a prisoner of excessive wine markups
• Yea! Sirah, sirah
• Are “Bin End” Wines Really A Good Deal?
• The Bachelor Review: Let the Wine and Tears Flow
• Whole Foods Offers Organic Wines With No Sulfites Added

BOGUS BRAGGING & NO PAY-OFF

• World’s Most Successful Charity Wine Festival and Auction to Take Place in …

This empty, amateurish bragging defines how it could legitimately use the “World’s Most Successful” boast. Plus, by failing to write a short headline that puts the most important news first, this wandering headline tells the reader there is nothing worth clicking on.