NEWS FETCH – MARCH 7, 2012

TOP NEWS

• Final Hammer Dropping On WineGavel?
• Australia’s Peter Lehmann Launches Major Portfolio Overhaul
• Federal Subsidies: Wine With a Chaser of Taxes on the Side
• What Winemakers Want: Moscato, China
• UPDATED: The Dark Side of Lovely Wine Country
• Wine Veteran Michael Kinney Reinvents Himself in another useful way
• Liquor Bureaucrats to Convene in D.C.
• NeoDry Drug Dream: The Drink-No-More Pill
• Last Week To Register For Central Coast Insight Symposium

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Brown-Forman profit falls 5.4%, sales growth slows
• Diageo Sales Growth Meets Estimates as Emerging Markets Gain
• Chile Winemaking, Retail Bring Investment Abroad to 14-Year High
• Pierre Pringuet: The drinks boss hot on Diageo’s heels
• Liv-ex: Parker moves the market
• Global Wine Investments Ltd – first-class brazen cheek!
• Diageo Bets on China’s Homegrown Baijiu
• Acker begins NY season in style
• SABMiller steps up African investment

COMPETITION

• Fat, Sloppy & Can’t Compete? Just Use “At Rest” to Bully the Small Guy
• New Zealand Wine Retailer Stands Up To Australian Goliath

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Drunks add sour notes to Sonoma wine barrel weekend
• Dry winter threatens to increase Napa fire danger
• Napa could anchor six-county wilderness area
• A dramatic new chapter for Santa Rita Hills
• Winetasting room could be coming to Lodi’s Eastside

ONLINE, TECH & SOCIAL MEDIA

• Ads with Friends: Analyzing the Benefits of Social Ads
• Not Lightening Up On Wine And Social Media

MEDIA MATTERS

• Spinning the Bottle Again … Posert & Franson … Again!
• A conversation with The Burghound, Allen Meadows, Part 2
• My Love Affair With Sommelier Spokespeople

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Suspending Rational Belief—19 Wines At 100 Points
• Decanting White Wine: The Genie in the Bottle
• The Wino Gene: The Science of Delicate Tastebuds
• Fantasy Wine League: An Introduction

WATER, ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• California wine country to benefit from Haifa study
• California’s Choices: Two Big Expensive Tunnels or Just Better Water Management
• Cadiz Plan Highlights Magnitude of California Water Problems

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• Using Ultrasound Technology to Combat Wine Spoilage
• WSU Plant Pathologist’s On-line Powdery Mildew Database Selected as Standard Reference for Professionals

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• KS: Smoky Hill Winery sells at auction
• NY: The Most Important Store in the State? Empire State Cellars
• NY: Cuomo proposes aid for NY beer, wine makers
• SD: Winery Wins Big Federal Grant

EUROPE

• In Sicily, a Treasure Trove of Unique Wine Yeast
• Rioja produces first commercial sweet wines
• Bulgaria joins opponents of wine liberalisation
• Italian wine producer spreads its wings
• Over 4,000 exhibitors heading to Vinitaly this month
• Wine patriarch Antinori revolutionizes industry
• Vinisud – A Fine Show for Fine Mediterranean Wines

THE UK

• WSTA blames duty hikes for falling sales
• Rathbone Wine Group for sale
• Negociants UK adopts direct approach

DOWN UNDER

• New Zealand pulls out of LIWF
• OZ: Century-old winery supplier placed in voluntary administration
• OZ: Vineyards cop a beating but escape major damage

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• A close look at the practice of counterfeiting in China
• US walnut growers, in revolt, look to China amid scandal
• Chateau Beijing: Chinese buying up Bordeaux estates

LATIN AMERICA

• Expovinis Brazil 2012 is coming

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Some myths about Port, Champagne
• California Wine: What You See, Ain’t What You Get
• Rude or Righteous?
• Minerality in wine: taken for granite?
• The Cultivar Known as Zinfandel
• In March, raise a glass of wine made by women
• Don’t stress the cellar