NEWS FETCH – MARCH 13, 2012

TOP NEWS

• Central Valley Leading New California Wine Boom
• Ste. Michelle Gains U.S. Rights To Antinori’s Prunotto Estate Wines
• Facebook Wine Sales – Show Me The Money
• Nitrates contaminate Salinas, Central Valleys’ drinking water
• Casting A Skeptical Economist’s Eye at Wine Economic Impact Numbers
• U.S. Wines Grow Steadily
• Napa Wine Producer Ernest Van Asperen Dies at 96
• Obama Less Transparent When It Comes to Dinner Wine List
• Cork and dagger: Should wines served in the White House be disclosed?
• Celebrity winemakers: what’s in the bottle?
• Politics, Wine and the Prison of the Tiers
• Double Dipping Wine Poseur Charged In Federal Criminal Case
• Build-a-Bear for Wine?
• Trends in the Wine Industry: A Tale of Two Types

PUBLIC COMPANIES & INVESTING

• Diageo cheers over Beam talk
• Liv-ex: Fine wine and Chinese billionaires
• American AgCredit reports annual earnings rise 14%
• ‘Tremendous result’ for London wine auction

AUSTRALIAN HARVEST 2012

• Big wine grape losses after flood
• Rain forces wine producers to pick early

MEDIA MATTERS

• Why most wine blogs fail to thrive
• Remarkable reporting job on Rudy Kurniawan alleged counterfeiting
• Merlot-Bashing
  

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Forget Food Pairing: Oddbins launches mood and wine matching site
• Should restaurants be rated?
• Throw Out Those Decanters

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• WISE Academy celebrates anniversary, offers new courses
• NVV: Indian Duo Sing Wine in Napa Valley
• Fairmont Acquires Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• NY: Proposed law would see breweries, wineries and farmers happy
• NY: Selling Wine in Grocery Stores can Reverse the Decline of Liquor Stores
• OK: (Cork)screwy Law Hampers Wine Sales
• VA: Winemakers vs. vintage 2011
• WA: Tri-Citians get into the business of booze
• WV: Legislature Passes Liquor Sampling Bill

EUROPE

• French January Farm and Food Exports Jumped 8.4% on Wine , Cognac
• Centuries old wine cellar found while digging for new metro line in Bucharest
• Maison Sichel rebrands

THE UK

• ‘Disappointing’ on-trade sales in February
• Nicolas stores to be rebranded
• LIWF hits back at criticism
• First Syrian wine to hit UK

AUSTRALIA

• Don’t Call Them ‘Cheap and Cheerful’
• Grape growers look to top drop
• A young man with a mind for wine

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Chateau Lafite Rothschild starts winery construction in China
• California winemakers boost sales in Chinese market
• Maxxium Hong Kong to change trading name
• Hong Kong Drinks the Most Wine in Asia
• China’s palate ripens for European vineyards, chateaux

LATIN AMERICA

• Ups and downs for Argentine wine in Brazil

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Cheers! A £75000 corkscrew: 300 moving parts to open a bottle of wine
• Wine glass grip = personality test
• “A brief history of Merlot:” Hilarious video from Gundlach Bundschu

HEALTH (SORT OF)

• Environmental Context Determines Self-Administered Alcohol Consumption Rates in Rats