NEWS FETCH – DECEMBER 18, 2012

TOP NEWS

• Buyers, Prices Named For Wine Country Oil/Gas/Fracking Rights
• Paso Robles groundwater basin needs restoring
• Former Winery Employee Arrested in Brunello Vandalism
• Record DtC Sales Continue
• Aussie Wine grape growers says prices below cost of production
• By The Glass: Consumers Select Wine by Palate Not Price
• Miller/Coors: beer-wine hybrid drink test success
• China to drive ag commodity demand for next decade
• Farm employers confront ‘play-or-pay’ health care rule

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Paul Hobbs acquires 63 acres of Napa Valley vines
• Old liquor law faces a new test in California Legislature
• Bailey Appointed Southeast RSM For The Hess Collection

HEALTH & ALCOHOL REGULATION

• French Paradox: Is It Really The Cheese Not The Wine?
• How To Minimize Holiday Drinking

MEDIA MATTERS

• “Natalie MacLean should pay” — W. Blake Gray
• Crisis Communication Lessons from the Tragedy at Sandy Hook
• Old critics never die, they just retire to Cloudy Lees
• Eulogy for the Wine Writer

INVESTING & AUCTIONS

• Wine Auctions Drop 19%, Chinese Demand Cools for Bordeaux
• Why Don’t More People Collect Port?
• Liv-ex: Setting standards
• Time to buy Bordeaux, sell Burgundy (and drink the rest)

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Red Mountain: Think Global, Drink Local
• Sun-Dried Tempranillo Grapes Produce Sweet Complex Wine
• Keeping it simple

GOODBYE 2012, HELLO 2013

• Five predictions for 2013
• This year’s Christmas Letter to anyone who cares
• Crystal ball: the wine world in 2013
• Top 10 stories from 2012
• The Top 10 Wine Stories of 2012
• Looking back on 2012 for the wine trade: part 1
• 2012 in Review

OH CANADA!

• Wine Council pushes private stores online
• Okanagan Residents Given Diamond Jubilee Medals

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Brown-Forman Winds Up Debt Offering

MANAGEMENT

• Brand Building Amidst A Financial Crisis

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• NV: Nevada City Council to consider winery permit
• NY: New York’s booming wine industry
• TX: Centennial says it’s restructuring, not liquidating

EUROPE

• Eiswein harvest gets off to a good start in Burgenland
• 2012 Bon Pasteur 30 Percent Whole Cluster Fermentation in Pomerol

THE UK

• Consumers face massive price hikes for Christmas drinks

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Petaluma to invest $10m on Adelaide Hills winery at Woodside
• OZ: Tasmania attracts further investment
• NZ: Vineyard sales boost for market

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Wine In Japan: 20-34 age group shaking things up

AROUND THE GLOBE

• Golan Heights Winery – The Jew and the Carrot

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• There are no heroes in the wine business, just working people

OLIVE OIL

• Olive Oil Entrepreneur Theo Stephan: Still Here, Four Years Later
• New EU Law on Agricultural Product Origins
• Make Olive Oil, Not War