NEWS FETCH – DECEMBER 20, 2012

TOP NEWS

• Guns, alcohol, other vice stocks post solid gains this year
• Can raising liquor prices stop drunkenness?
• Natalie MacLean: ‘What I am doing is legal and right’
• As wine industry evolves, local regulation remains king
• SAfrica May Have Huge 2013 Wine Grape Crop
• Viticulture: Fruity with a hint of drought
• Planting Rights “Not My Priority” Says EU Commissioner
• Chateau Rieussec will make no 2012 vintage
• Russia To Lower Tariffs On US Wines

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Interview: Auberge Resorts CEO Mark Harmon
• Morlet purchases St. Helena land
• Winemaker has visions of vineyards in Fallbrook’s future
• Napa downtown gets 26 new businesses in 2012
• Report: Sonoma County jobs, income will grow in 2013

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Diageo to blend sales mojo & sport
• Pernod Ricard US CEO Talks Business
• Rémy Cointreau to acquire Larsen Cognac

INVESTING & AUCTIONS

• Interest in off-vintages spreads
• Bordeaux 2012 Prices Seen Resisting Pressure for Cuts
• Underground vaults provide ‘ideal environment’ for fine wine
• Trade for lesser Firsts pushes Liv-ex 50 up

MARKETING & SALES

• Vintners’ Alliance powers wine industry’s only scaled retargeting network
• The Internet loves Barefoot and Cupcake wine
• Constellation Rewards Wine Shoppers With New App

MEDIA MATTERS

• How To Make Wine Seem Unpleasant
• Time to end snobbery in wine: among owners
• Robert Parker and Digging a Wine Critic’s Grave

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Does MS mean Master of Spitting?

OH CANADA!

• New equipment for skills training in the Okanagan

U.S. REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• OR: State Wines Expand Reach
• TN: Give local voters opportunity to decide wine sales

EUROPE

• Vineyard vandal’s arrest solves Italy wine mystery
• Avignonesi Winery acquires third vineyard in 18 months
• New film features ‘Outsiders’ in Languedoc
• Q&A: Marimar Torres
• Sogrape firmly back under family control

THE UK

• Let’s hear it for home-grown sparkling wines

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Wine Australia to hold global wine forum
• OZ: Merger of wine bodies queried

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Berland, Seely, Cakebread on Chinese Wine Market
• ‘India’s Napa Valley’ draws city tourists to wine

LATIN AMERICA

• Argentina shipments to Mexico up
• Interview: Winemaker Susana Balbo

GOODBYE 2012, HELLO 2013

• Looking back on 2012 for the wine trade: part 3

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• The Quick & Dirty Guide on Napa Wine

BAD HEADLINE THAT NEEDS PROFESSIONAL HELP

• Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits and Vintage Wine Estates Revamp Cigar Zin With Bold New Campaign To Get Consumers Fired Up

This is a long, wandering, fumbling, boasting headline that offers no specifics about what the actual news is. Front-loading all the company names is just an ego trip that buries the news.

Who says this is “bold?” Any proof this will get consumers “fired up?” Those are just empty boasts. Or is that last bit a lame attempt to play on the cigar angle?

Try offering some actual news here. Try successfully answering the question: “Why should I care?”
If this were a headline writing assignment in a beginning PR class it would rate an F-.

And while it hardly seems possible, the opening paragraph of the news release is even worse.

The people at both Deutsch and VWE are smart, capable, talented people who need to have PR that measures up to the same level of excellence. Sadly, Deutsch has a long history of foisting dreck writing like this on the world. One can only assume they enjoy wasting money.