NEWS FETCH – November 21, 2013

TOP NEWS

• Treasury Wine boss slams rising tide of ‘crazy’ lawsuits
• Should US ag prepare for China’s baby boom?
• Aussie Wine glut to continue
• Retailers: Mixed sentiment for holidays & beyond
• New Wine Magazine Features WSJ , Bon Appétit Alums
• Leaders say it’s deadline week for farm bill
• Big ag’s $50 million Obamacare contract
• Bulging debt load burdens farmers

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• ‘Dire’ prediction for state water allocation
• Cornell Plant Disease Expert Named UC-Davis Ag Dean
• Californians asked to block Indian casino near Madera
• Update on Red Blotch Disease
• SJ County Moratorium bad for wineries, economy
• SB County winery ordinance comments taken
• What Duckhorn’s arrival means for Washington wine
• Napa Valley Vintners Invests in Mental Health Initiatives
• Michael Reid Joins Hess Collection As Cal State Manager

GLOBAL WINE SUPPLY

• Good news if you’re thirsty: USA has a lot of wine
• 2013 Vintage Report: California
• Black frost devastates SE Australian vines
• Calif Wine grape growers statewide report excellent vintage
• OZ: Price pressures impacting SA wine industry
• Bordeaux Grape Damage Squeezing Top-Rated Vintners
• AZ: No shortage, but Verde Valley vintners say demand high

• Happy reader says: “The community is abuzz about this book:” Wine Curmudgeon’s Guide to Cheap Wine. [Sponsored Link]

FINANCE, M&A

• Where to put the next wine investment dollar
• Anthony Hilton: Non-bank loans return us to a golden age
• Baiju Magnate to buy £7.3m of Paris real estate

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Benchmark Wine Group secures rare wines from Texas Collector
• Romanee-Conti, Zeng Fanzhi, Diamonds Boost Asia Auctions

• Investing in Liquid Assets: Uncorking Profits in Today’s Global Wine Market [Sponsored Link]

HEALTH

• Alcohol consumption & skin cancer
• Why Alcoholics’ Gender Matters

MARKETING & SALES

• Majestic sees no end to UK Prosecco trend
• Vinmofo wins Deloitte Fast 50 award

• Wine Brands: Success Strategies for New Markets, New Consumers and New Trends [Sponsored Link]

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• More Chinese lessons from Wine Vision
• Go direct and get ambassadors for your brand hears Wine Vision

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• How cloud computing can enhance the wine on our table
• Wine & Social Media: Do you know the story behind Levi’s 501?
• VingDirect launches tasting room benchmarking tool
• A network you’ve never heard of drives 20% of social commerce
• Canada Proves a Mature Facebook Market with Slowed Growth Ahead
• VINx2 Winery Software named agent for VinSuite

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• Young employees more concerned about online privacy

• From Bubbles to Boardrooms: Act 1: Startups Are Such Fun By Michaela Rodeno [Sponsored Link]

MEDIA MATTERS

• Wine Enthusiast Names Eric Trump “Rising Star” of the Year…But Why?

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Finer Fine, Fine For Fine Wine
• A Failed Tea Party with Hugh Johnson
• The Quiet Persistence of Skerk Wines
• 2012 vintage: a report card
• Spiders & Mold
• Lodi-licious — Exploring the Wines of Lodi, CA
• Digging into Soil Diversity
• 1976 Judgement of Paris wines enter US hall of fame

• Extreme Wine: Searching the World for the Best, the Worst, the Outrageously Cheap, the Insanely Overpriced, and the Undiscovered [Sponsored Link]

OH CANADA!

• British Columbia Icewine Harvest Begins
• Okanagan winemaker turns wine consultant: work dirty, hot and sweaty

AG, GROWER & CELLAR NEWS

• How Soil pH Influences Grapes
• The use of multicopters for vineyard monitoring
• Blue Diamond Almond Growers Blast Through The $1 Billion Mark

• Understanding Wine Technology, 3rd Edition [Sponsored Link]

EUROPE & THE UK

• Marks & Spencer to launch carbon neutral PET Beaujolais Nouveau
• Why Russian wine ban is putting pressure on Moldova
• New UK port boosts wine industry
• Beaujolais vineyards aim to be more than ‘Nouveau’

• Wine and War: The French, the Nazis, and the Battle for France’s Greatest Treasure [Sponsored Link]

DOWN UNDER

• OZ: Change in strategy for wine grape buyers

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• Washington wines gain ground in China
• A Wine Castle In China

LATIN AMERICA

• Life as an Argentinean wine exporter can be arduous

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• People Want to Talk About Wine at the Table
• Why is Amarone Wine So Gazzam Expensive?
• “Well I’ve never been to Heaven but I’ve been to Bufalina”
• Deliciously Naughty Wines
• Home winemakers now need only a pod and a laptop
• Shades made from wine barrels launched

• Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book 2014 [Sponsored Link]

CRAFT BEER & SPIRITS

• New Napa brewery feels right at home in Wine Country
• Taste California law draws distiller cheers