NEWS FETCH – December 19, 2014

TOP NEWS

• Explosive Claims of De-Alcholization of California Wines Debunked
• Taiwan: Winery investigated for allegedly selling diluted red wine
• Rabobank puts global wine trade under a microscope
• Cyber Monday 2014 was the biggest day in US online shopping history
• Sparkling wine is success story of 2014, as still wine sales fall
• The top 8 reasons it makes dollars and sense to move your winery software to the Cloud *Sponsored Link*

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Sunridge Nurseries expands to isolated Santa Barbara County area to insure clean material
• Next One Could be Big One for Napa
• Cal-China Wine Cultural Exchange seeks to open doors across the Pacific
• Napa winemakers weigh sales in Cuba
• El Paseo is new wine destination
• Rain on the vines
• So long, 2014
• What It Takes To Get Your Brand Approved By Commercial Airlines *Sponsored Link*

DROUGHT/WATER

• Pumps dropped from Delta Water Tunnel Plan
• State solicits public’s help dealing with shortage
• NASA Built This Snow-Tracking Plane to Save California From Drought
• Every Californian Needs to Save 290,000 Gallons of Water to End the Drought

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Tesco accused of ‘blunderbuss’ approach in scrapping supplier fees
• Shaw to head up Bibendum PLB’s new buying team
• Grow Direct To Consumer Sales *Sponsored Link*

FINANCE, M&A

• Casella completes purchase of Peter Lehmann Wines
• Cru Bourgeois Medoc chateau sold to Chinese investor
• Chinese Investor Buys Stake in South Africa’s Swartland Winery
• Rhône’s Château de Beaucastel is Top Value Brand of 2014

DISTRIBUTORS

• Smidge Wines Announces New Distribution in NSW
• Giant Steps wine shifts UK distribution from OW Loeb to Liberty Wines
• How to Generate Demand In The 3-Tier System *Sponsored Link*

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Holiday Spirit Spurs on Wine Auction Bidders
• Terlato Adds Epsilon Wines to Luxury Wine Portfolio

HEALTH

• Exercise and Eating a Mediterranean Diet Is Even Better than Exercise Alone
• Americans Drink The Most During The Winter Months
• Doctor Uses Ale Test to Detect Beer Ingredient in Drink-Drivers
• Life with Wine: Oral Hygiene

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• WSTA calls for cut in drinks duty
• Flickr kills sale of Creative Commons prints

INDUSTRY DATA & TRENDS

• UK on-trade sales slip 3% in 12 months
• A Bear Market For Bordeaux

MARKETING & SALES

• Four lessons we can learn about crisis PR
• Mobile is often the catalyst for sales
• Maximizing Campaign Audiences
• Google ‘Store Visits’ Watershed Moment for Ad Measurement
• Save time and money – order ProWein 2015 tickets online at reduced rates! *Sponsored Link*

WINE CHOICE & RECOMMENDATION

• Line in the Sand: Alcohol levels in wine
• Gruner veltliner: the wine world’s most underappreciated treats
• Paolo Bea’s Extreme-Artisanal Wines
• Champagne: Not just for toasting

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• How the Delectable App Is Eliminating Wine’s Third Wall
• Tweets From The Tasting Room
• Facebook will ‘come crashing down’ for publishers
• 10 Email List Building Tricks
• Twitter/Foursquare Partnership Could Be Game Changer for Marketers

PAYMENTS

• Russia’s currency needs help, but don’t count on Bitcoin

MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYMENT

• Transgender Workers now protected by workplace discrimination laws

MEDIA MATTERS

• What does a wine writer want for Christmas?
• The media has never been so accurate
• Book Review: Charles Spence: The Perfect Meal

MATTERS OF TASTE

• How Wines Make the Wine Spectator Top 100 List
• New wine consumers not concerned about wine quality as much as what the wine communicates
• A Generation of Château Pavie Macquin

WINE PEOPLE

• Wine fraudster Rudy Kurniawan – One year on
• Roberto Stucchi Prinetti of Badia a Coltibuono
• Joe Wadsack, the BBC’s Mr Booze
• Daniel Murphy of Murphy Wine Company
• A winemaker’s Christmas: Hervé Berland

WINE PLACES

• Bordeaux by boat
• A new era for Cyprus wines

OH CANADA!

• Merchants fear new B.C. wine laws will put a stopper on consumer spending
• Reds can work in British Columbia

REGIONAL WINE NEWS

• VA: Loudoun Wine: ‘We get up with the sun and live and die by the weather’

ACADEMIA

• WWS Scholarship Recipients
• Wine Classes on the Dark Sea

EUROPE & THE UK

• UK: Drinks industry exceeds target to remove 1bn units
• Turkey: Russian expats pack their suitcases with foreign cheese and wine when they head home for the holidays
• Georgian economy buffeted by Russia, Ukraine crises: Wine suffers

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• How the physics of champagne bubbles may help address the world’s future energy needs
• Keeping abreast of fashions in sparkling stemware
• Holiday Sparkling Wine Gifting Guide
• Wine Books Make Perfect Last-Minute Gifts
• Rethinking Wine in Cooking
• The Internet’s Wine: Crowdsourced Cabernet
• Wine-infused ice-cream is finally happening
• ‘Whisker dam’ protects drinkers’ beards
• The Calendar Girls of Austrian Wine
• UK: Mobile alcohol recovery truck launched