NEWS FETCH — April 19, 2016

TOP NEWS

• Venge Vineyards Acquires Robert Rue Vineyard and Winery in the Russian River Valley
• Jackson Family Wines buys Penner-Ash Wine Cellars
• France remains king of global fine wine exports
• Robert Parker relinquishes Bordeaux
• This is how Charter Oak Winery doubled its production without doubling its costs *Sponsored Link*

WINE SUPPLY

• Heavy hailstorm hits Mâconnais vineyards in Burgundy
• World wine trade buoyed by rebound in China demand
• If the prosecco runs out, there’s still plenty of fizz to fill your glass
• This is how you can get meaningful reporting and compliance information from your business data *Sponsored Link*

CALIFORNIA BRIEFS

• Book club members kicked off Wine Train settle suit
• Star Sommelier Kevin Vogt Leaving Emeril Lagasse’s Restaurants To Open Napa Valley Wine Store
• Benziger’s meaningful, authentic, distinctive mindset wins over The Wine Group
• Cejas tap family wine, beer expertise to capture more palates
• Mionetto USA Teams With Vintage Point To Target Chain Channel
• USATT Interview with Bill Earle from the National Association of Beverage Importers (NABI)*Sponsored Link*

DROUGHT/WATER

• Will lawsuit become a jolt to MID’s farm water subsidies?

RECYCLED WASTEWATER

• San Bernardino sues over wastewater recycling plant proposal

TRADE SHOWS & CONFERENCES

• North Bay Business Journal’s 16th annual Wine Industry Conference
• Strong wine market buoys M&A to levels unseen in 15 years
• Consumer experimentation, upscaling changes retailer approach to wine, beer, spirits
• Brand buyer sees ‘tremendous’ growth potential for higher-priced wine
• Return of major wine M&A players attracts more deal interest
• Vinexpo: How a Wine Show in Bordeaux Shapes What You Drink Every Day
• A few interesting things from ProWein
• 10 Tips to Designing the Perfect Trade Advert *Sponsored Link*

DIRECT SHIPPING & PRIVATIZATION

• 7 Alcohol Subscription Services (and How to Choose the Right One for You)

PUBLIC COMPANIES

• Did Constellation Brands Improve Its Margins in Fiscal 4Q16?

DISTRIBUTORS

• Interview: Danny Wirtz, Vice Chairman, Breakthru Beverage Group
• How US Importers Can Develop Strong Relationships With Their Distributors
• Are You Really Ready To Pitch A Distributor: Here’s the Checklist *Sponsored Link*

INVESTING IN WINE, COLLECTING & AUCTIONS

• Palmer to offer barrel of 2015 at auction
• 2015 Bordeaux Barrels Diary: Haut-Brion and La Mission

HEALTH

• Wine, Belly Fat, And Women

REGULATION & LEGAL MATTERS

• Alamo City vineyard can use ‘San Antonio’ on wine labels

DATA & TRENDS

• This amazing but dirty little data trick will astound you at how radically different two charts can be with the exact same data set.

WINE SELECTION AND RECOMMENDATION

• Restaurant Wine Lists: Are Restaurants Leaving Money on the Table?
• If everybody else has exactly the same thing, is quality in itself really enough?
• Think outside the bottle: Box wine has come a long way

MARKETING & SALES

• Well-built wine brands key to higher vintner value

PACKAGING, LABELS & CORKS

• How to understand wine labels – Wine Folly

SOCIAL MEDIA & TECH

• Why Your Small Business Must Start a Blog
• Social Media, Then and Now
• Use These 4 ‘C’s’ To Create Viral Posts

MATTERS OF TASTE

• Can you entirely eliminate subjective factors in wine tasting?
• A sommelier on Spain: Quality wines at value prices
• Decoding the ‘high-end and cool’ German wines
• Shaking off the stigma of sweet wines
• Trump Wine Is Real. Trump Champagne? Don’t Pop That Cork

WINE PEOPLE

• When it’s about passion for excellence, it’s about wine writer Cathy Huyghe
• Alder Yarrow Interviews Jancis Robinson
• Britain’s Jancis Robinson on discovering the sensuality of wine
• Zim’s Supersomms

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

• Why Green Certify? Marketing Versus Sustainability

EUROPE & THE UK

• New Grape Varieties for Champagne
• Grandes Pagos: Mapping the Future of Spain’s Wine

DOWN UNDER

• Former Casella Wines director, Marcello Casella, fronts court over alleged role in $5 million marijuana haul
• NZ: Spraying mistake costs Marlborough grapegrowers around $1.6 million

ASIA & PACIFIC RIM

• China’s Cofco to sell winery stake for 11 pence
• China wields increasing power in world wine market
• In South Korea’s tough and fast-paced economy, the corner shop rules

NOT JUST FOR THE TRADE

• Wine Critics in Hell

CRAFT BEVERAGES: BEER, CIDER, WINE & SPIRITS – A Sampling of Today’s Headlines

• The Economics of Craft Beer
• How Asheville’s big beer deal fell flat
• Finding Cuban Beer in the Land of Cigars and Rum
• What percentage of distributors carry multiple local beers?

Get the rest of today’s craft news at Craft Beverage Insights