Daily News July 07 - Sept 07
Sydney Time
Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008
Friday 28 September
Growers toast rising wine prices
Local growers are celebrating a rise in the price of Tasmanian wines. There are more buyers in the Tasmanian market than ever. Statistics released by the Department of Primary Industries show that prices are up, especially for sparkling fruit. The price of sparkling pinot noir per tonne is up nearly $300 this year to $2600 per tonne.
Palandri wine brand for Russian market
Western Australia's largest wine exporter, The Palandri Group, has appointed a distributor in one of the world's fastest growing wine markets - the Russian Federation. Svarog JSC is now Palandri's importing agent, with operations across Russia. Palandri plans to export 16,000 cases of its Palandri Pinnacle, Palandri Estate and Palandri Vita Novus ranges to Russia over the next 12 months.
Foster's May Be Due for a Happy Hour
A glut of wine and a rising Australian dollar gave investors in Foster's Group a headache in the fiscal year that ended June 30, but signs are emerging that the company may be getting past the worst of it. Chief Executive Trevor O'Hoy has described the challenges that have hit the company in the past few years as "biblical" in proportion. Australia's wine industry has been hit by drought, fire and frost just as it was emerging from an oversupply that saw cheap wine flood the market and sink prices.
Tuesday 25 September
Australian and New Zealand wine industry could see more consolidation - analysis
The Australian and New Zealand wine industry could see more consolidation according to industry observers. Large companies such as Foster’s Group, McGuigan Simeon Wines in Australia and many smaller ones are seen as likely players in the potential industry consolidation. Companies such as listed Australian beverage company Foster’s Group have inundated the media with rumours of a possible split of its beer and wine assets, a potential wine brand swap or likely M&A activity from PE players. At the same time, players such as McGuigan Simeon Wines have also been rumoured to be a takeover target.
Drought crushes harvest, but not hope
WITH his own crop down one-third this year, McLaren Vale grape grower Toby Bekkers knows from experience how tough the drought has been for the wine industry. But he clings to hope the industry can defy predictions that next year's national wine grape vintage could be down by more than 50 per cent. "To say that we're going to have half a crop I think is probably a bit premature," he said. "There's no frost like we had last year, and certainly water is going to be problematic for some, but even now we don't know how much there's going to be in terms of allocations."
On a whiff and a prayer: wine lake finally dries up
THANKS to the drought, the days of picking up a classy cleanskin for $5 a bottle are well and truly over. This year's wine-grape harvest is likely to be so small that some wineries will even import cheap product for the cask market. Within a year, the wine industry has gone from a glut to a decline in export volumes for the first time in nearly two decades, and growers are struggling to service existing markets.
UK: Peter Lehmann introduces UK on-trade brand
Peter Lehmann Wines has launched a new offering aimed at the on-trade across the UK. The Australian winery said today (24 September) that its on-trade label, named My Word is My Bond, will include six wines specifically chosen for their food-matching characteristics. The wines will be distributed in the country by Enotria. "For any wine at any level to be successful in the on-trade it must over-deliver in terms of quality for price and be intrinsically recognisable by the consumer," said Enotria buying manager Daniel Hart. "The My Word Is My Bond range is Barossa through and through and neatly encapsulates our mantra for supplying regionally expressive wines that over-deliver in quality and at the right price."
Friday 22 September
Wine growers' council fears levy delay impact
A member of the South Australian Wine Grape Growers Council says the decision to delay the introduction of a voluntary levy will hurt the industry. Growers agreed to adopt a voluntary contribution system, to raise $440,000 for a state-wide growers' body to look at addressing industry-wide issues. But the levy cannot be collected retrospectively - excluding fruit grown last financial year.
Evans & Tate to be sold off separately - report
Evans & Tate could be broken up and sold as three separate business, according to local press reports. The company, which went into voluntary receivership last month, was cited by local press today (19 September) as saying it could be sold off piece by piece after 60 parties expressed an interest in its Western Australia operations.
Grape growers in the Napa and Sonoma wine countries are supporting an innovative pilot program to employ dogs to sniff out a pernicious pest in the vineyards. Some 20 Golden Retrievers have been trained since birth to detect the destructive vine mealybug. The advantage that dogs bring to the project is their noses. “The promise of the dogs is that they can detect it earlier than any human and the growers can spot-treat it rather than be faced with a full-blown infestation. The nose on that dog can find it early,” says Jennifer Kopp, executive director of the Napa Valley Grape Growers.
Name-calling shakes up the valley
The dispute in the King Valley over the GI system has been long and acrimonious.
Jeni Port reports.
IN COONAWARRA'S celebrated boundary dispute, winemakers were desperate to be
included in the famous wine region. In the King Valley's less-celebrated
quarrel, three growers at Whitlands have led a decade-long campaign to be
excluded. They went all the way to the Federal Court and produced an array of
internationally recognised viticultural experts to plead their case, but on
August 10 their appeal against an earlier Administrative Appeals Tribunal
decision was rejected. Barring another appeal, considered unlikely after 10
years of legal expenses, the King Valley is now their home.
Tuesday 18 September
Wine group says Margaret River well placed for exports
The wine industry in the Margaret River region of south-western Western Australia says it is in a better position than the rest of Australia to export wine to the rest of the world. A recent report by rural group Rabobank indicates Australia needs to lift its game if it wants to succeed in the wine export market.
The alternative investor: wine
If investing your spare cash in shares seems rather dull and you are prepared to take a few more risks in return for the possibility of bigger gains, why not put some money into fine wine? According to Justin Gibbs, founder and director of the Liv-ex index (the wine equivalent of the FTSE 100) the fine wine market is up about 40% this year - well above its share-based rival. Only one man's opinion really counts: the American wine expert Robert Parker. He declares each vintage's quality and thereby sets its value, on a scale of 50-100 points. There's so little tradeable fine wine in existence that the process of buying a mere five cases of the most sought-after wines can send the price up 10%-15%. And every year the wines become a little more scarce, as they are drunk.
Scientists prove wine buffs are talking rubbish
Some refer to the smell of fruit, hay and ripe apricots. Others to horse blankets, barnyard funk, pencil shavings and leather, just to name a few of the more peculiar descriptions of the odour of wine. But now there is scientific evidence to suggest that wine buffs may just be talking rubbish, or at least that they greatly overestimate their own ability to pin down a wine's particular aroma. Today a US team publishes hard evidence that people smell the world differently because of their genes.
Friday 14 September
Australia's dry threatens wine drought
The winding lines of shipping containers outside Casella Wines may mark the high-point of Australia's A$3 billion wine export market as drought and possible climate shift bit John Casella heads the country's biggest family winery, based 600 km from the coast in the farming town of Yenda, the "enda the earth" jokes Viticultural Manager Kelly Drysdale The booming business dispatches 40 containers of wine to the world every day, turning over A$300 million ($244 million) a year, mostly on the back of exports to the United States.
Wine exports set new volume records
Australian wine exports have set new volume and value records in the year to the end of August. The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation says export value rose eight per cent and volume nine per cent in the 12-month period. In that time, some 806 million litres of Australian wine was exported, valued at $3.02 billion. The United Kingdom remained the major destination in both value and volume terms - importing 285 million litres worth $975 million.
Troubled WA wine company faces grape shortage
In Western Australia, beleaguered wine company Evans and Tate could face severe grape shortages next season. Margaret River growers are planning to set up their own grape selling co-operative, after the winery was forced into administration owing them nearly $4 million. The grower group says the only way it can sell grapes this vintage is to find its own markets.
An erudite wine critic writing up a sweet white might describe "the perfume of raisins" and weave in words such as "jammy", "cloying", "malt toffee" and "residual sweetness". The blood sugar goes up just reading it. For a diabetic such as Rebecca Hutchison, her love of wine is a balancing act between alcohol, blood sugar and degrees of pleasure.
Beaujolais finishes bizarrely precocious harvest
Beaujolais producers who have already completed this year's harvest are calling
it the strangest they have ever experienced.
Harvesters at Domaine de l'Alfatière, who put down their tools on September 4,
began picking grapes much earlier than usual because 'the vines had reached a
stage of development in late April that was comparable in most years to late
May,' owner Jean-Luc Merle told decanter.com. 'Throughout April, we saw
temperatures as high as 34-35°C (92-95°F). 'I have never seen a year like this,'
said Merle, who is president of the Beaujolais and Lyonnais federation of
cooperatives. '2003 was a dry phenomenon. This year, we had lots of water, but
April was very hot. Despite the intervening rain and cool weather, we are having
a very early harvest. It's bizarre.'
Wednesday 5 September
Ben Canaider considers the merits of a new aluminium bottle. HAS the Dalek-style evolution of the wine bottle now reached its robotic conclusion? This thought is the first thing that entered my tiny mind as I looked upon Brightlite. Brightlite is an aluminium-bottled wine. It is a cold-extruded, seamless, aluminium bottle lined with a food-grade coating. It is sealed with a Stelvin-type, pilfer-proof screw cap and has an extended CV of features and benefits.
Aust wine growers prove they are green
Australian wine producers are now able to prove to export markets just how clean and green they are. The Winemakers Federation of Australia has released the results of a national survey, which has found 62 per cent of growers use drip irrigation and 69 per cent use soil moisture monitoring equipment. Just under half the nation's growers took part in the survey but those who did represented 70 per cent of the national grape crush.
Thursday 30 August
Foster's drinks to a change in fortunes
THE Foster's Group boss, Trevor O'Hoy, would be the first to admit that if his alcoholic beverages group hadn't got some earnings traction this year from its two big acquisitions, the US winemaker Berringer and Australia's Southcorp, then he wouldn't be around for the next season to explain why. You can call it excuses or just bad luck. But for at least three years and arguably six, Foster's just couldn't make the returns on these businesses. The strategy to make huge offshore and local forays into the wine business seemed like a good idea at the time as a means to diversify out of the more mature beer business.
Foster's reaches for the top-shelf
FOSTER'S Group has boosted net profit 17 per cent to $716 million for the financial year by increasing sales of top-shelf beers and demanding higher prices for its big-name wine brands. But the result does not include the effects on wine production of the drought and frost damage, which the company said amounted to $38 million, which would leave the result up just 9.5 per cent. Foster's was yesterday forced to deny it was window-dressing its fourth quarter sales of wine to allow it to post the result, saying industry rumours that it had "trade loaded" wine were false.
E&T assets covers ANZ debt only
ANZ, as the secured creditor against the bulk of the interest bearing liabilities, may recover its loan of $97.2 million to Evans & Tate, a winery based in the Margaret River. Partner Martin Jones said all liabilities were $185 million. Jones said E&T's assets had a book value of about $108 million.
Wine grape growers request for early price announcement
Wine grape growers want wineries to announce fruit prices early this season as they face tough decisions on water use. Wine Grape Growers Australia's Mark McKenzie says growers facing severe water restrictions will soon have to decide which varieties they will irrigate. He says the decision will be easier if growers know what they will get the best price for.
EU opens tender to distil wine into biofuel
The European Union has opened a tender to sell unwanted wine in four countries for use in making bioethanol, its Official Journal said on Tuesday. The tender would offer roughly 693,376 hectoliters of wine alcohol stored in France, Greece, Italy and Spain. The deadline for bids was September 10, it said in its latest edition." A tendering procedure for the sale of wine alcohol for exclusive use as bioethanol in the fuel sector in the Community should be organized ... with a view to reducing Community stocks of wine alcohol and ensuring continuity of supplies," it said.
Tuesday 28 August
French wine: The art of making less
In May this year, a new acronym entered the lexicon of terror: CRAV. It stands for Comite Regional d'Action Viticole (the "regional committee of viticultural action," approximately). Suppress your smiles - although it may sound like an offshoot of the French government's agriculture department, it is in fact a new militant group, centered in the Languedoc-Roussillon area of southern France, that has threatened violent consequences if there is not immediate state support for the area's beleaguered winemakers. They are not empty words: Public buildings have been hit with makeshift bombs; some wine tanks of importers from Spain have been destroyed.
Wine List of the Year award - Circa, the Prince. Fancy a Bonneau du Martray Corton-Charlemagne or a Petrus? Mmm, maybe a Cristom Sommers single vineyard pinot noir or Vietti barolo Rocche? You can even order a New Zealand sav blanc. Whatever the choice, the wine list at Circa, the Prince is breathtaking. And so it is that Circa has been duly awarded Wine List of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2008.
Sunday 26 August
Evans & Tate seals Oz distribution with McWilliam’s
Evans & Tate has topped off a rollercoaster week by securing distribution of its branded wines in Australia. The company, which went into voluntary receivership earlier this week, confirmed today that McWilliam's Wines will handle distribution of its branded wines and Gnangara, X&Y and Oakridge wine ranges in Australia from 1 September. In addition to the distribution of the brands, McWilliam's will also work with E&T and receiver McGrathNicol to drive brand development and value through a comprehensive marketing campaign, McWilliam's CEO, George Wahby, said.
Chinese wine consumers at mercy of dodgy producers
Chinese consumers are at the mercy of unscrupulous wine producers mislabelling bottles and selling massively adulterated wines as genuine. According to US McClatchy Newspapers, some Chinese producers are giving homegrown wines names like 'Valley Napa', putting false vintages on labels, and mixing imported bulk wines homegrown juice and not labelling it as such. State broadcaster China Radio International said investigators this year found 'many wines consisted of little more than water, pigment and alcohol, with trace elements of grape juice.'
A bumper harvest, but growing demand means the champagne is running out
Jacques Copinet, flushed and jolly from three champagne tastings before noon,
headed out to the vines behind his house to try the grapes. "Lovely," he said,
chewing a chardonnay. On the horizon, groups of French Gypsies were arriving to
begin the delicate job of picking each bunch by hand.
Mr Copinet was not worried that the champagne grape harvest beginning this
weekend was one of the earliest in history due to bizarre weather conditions.
The independent producer, who makes his bruts and rosés in cellars under his
house, is far from the giants of Moët or Pommery. But his bottles are served in
restaurants in London and Manchester. "The British can't get enough pink
champagne these days," he said. "Things are going pretty well."
A box of wine with your supermarket sandwich?
Those who spend hours discussing bouquet, colour and the best years for Bordeaux should brace themselves. Their revered tipple is about to be supped from a straw. And as if that were not enough, the drink will be sold in tiny cardboard boxes more often associated with fruit drinks. The move follows the success of alcopops, but to purists it will prove more of a shock to the system than the screwtop.
Friday 24 August
Wine retailer cries double standards
THE owner of a family-run chain of wine stores is furious that his application to open a bottle shop was rejected on the grounds of community harm just weeks before Victoria's Director of Liquor Licensing, Sue Maclellan, approved a Dan Murphy's superstore in the same suburb. Sam Bongiovanni, who owns Cheapa Wines and has run liquor stores for almost 30 years, told The Age the decision was unjust. His application to open a store in Preston was rejected in June on the grounds it would encourage alcohol misuse.
The wine company Tarac Technologies has bought the Foster's white wine complex at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. It includes Penfolds cellar door and warehouse facilities. The sale price has not been disclosed. Tarac was part-owner of the site when it was sold to Foster's in 2003.
Thursday 23 August
Losses continue as McGuigan Simeon weathers "perfect storm"
McGuigan Simeon has posted losses for its financial year as it tries to deal with what it has called a "perfect storm" scenario in Australia. The wine company said today (22 August) that net losses for the year to the end of June came in at A$5.94m (US$4.78m), although the figure was an improvement on the A$14.84m loss posted in 2005-2006. Sales for the year also slipped, by 8% to A$286.7m, despite an 8% lift in sales volumes, which came in at 192m litres.
Wednesday 22 August
ANZ appoints receivers to Evans & Tate
ANZ Banking Group Ltd has appointed receivers and managers to troubled wine maker Evans & Tate Ltd. The appointment follows Evans & Tate's decision to place the group in voluntary administration. Peter Anderson, Shaun Fraser and Andrew Birch of McGrathNicol have been appointed receivers and managers of the company and its subsidiaries. The appointment of receivers and managers also follows unsuccessful attempts by the board of Evans & Tate to restructure the business. The most recent restructuring initiative involved Pendulum Capital and McWilliams dissolved last Friday.
Penola wine region plan 'too confusing'
The proposal to establish a wine region called "Penola" has been knocked back by authorities. Australia's Geographical Indications Committee (GIC) has declared the label too confusing, given that the area it covers does not actually include Penola. The committee's executive officer, Jock Osborne, says the boundaries of the proposed region were changed because of legal appeals linked to the neighbouring regions of Coonawarra and Wrattonbully.
Monday 20 August
The wine industry has boosted the value of its exports by 36 per cent to a record $700 million, despite the impact of the high dollar. But a shortage of the main export varietals such as sauvignon blanc - caused by last December's severe frosts - saw wineries cannibalising stock meant for domestic sale to meet rising international demand.
London retailers offers cellar management plans
Building a wine cellar in France can take an entire lifetime. In London, merchants are offering clients a simple service - they select the wines, buy them and keep them in climate-controlled storerooms. In an example of "les anglo-saxons" giving a market-friendly twist to an age-old Gallic tradition, firms charge a minimum of STG100 ($A243) a month to put together a full-blown cellar, with no effort required from the customer. Others offer a pre-selected collection of six cases of wine well-suited to ageing: mostly Bordeaux, either entirely red, or a combination of red and white.
Wednesday 15 August
$500,000 to boost fortified wine sales in Europe
The Australian Government is providing $500,000 to the Winemakers of Rutherglen, Vic, to assist Australia’s fortified wine industry re-brand its products and increase access to the vast European market. Minister for Agriculture, Peter McGauran, said the Australian industry would have to use alternatives to names such as “sherry” and “tokay” in order to comply with the proposed Australia – European Community Agreement on Trade in Wine.
French harvest smallest since 2003
The French wine harvest is expected to produce just under 50m hectolitres of wine, the lowest production level since 2003, says the French agriculture ministry. Although bad weather this year has been partly responsible for the drop in production levels, the agriculture ministry says there will be a 23% drop in Vin de Table production due mainly to the continued program of grubbing-up vines in south France.
UK: Vintage wine firm collapses
Wealthy wine lovers have lost thousands of pounds from a collapsed supplier and are unlikely to recover the money because of accounting failures. Vintage wine firm Cellaret, which went bust in May with debts of £500,000, is unlikely to be able to pay anyone other than its two major secured creditors, General Capital Venture Finance and Euro Sales Finance, which are due a total of £400,000.
Police qualify as sommeliers to combat wine fraud
Twenty-five members of the Italian military police have qualified as sommeliers in order to combat fraud in the industry. The combat-ready sommeliers will use their new-found expertise as part of their existing responsibilities for Italy's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. 'The opportunities to perpetrate fraud are limited only by man's imagination,' said Colonel Pasquale Muggeo, one of the wine-trained officers. 'What we have learned will enable us to offer stronger support to the wine industry.'
Sunday 12 August
Chile moving into our wine market
FIRST it was the French, now Chilean winemakers are gearing up for an increased assault on the competitive Australian wine trade. Douglas Murray, director and founding partner of leading Chilean wine producer Montes, has spent the last week in Australia and says his company soon hopes to sell 50,000 cases a year here. Chilean wines are extremely popular in Britain and the United States with drinkers seeing them as offering both quality and value for money.
Saturday 11 August
Great wine, great value from Australia
Australian wine has an image problem in the United States, and it’s all too evident when you visit. Basically, it comes down to the fact that most Aussie wines are too good for the low prices we are asked to pay for them. That means certain wine buyers don’t believe they are as good as they are. They see the lower price and assume the wine to be modest, when, in fact, it’s actually quite good.
New World order
In the 20-odd years since the New World first flirted with our palates, its
emerging wine countries have ambushed the traditional winegrowing countries of
Europe. The latest report from Nielsen shows that the wine market, 4 per cent up
from last year, has been buoyed by the New World's astonishing success. It will
give cold comfort to Europe's wine growers to learn that Australia now sells one
in four bottles of the wine we drink, way ahead of France; California beats
Italy into third place with South Africa and Chile ahead of Spain; Germany is in
danger of being overtaken by tiny New Zealand's latest Great Leap Forward. Nor
will it exactly thrill them to see that of the top 50 UK wine brands, 34 hail
from Australia, California, Chile, South Africa and New Zealand, and only 13
from the world's three biggest wine producers, France, Spain and Italy.
Thursday 9 August
Barossa growers hope to head-off any new wine glut
Barossa Valley growers say they are looking at ways to cope another glut of wine grapes. Grower Bob Taplin says the wine industry has overcome last year's grape glut because drought conditions devastated this year's vintage. But he says there are now crop predictions showing that an oversupply of grapes could return to the Barossa as as soon 2009.
New Evans & Tate deal could end saga
The long running Evans & Tate saga looks set to end following the announcement that a legally binding restructuring agreement has been signed. The Australian wine producer announced last week that they had signed the agreement with investment group Pendulum Capital, wine company McWilliams, and its bankers ANZ. Under the new plan announced on 27 July, ANZ and Pendulum will have 48% of Evans & Tate (E&T), McWilliams 25%, with the rest held by the company's existing shareholders.
Tuesday 7 August
Aussie wine exports hit record $3bn
The Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation says the record result for the year ended July represented an eight per cent growth of wine exports. Volume of Australian wine exported in the 12-month period exceeded 800 million litres for the first time, 10 per cent more than the previous corresponding year.
Wine, women, on song (Warning - PC puff piece)
Ladies know what they like and when to like it, especially when it comes to fruit of the vine, says Ben Canaider. THERE is wine that women want. It's in California and it's in Monaco. Now it has a home in Brisbane.
CSIRO predicts sour future for grapes
BY 2050, the quality of Australian wine grapes could be halved and the area planted for grapes could be cut by 40 per cent in a worst-case scenario for climate change, according to CSIRO research. Rises in temperature will affect grape production and quality within a region, influencing prices. Different regions may have to change grape varieties to suit the changing conditions, the research shows.
The EU wants farmers to tear up vines to drain the 'wine lake'
A few months ago Isidore Santamaria went out into his picturesque vineyard in southwestern France and ripped row upon row of neatly cultivated vines out of the ground. "It's the worst thing for someone who has planted vines, tended them, watered them, watched them grow and looked after them," he said of the farmland, some of which has been in his family for four generations. "It's almost like losing a child." Now Santamaria is contemplating something worse: uprooting his entire holding of 30 hectares, or 75 acres, within sight of France's mountainous southern border with Spain.
HE Sheraton Perth Wine Awards celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. Starting out as a small gathering of people involved in the fledgling wine industry, the WA Wine Awards has now grown to a prestigious event with an excess of 500 entries from over 143 West Australian wineries covering 15 geographic regions. This year, the presentation awards dinner will be held on Friday 17 August in the Grand River Ballroom of the Sheraton Perth Hotel. And, for the first time, the dinner will be open to the general public who have an interest in the best the West Australian wine industry has to offer.
Plastic, not axes, threatens cork forests (Warning - looks like PR BS)
If you buy a bottle of wine with a metal screw-top or a plastic cork, you won't just be thumbing your nose at tradition. You may also be dooming the world's cork forests. That is the view of environmentalists and cork producers who have joined forces to protect cork oaks -- and the unique habitat they provide -- from competition in the wine trade. Alternative 'corks' are ever more common, as synthetic and aluminum wine closures have grabbed a 20 percent share of the market, up from just 2 percent in 2000, according to wine industry consultant Stephane Rein of Rein Consulting. She says that could increase to 35 percent by the end of the decade.
Friday 3 August
A hired gun for 'repairing' wine
In the world of wine, the winemaking consultant is the ultimate hired gun. For the right price, he or she can save a floundering winery the way a new sheriff might restore order to a lawless town in a classic Western. Often working behind the scenes with a winery's in-house staff, they're brought in to repair defective wines – other times just to fine-tune them. Some consultants are so consistently associated with critically acclaimed wines that they've become quite famous in their own right, none more so than Michel Rolland, the “Flying Winemaker,” with hundreds of clients scattered all over the world. In California, Helen Turley is perhaps the most renowned, and Heidi Barrett is almost synonymous with the phrase “cult Cabernet.”
Moet faces 'serious' supply problems
Moet et Chandon is facing serious supply issues, the director of the Champagne house has revealed. Moet Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of LVMH, has unveiled another successful quarter – with 2007 revenue growth to date up 13%, profits in Asia up 24% and rose champagne sales up 42%. But in terms of supply of grapes, 'Yields are at a maximum and we will soon have our backs to the wall,' Frédéric Cumenal told French newspaper Les Echos.
Thursday 2 August
Cancer risk from two glasses of wine
Drinking two large glasses of wine a day increases the risk of getting bowel cancer by a quarter, medical experts said yesterday. Drinking two large glasses of wine a day increases the risk of getting bowel cancer by a quarter. Every year 35,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer and 16,100 die. Even drinking one large glass can increase the risk of getting the disease by 10 per cent, according to the study by Cancer Research UK. The warnings will come as a huge worry to millions of middle class Britons who enjoy a glass or two of wine each night believing that they are not harming their health.
Red Wine May Protect the Brain from Alcohol-Related Damage, Study Finds
Drinking red wine may not put the brain at an added risk of alcohol-induced brain damage, according to recent research from Portugal. The study, published June 8 in the journal Neuroscience, found that rats that were given heavy amounts of red wine did not suffer memory damage when compared to rats that were given pure alcohol. The scientists said that humans may experience similar benefits from drinking red wine as well, even though regular, heavy consumption is not recommended.
T IS a mystery as old as humanity's love affair with the fermented grape: what makes red wine taste like red wine? For thousands of years the species has variously sipped, slurped and gulped its way through all manner of scarlet succour, but no scientist, vigneron or seasoned drinker has unlocked any of the secrets of its taste. Until now, that is. After several years working away in a laboratory in Adelaide, a team of Australian wine scientists has discovered the precise chemical compound that makes a shiraz taste pepper.
Casella Wines is expanding its Yellow Tail line-up in the US.
Casella brings Yellow Tail fizz to US. The Australian company confirmed today (1 August) that Yellow Tail Sparkling White Wine will be available nationwide from the beginnnig of next month. The wine is a blend of 72% Semillon with small amounts each of Traminer, Vigonier and Trebbiano.
Climate change will boost Tas wine production: experts
Tasmania could become a prominent wine producing state over the next three decades as climate change takes hold. Experts predict average temperatures to rise by three degrees over the next 30 to 50 years, which will ruin wine regions like South Africa, while the industry will expand into northern Europe and Canada. Professor Greg Jones, from Southern Oregon University in the United States, says Australia's inland wine regions will struggle to remain viable.
The New Zealand wine industry expects to overtake wool in export earnings in the next few years.
ts latest forecast, released at a wine exporters' forum in Wellington, is for the value of wine exports to reach $NZ1 billion by 2010 and double that by 2015. Global marketing director Chris Yorke predicts the United States will overtake Britain as New Zealand's biggest export market in 2010.
Screw-Cap Wine Tastes Like Corked Wine, Study Shows
PORTLAND, OR 2007-07-27 Oregon State University researchers released a study Thursday shedding new light on how people feel about wine -- and more precisely, how they feel about the stopper in the bottle. The study found a bias among wine drinkers against synthetic corks or screw tops. But that loyalty dissolves in blind taste tests, according to Anna Marin, with OSU's Food Innovation Center.
Monday 30 July
McWilliam's comes to the rescue for Evans & Tate
EVANS & Tate's tortuous search for a white knight appears over, after Australia's eighth largest winemaker, McWilliam's Wines, agreed to help fund a restructure of the debt-ridden winemaker. Evans & Tate agreed to a bail-out package from Perth investment group Pendulum Capital, which includes McWilliam's taking a 25 per cent stake. McWilliam's deputy chairman Kevin McLintock said the deal's main attraction was that it would help his 130-year-old family-run company make its first foray into Western Australia.
Saturday 28 July
Pernod warns wine prices set to rise
Pernod Ricard, owner of Jacob’s Creek wine, said an era of cheap Australian “plonk” could shortly come to an end as drought damages the country’s grape harvests, heralding an end to the country’s wine glut. Pierre Pringuet, Pernod Ricard’s managing director, said: “This question of oversupply of wine [in Australia] is behind us – we might face a situation of shortage.” He argued that a shortage of grapes would help the group restore the “true value” of Jacob’s Creek, one of Australia’s biggest wine exports. “The competitive pressure on price is about to disappear.”
Thursday 26 July
Suit blows £105k in London bar
An unnamed businessman and around 18 friends last Saturday set an "all-time record" in alcoholic extravagance by working their way through £105,805 worth of booze in London's Crystal nightclub, the Telegraph reports. During the marathon spendfest, which kicked off with a bottle of Pinot Grigio (£25), they quaffed £80,000 worth of champagne, including a six-litre methuselah of Cristal (£30,000), two three-litre jeroboams of the same (£9,600*), four bottles of Cristal Rose (£2,400), six magnums of Dom Perignon (£4,200), 36 bottles of Cristal (£12,960), 12 bottles of Dom Perignon Rose (£4,200), 15 bottles of Dom Perignon 1999 (£3,600), and three magnums of Dom Perignon 1995 (£2,700).
Plastic fantastic... Is this the end of the glass wine bottle?
Now, in a move that will have wine snobs reeling even further, traditional glass bottles are being replaced with plastic. Next month, Sainsbury's is introducing lightweight and recyclable plastic bottles for some of its best selling wines. The supermarket insists that the new containers - made of recyclable PET - look exactly the same as conventional bottles, but are just an eighth of the weight.
Screwcaps worst for the environment says closure company
Screwcaps produce the largest carbon footprint compared to synthetic closures and corks says research conducted for a French closure company. The production of screwcaps gives off over 10kg of CO2 per tonne compared with 2.5kg of CO2 per tonne for corks, according to tests conducted by Cairn Environment for Oeneo Bouchage in France. The composite DIAM closure fell between the two, with a carbon footprint of 4.3kg of CO2 per tonne.
Tuesday 24 July
PENFOLD'S Grange has lost its position as the nation's top red in a tasting survey which gave equal points to a $38 shiraz made by a young South Australian woman. Grange sells for more than $500 a bottle. In wine guru James Halliday's new ratings released yesterday, Penfold's Grange 2002 was listed in second place behind Henschke's Hill of Grace 2002 ($550). In third position -- but on equal points -- came the Bremerton Wines Old Adam Shiraz 2004, made by 34-year-old Rebecca Willson.
Yarraman ponders another bite of Evans & Tate - report
Yarraman_Winery is set to return with yet another offer for Evans & Tate, according to local reports. The US-listed winery is preparing another bid for the Australian company, The Australian reported over the weekend, citing sources familiar with Yarraman. "The Australian subsidiary of the US company is looking to put something to the (Evans & Tate) board early next week," the source told the newspaper. While specific details were not disclosed, the source said that the new offer would be the best of all the bids made so far.
Victorian sommeliers are considering joining a wine boycott in protest against plans for a Tasmanian pulp mill, writes Jeni Port. MEMBERS of the Victorian chapter of the Australian Sommeliers Association will soon be receiving a letter. It will tell the group of 350 about a growing boycott by sommeliers of wine brands owned and controlled by Gunns Limited, the company behind a controversial plan for a multimillion-dollar pulp mill in northern Tasmania's Tamar Valley.
Investing in wine makes a case for profit
Wine investing used to conjure images of red-faced old men swilling and spitting claret in a damp cellar. Not any more. Today's serious investors carry out rigorous research into the best growers and have their wine stored in a merchant's temperature-controlled cellar. Usually, they sell without ever tasting a drop. Get the price and timing right and returns can be handsome. A 1986 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild Bordeaux bought for £3,150 a case in 2005 now sells for £9,600 - a return of 200%.
Saturday 21 July
Cheviot Bridge
backs out of Evans & Tate sale
The company said today that it will no longer be involved in a deal with the
winemaker, which offered Evans & Tate an alternative to an offer from Ferngrove
Vineyards, as well as restructuring plans proposed by financial services group
Pendulum Capital and ANZ Banking Group. Under the Ferngrove proposal, Evans &
Tate would merge with Ferngrove in return for the issue of 413.33m shares to
Ferngrove. The proposed merger would also see ANZ, to whom Evans & Tate owes
around A$100m (US$84.86m), convert $45m of that debt into 409.09m shares at 11
cents each.
UK: Jacob's Creek pushes sparkling wines on radio
Pernod Ricard has lined up a wave of radio advertising for its Jacob’s_Creek wine brand in the UK. The company said yesterday (19 July) that the campaign will feature two radio adverts, one promoting the entire Jacob's Creek sparkling range and the other specifically pushing its sparkling rosé in the country.
Wine industry reassures investors amid oversupply
The wine industry is warning investors not to get carried away with figures showing a drop in supply, amid renewed interest in managed investment schemes. New figures show MIS investment in the wine grape sector has jumped 24 per cent in the past year. While the drought has chipped away at Australia's grape glut, the industry says the oversupply of wine grapes could be back at record levels by 2010. Wine Grape Growers Australia's Mark Mackenzie says there is a dangerous perception that the industry has returned to normal conditions.
NZ Wine supply fails to keep up
Demand for New Zealand wine is outstripping supply, despite an 11 per cent increase in the tonnage of grapes produced this year. This year's grape harvest was 205,000 tonnes, up from 185,000 tonnes last year. Despite the increase, growers are struggling to meet demand. Some in the industry believe even doubling production would not satisfy overseas orders.
Gunns blames Greens for wine boycott
The chairman of Tasmanian timber company, Gunns Limited, John Gay is blaming the Greens for a decision by some Melbourne restaurateurs not to stock wines produced by the company. A number of restaurants, including one established by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, are not offering Tamar Ridge wines because of concern about the potential impact of Gunns' proposed pulp mill on wine producers in the Tamar Valley.
Sunday 15 July
NT eradicates dangerous wine grape disease
The Northern Territory has successfully eradicated Australia's only grapevine leaf rust outbreak. The fungus, which is believed to have come from East Timor, could have damaged Australia's $4.6 billion wine and tablegrape sector after its discovery in Darwin in 2001. Now, the Top End has seen the world's first successful eradication of rust disease
'New Europe' up in arms over EU wine reform plan
Wine producers from new European Union members in central and eastern Europe say that EU's plans to reform the wine sector will come at their expense and could have "dramatic" implications. But vine growers and wine producers in new EU member states worry that they will lose out under these new measures, although they say they favour reforms. Speaking on the gentle slopes of eastern Hungary's famed Tokaj region, Laszlo Kiss, president of Hungary's National Council of Wine Communities, told AFP: "If this EU reform is passed, I think the size of the vineyards under cultivation in Hungary will be halved. It could create a dramatic situation."
Friday 13 July
Deluge leaves French wine harvest at risk of ruin from mildew attack
Sixty days and nights of almost incessant rain threaten to ruin large parts of the French wine harvest this year, especially in Bordeaux. Some small vineyards have already lost their entire crop to a form of mildew, a fungal parasite which thrives in damp and warm conditions. Other forms of mildew, including the dreaded potato blight, are threatening to destroy other crops in France, ranging from tomatoes to cherries.
High-Octane Wine Fashion Craze Provokes Dumping, Rebellion
The other night I dumped a $75 Sonoma merlot down the drain. Why? The wine had a hot aftertaste that reminded me of the flamethrower finish of bad grappa. OK, maybe I shouldn't have been surprised. The fine print on the label said it contained a whopping 15 percent alcohol. Over the past decades, alcohol levels in wine have been racheting up ominously. In the Napa Valley, the average climbed to 14.8 percent in 2001 from 12.5 percent in 1971. Even some once-delicate Oregon pinots are hitting 14 percent to 15 percent and taste more like syrah.Welcome to the age of overpowering wines.
Jacob’s Creek and Gallo world's best known wine brands - survey
Jacob's Creek and Gallo are the world's best known wine brands, according to a survey released this week. The Vinitrac Global Survey also found that French brand JP Chenet is "very well known", and was highly ranked in several markets. The survey, which is owned by Wine Intelligence, took responses from over 11,000 wine consumers across 11 key wine markets during March 2007.
Wednesday 11 July
Europe to bottle our winning wine ways
SPOOKED by the success of wine producers in Australia, the European Commission is taking a leaf out of Australia's book as it frames laws to help its winemakers fight back against invaders such as Jacob's Creek, Banrock Station, Yellow Tail, Nottage Hill and Lindemans Bin 65. With exports from Australia and the United States flooding supermarket shelves in Britain and squeezing out more expensive French and Italian rivals, the Europeans have plans to shake up the lower end of the industry - by copying our marketing techniques. "We've frightened the life out of the Europeans," said Bruce Tyrrell, chief executive of Hunter Valley winery Tyrrell's.
Last year there were too many grapes; this year not enough. Say goodbye to the flood of cheap wine and hello to price rises. Jeni Port reports. FOR two years, Brian Zrna was just another Murray Valley winegrower with a bunch of vines no one wanted. Like other growers dealing with unhappy banks, he thought of ways every day to rid himself of bills and trim costs on his 62-hectare vineyard outside Mildura.
Concern over Gunns' proposed pulp mill appears to be spreading, with a number of Melbourne restaurants deciding not to stock wine from Tamar Ridge. The businesses say they can't support a winery owned by a company that wants to build a pulp mill which they believe could hurt the industry. Restaurateur Frank Wilden says they're not necessarily anti-pulp mill but are worried about the impact a mill could have on Tasmania's food and wine industry.
Le Pin, Petrus over €1000 per bottle and climbing
Bordeaux ultra-blue chip properties Le Pin and Pétrus have finally released their en primeur 2006 wine prices. Both will retail for more than €1000 per bottle. Le Pin owner Jacques Thienpont said he had released his 2006 wine for €500 per bottle ex-chateau, the same price as the 2005 vintage. The production of Le Pin in 2006 was 18 barrels, or 5,400 bottles. Thienpont said he had put almost all the 2006 production on the market, keeping back only two barrels or 600 bottles for personal use, for tastings and some for possible sale at a later date.
Sunday 8 July
Europe to bottle our winning wine ways
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and they are trying to do what we've done over the last 20 years." Under the proposed regulations a winemaker in the Czech Republic or Austria will be able to blend his fruit with grapes grown in Portugal or Spain. The wine would bear a label stating the grape variety and vintage - but not the country of origin. Australian producers regularly blend fruit from several states. European winemakers hope the new blends, which have been dubbed "Europlonk", will help stem the New World tide.
Record $3bn exports for Australian wine
AUSTRALIAN wine exports rose to new records in value and volume in the 2006/07 financial year. Wine exports were valued at $2.99 billion, with 798 million litres exported in the 12-month period, the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation said today. The corporation's Wine Export Approval report revealed the value of exports rose 7 per cent from the previous financial year. But volume growth dropped three per cent to eight per cent, despite setting the new record.
Thursday 5 July
EU sets sights on bold plan for draining wine lakes
Europe's farm chief unveiled an ambitious five-year plan on Wednesday that offers generous cash rewards to winemakers to encourage them to dig up some of their grape vines, hoping to drain the EU's substantial "wine lakes". Under a scheme to start in August 2008, if EU farm ministers agree, subsidies to abandon vineyards would fall gradually each year in a carrot-and-stick approach to promote early "take-up" similar to that used in the EU's recent sugar reform.
New EU wine plans dubbed 'dangerous'
The EU's wine reform proposals – including allowing blends from grapes grown in different countries - have been branded 'dangerous' by AOC producers. The European Commission today set out its proposals for a major overhaul of the European wine industry, which include offering producers over €7,000 per hectare to uproot vines, banning chaptalisation (adding sugar to wine), and major changes in labelling rules.
Monday 2nd July
Riot police on alert as Languedoc winemakers plan protest
Angry Languedoc winemakers will hold a protest on Monday against EU plans to rip up their vines. Riot police are on standby for the demonstration, expecting Languedoc's wine militant group CRAV (Comité Régional d'Action Viticole) at the protest. The march takes place in Béziers just two days before controversial wine market reforms are announced in Brussels. Previous protests have brought attacks on train lines, supermarkets and large wineries by the group. Tension in southern France remains high after masked militants threatened more action in a recent ultimatum to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The European Commission is putting out to tender the opportunity to turn its excess wine into bioethanol. But if the commission gets its way, this will be the last time the European Union subsidizes such a move. The European Union currently spends 1.3 billion euros (US$1.75 billion) a year supporting the wine industry. Up to 7% of this, or 90 million euros, goes towards 'crisis distillation', where as much as 45 million litres of EU wine, often of undrinkably poor quality, is bought and distilled into ethanol for use as fuel.
It isn't exactly David slaying Goliath, but an equally unexpected victory has stunned the California wine industry. The cheapest wine in California just won top honors in one of the top wine competitions. When the national media catches-up, you will see this news elsewhere. "Two Buck Chuck" is the nickname for the extremely inexpensive wines sold exclusively in the Trader Joe's chain of grocery stores, which specialize in upscale foods at fairly downscale prices.
