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Global Trends Weekly Update

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12.03.2010

Critical Publics | EDOAO

Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ...... 2

Global Market Watch ...... 4

Dealcoholised wine launched to combat alcohol abuse ...... 4 La Mission Haut-Brion white changes name ...... 4 Moth prompts quarantine in Calif. wine region ...... 5 Black Tower resurgent with 'premium' range ...... 5 Tesco offers limited parcel of McGuigan's premium ...... 6 Oddbins: Fall and rise of a British institution ...... 6 California’s best wine cellars ...... 7

Global Industry Watch ...... 8

New York looks to wine sales to close budget gap ...... 8 Bill would allow direct wine shipments in NJ ...... 9 Buffett Said To Be Weighing Entry Into Spirits And Wine Distribution ...... 9 The Squeeze on Napa Valley Wine ...... 10 Gallo invests in five core brands ...... 11 Nouveau World Wine investigated over claims ...... 11 Local focus for Wine Shak ...... 11 SA bottling jobs shifted overseas ...... 12 Quake puts dent in Chile's wine business ...... 12 Wine export gap after Chile quake ...... 13 Producers in denial as blight leaves some French white wines 'almost undrinkable' ...... 14 China becomes biggest export market for outside EU ...... 15

Wine Domain Catalysts Watch ...... 15

Are you ready for wines from Japan? ...... 15 Wine: Beware of floods, fires and locusts ...... 17 's bulk wine imports plummet ...... 17

Scientific Developments & Technological Breakthroughs Watch ...... 19

Women who drink wine 'less likely to gain weight' ...... 19 The Claim: A Glass of Wine With Dinner Aids Digestion ...... 20

Wines from Greece Publicity Monitor ...... 20

The big bangs: For wine that packs a huge punch, try a bottle from a volcanic region ...... 20

Blogosphere Monitor ...... 21

Napa Report: My Adventures in Wine Country ...... 21 wine shipping rides a wave of support–and pessimism ...... 23

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

An Open Letter to Warren Buffett, Wine and Spirits Distributor ...... 24

Peripheral Domains Intelligence ...... 25

Asia’s first Master of Wine ...... 25 Government wine committee raises a glass in spirit of defiance ...... 26

Global Sustaining & Emerging Trends Digest ...... 27

Fine wine at 14% alcohol is impossible - or is it? ...... 27

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Global Market Watch

The global market watch outlines developments, spotted and emerging trends that define the current situation in the global wine landscape. It includes all major developments in the market including consumer trends relating to wine and marketing campaigns or approaches, as well as concerns on health and sustainability.

Dealcoholised wine launched to combat alcohol abuse

DECANTER, UK

05.03.10: A new dealcoholised wine has been launched onto the Italian market, in an effort to combat alcohol abuse. The 0.5% wine is made from fully fermented wine that is vacuum distilled to reduce the alcohol content. The release of wine, called Winezero, follows Italian Agricultural Minister Luca Zaia's praise of dealcoholised wine in curbing alcohol abuse. Winezero is being made in made in Valladolid, , from from the Duero, Rueda and Cigales and the range includes a red, white, , and an American -aged red. The wine was created by Italian entrepreneurs Massimiliano Bertolini and Manuel Zanella who are targeting young people and those who don't want to, or can't drink alcohol. 'We're not in competition with traditional wine. It's a new drink, equal to decaffeinated coffee or non-alcoholic beer,' Bertolini said. 'Dealcoholised wine is already trendy in Spain, France and Germany. There was a gap in the Italian market and it was the right time to fill it,' Bertolini said.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=295673

La Mission Haut-Brion white changes name

DECANTER, UK

10.03.10: The of Château La Mission Haut-Brion, one of the most celebrated whites in Bordeaux, will change its name as of the 2009 vintage. Previously known as Château Laville Haut-Brion, it will become simply Château La Mission Haut- Brion Blanc. The former name, Laville Haut-Brion, dates from 1928, and was the combination of two separate estate names, Château La Mission Haut-Brion and Clos Laville. The latter is a 2.5 hectare neighbouring estate bought by the then-owner of La Mission, Frederic Woltner, which produced a majority of white wine. …

The 2008 vintage will be the last under this name, and as of 2009, the wine, produced exclusively since 1927 in the Château La Mission Haut-Brion cellars, will revert to its original name, La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc. The second wine, combining selected plots from both Château Haut-Brion Blanc and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion Blanc, has also been renamed, from Les Plantiers du Haut-Brion to La Clarté de Haut-Brion. Prince Robert of Luxembourg, president of Chateau Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut Brion, told decanter.com, 'It was frustrating for me when even people close to us couldn't remember our family of wines. 'Even though Laville Haut-Brion had a wonderful reputation, people didn't always know that it was the white wine of La Mission. We want our consumers to understand where our wines come from, and what they stand for.' The second wine

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update of Chateau Haut-Brion was changed for the 2007 vintage from Chateau Bahans Haut-Brion to Le Clarence de Haut-Brion.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=295815

Moth prompts quarantine in Calif. wine region

BUSINESS WEEK, USA

10.03.10: A -eating moth in Napa County has prompted a quarantine that will regulate the shipment of fruit and some plants in the heart of the state's premier wine region.The European grapevine moth first was detected in the Oakville area as grapes were reaching their peak last September.Since then, traps set across the region have shown the moth's spread. That prompted the California Department of Food and Agriculture to impose a quarantine Tuesday for 162 square miles into parts of Sonoma and Solano counties.Larvae do the most damage. In the spring, they emerge to eat young clusters or flowers. Second- and third-generation moths eat the ripening grapes. Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle says the state will announce what restrictions the quarantine entails by the end of the month.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EBRV780.htm

Black Tower resurgent with 'premium' range

DECANTER, UK

12.03.10: brand Black Tower has announced plans to produce a new range of Special Release wines, coupled with a new bottle design for the brand. Reh Kendermann, the brand's owner, unveiled the new design for their flagship wine 'Rivaner' in February this year. Black Tower, in the distinctive squat black bottle, was a staple of 1970s dinner parties. It dropped out of the national consciousness but has seldom been out of the top 20 best-selling wines in the UK. In 2002 it enjoyed a renaissance when it was revealed to be the favourite wine of the housemates in a new reality TV show, Big Brother, and in 2008 it launched in a can. The signature black roughened glass has now been replaced with a new style, incorporating clear glass at the bottom of the bottle. All of the Black Tower premium wines will be released with the new black and white design, and will consist initially of three single varietal wines: , and . The Chardonnay and Riesling wines will be vinified from parcels of fruit in the Pfalz region in southwest Germany while the Pinot Noir is grown in Baden. Alison Flemming MW, export sales director for Reh Kendermann told decanter.com 'The Special Release range is produced from carefully selected grapes from lower yielding to provide more concentrated and complex flavour. 'These wines will particularly interest those consumers looking for a special wine at an affordable price level', she added. …

The Black Tower premium range has a suggested retail selling price of £7.99 and will be available to consumers from May 2010.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=295843

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Tesco offers limited parcel of McGuigan's premium wines

OFF LICENCE NEWS, UK

10.03.10: Australian producer McGuigan Wines has teamed up with Tesco to offer its online shoppers a limited parcel of wines from its premium portfolio. The wines, which include trophy and medal winners from the International Wine Challenge, will be available from next week in limited quantities. The wines featured include McGuigan Shortlist Chardonnay 2007, which won a trophy at the IWC in the Australian Chardonnay category. The retailer will be selling a mixed case with an RRP of £96 with only 100 available.Paul Schaafsma, general manager UK and Europe for McGuigan Wines' brand-owner Australian Vintage said: “The past 12 months have been hugely successful for the McGuigan brand in the UK. Value and volume growth has out-performed the market, and our wines have enjoyed widespread critical acclaim in prestigious competitions such as the IWC. This premium parcel with Tesco.com is a further step in the development and evolution of the McGuigan brand in the UK, and we look forward to introducing our broader portfolio of wines to the market throughout 2010.”

http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/articles/80392/Tesco-offers-limited-parcel-of-McGuigans- premium-wines.aspx?categoryid=245

Oddbins: Fall and rise of a British institution

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

11.03.10: After far too long in the doldrums Oddbins has a spring in its step once again. I worked there years ago in my year off, and during university holidays, in the days when it was wild, wacky and eccentric, with delightfully quirky wines (and even quirkier staff). Friday nights in the Covent Garden store in Earlham Street were a hoot, with multi-tattooed Marcus on one till, Tom in his bespoke tux and black tie (off to the opera) on the other, and the manager blotto and snoring in the office. Locals would drop by to shoot the breeze, play a quick game of cards at the end of the counter and have a taste of whatever new and exciting bottles we had open. Learning about wine the easy way I drove the Oddbins delivery van for a while, too, until I was relieved from duty after twin disasters. I returned several cases lighter thanks to having taken that kink in the Blackwall Tunnel a wee bit too speedily and, a day later, turned up two hours late with the fizz for a Duran Duran album launch. If Simon Le Bon had put as much effort into his singing as he did then into his invective, I really think that band might have made something of themselves. Oddbins did much to popularise wine drinking in Britain, pioneering the wines of Australia and Chile in particular and, for a while, those of Bulgaria too (remember them?). It opened shops in Paris, put its staff through the Wine and Spirit Education Trust's higher certificate and diploma courses, and was the only chain to boast its own full-time art department, producing wonderfully brash posters and point-of-sale material. Having been sold, the firm fell on hard times, though, and became something of a high-street joke, first in the hands of Seagram and then under the control of French drinks giant Castel, who insisted on stuffing it with cheap, dreary brands and uninterested, lacklustre staff. It has recently been

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update bought, though, by Simon Baile – son of its previous owner Nick – and it has been transformed. The list has been cut and the brands largely ditched in favour of small parcels from independent producers. Baile has said that if he and his team find a wine they like, they'll happily buy just 600 bottles of it. Now happily out of the grip of Castel, there is no pressure simply to pile it high and sell it cheap. As I discover on a visit to my local store in Hove there are now wines of real style on the shelves and at fair prices, too. Unlike Majestic – a long-time favourite of mine – there's no minimum purchase either, but if you buy by the (unmixed) dozen you get 20 per cent off, at which point prices become really keen. Of the dozen or so wines I taste, there isn't one that I wouldn't happily drink again. I had rather taken my eye off Oddbins of late, but it's a great British institution and deserves to be taken seriously once more. It once had something of a reputation as a rather eccentric wine trade finishing school and the trade is crammed with those who spent time in its employ. It's good to see it back on form. Its nearest rival, Majestic, needs to look to its laurels. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/7414194/Oddbins-Fall-and-rise-of-a-British- institution.html

California’s best wine cellars

FINANCIAL TIMES, UK

05.03.10: A few years ago, my husband and I visited a small on the fringe of Burgundy. Though the wines were modest, the owners’ goals were grand. They had a new barn-like welcome centre, unusual in France’s famous wine-growing region, lots of tasting space and the beginnings of an art gallery. “Just like California,” boasted one of the proprietors after discovering we were Americans. Plaintively, she added: “It is like California, right?” …

As in Burgundy, the vines in Napa and Sonoma counties sweep from the sides of the road up into beautiful rolling hills. The Napa Valley is roughly 30 miles long and a few miles wide. Burgundy’s prime Côte d’Or, or gold coast, is just a bit larger, stretching from Dijon to Santenay. Sonoma, separated from Napa by the Mayacamas mountain range, is bigger than Burgundy and Napa combined. Yet like Burgundy (and unlike sprawling Bordeaux), the twin California regions are relatively compact and accessible.

While wine growing in Burgundy dates back to the Romans, it was monks in the Middle Ages who developed “the best wines in Christendom” for local dukes. California wines have their own religious roots, thanks to Spanish missionaries who planted grapes there. In the 19th century, European immigrants brought their own traditions. Towards the end of the last century, entrepreneurs piled in, covering Napa and Sonoma with vineyards. …

With more ground to cover in northern California, it’s hard to avoid zig-zagging over the hills from county to county. And while the towns of Napa and Sonoma, St Helena, Healdsburg and Calistoga are lovely and historic, their primary industry seems to be tourism, not winemaking.A few Burgundian châteaux, such as Pommard and Meursault, offer regular, organised tours (with admission charges) followed by wine tastings. But our favourite way to sample local wines is to seek out small, family-owned . We often just stop the car at homes with “dégustation” (tasting) signs in front. We have also sought out the

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update maker of a wine in Monthélie that we had enjoyed at dinner in Beaune the night before, chased down a St Aubin winemaking family whose son we once met, and visited the Aloxe-Corton estate belonging to a colleague’s family. That’s not to say that all Burgundy wineries are open for spontaneous tastings. At many, you need a booking; others are simply closed to the public.In California, more than 200 wineries – many with enormous tasting rooms, parking lots and tasteful gift shops – are open to the public. In fact, wineries are so numerous on some roads that houses in between put up “Private Residence” signs to deter visitors. Our first stop was Cline Vineyards, a mere 45 minutes from San Francisco, which offers free tours and tastings. Like many California wineries, Cline has additional attractions for children and the abstemious: gardens and ponds (good for picnicking), farm animals and birds, and a museum featuring scale models of California mission churches. Even without discounts, California tastings are fun. Typically, a charming - salesperson will welcome you to the winery’s bar, explain how the tastings work – $15 for four wines at Franciscan Winery, for example – and guide you through the whites and reds. Don and I generally shared a single glass, which was not discouraged, given California’s strict drink- driving laws. We were almost always offered free additional samplings of premium wines – perhaps to reward our enthusiasm, probably to prompt a purchase. Whether in France or the US, we usually buy at least one bottle wherever we receive a warm reception.At one Sonoma stop, we heard an enthusiast ask if he could fit 15 wineries into a single day. The sommelier counselled no more than eight; we managed barely four. At another tasting, a young Japanese man asked to sample just the (pricey) Cabernet Sauvignons, which he did at no charge. Both Burgundy and California have plenty of charming places to stay, as well as world-class restaurants with fantastic wine lists. Thomas Keller, chef-owner of The French Laundry in Yountville, says he was inspired by Michelin three-star restaurants in the French countryside. Burgundy has three such establishments: Lameloise in Chagny, Côtes St Jacques in Joigny and Le Relais de Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu. We, however, prefer simpler bistros: P’tit Paradis and Caveau des Arches in Beaune; Bouchon in Yountville and the Fig Café in Glen Ellen, where there is no corkage fee if you want to drink your new purchases. …

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Global Industry Watch

This section records developments and trends on both industry and individual corporation levels that form a matrix of the major issues and moves in the industry as a whole or by its critical actors and groupings, such as trade associations and regulatory bodies.

New York looks to wine sales to close budget gap

LA TIMES, USA

07.03.10: Quick, which of the following is not allowed in New York: riding the subway without pants, performing a play in public while naked, or buying wine at the grocery store? If you chose the last option, perhaps you've been following one of the liveliest debates to emerge from otherwise dry budget talks in the state capital, Albany, where politicians struggling with a dire fiscal crisis see wine as an antidoteNew York remains one of 15 states that limit wine sales to liquor stores. But the proposed 2010-11 budget would open sales to grocery stores to generate an estimated $250 million in revenue from new liquor licenses. In this

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update bastion of liberalism -- home to the city that never sleeps, a burgeoning local wine industry, and a mainly urban populace that prides itself on sophistication -- it might seem like broadening wine sales would be as welcome as a full-bodied red on a cold winter's night.But the state's powerful liquor store lobby has successfully fended off similar attempts in the past -- most recently during last year's budget debate -- arguing that the change would drive small liquor stores out of business by making it convenient for shoppers to buy wine at grocery stores. "What would be left for us?" said Dominic Noel, the manager of Wine Chateau, a Brooklyn shop with pressed ceilings, wooden floors, and racks holding 2,600 labels catering to customers looking for obscure bottles you wouldn't find near the cereal aisle of Food King: a Petite Sirah from Baja California, Mexico, for example, and a shelf loaded with Greek wines."As a wine store, we deliver a particular type of service -- a type of happiness," Noel said. Opponents of change, led by a coalition called Last Store on Main Street, say specialized wine stores are a New York staple that offer wine lovers an array of labels from around the world. …

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/07/nation/la-na-new-york-wine7-2010mar07

Bill would allow direct wine shipments in NJ

BUSINESS WEEK, USA

11.03.10: A bill allowing wine to be shipped directly to customers has been approved by the New Jersey Senate. Two Democratic senators who sponsored the bill say lifting the direct-shipping ban would benefit consumers while also helping the state's emerging wine industry.New Jersey is the sixth-largest wine producing state in the country. Many small wineries sell their products onsite or in a limited number of stores, but they can't ship it to customers. Senate President Steve Sweeney says allowing direct shipping would result in wider distribution of Garden State wines. Thirty-five other states already have direct shipping laws on the books. The measure passed 29-5. It now heads to the Assembly.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9ECMMG01.htm

Buffett Said To Be Weighing Entry Into Spirits And Wine Distribution

TRADE NEWS ONLINE, USA

05.03.10: Warren Buffett, one of the world’s best-known and most successful investors, is said to be targeting a new business—spirits and wine distribution. Industry insiders claim that Buffett, CEO of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, is considering a purchase of Empire Distributors, one of Georgia’s biggest wholesalers. The Atlanta-based Empire, which also has operations in North Carolina, is owned by David and Michael Khan, grandsons of Max Khan, who founded the company in 1940. At press time, David Khan, who serves as Empire’s President, hadn’t responded to requests for comment on the potential deal. Berkshire Hathaway is certainly no stranger to the distribution trade. It has owned Temple, Texas-based McLane Co., a $30 billion grocery distribution business, since purchasing the company from Wal-Mart for $1.45 billion in 2003. Of course, given the complexities of the three-tier system and the labyrinth of state laws governing the sale of beverage alcohol, spirits and wine distribution is a far different business than food distribution. Berkshire Hathaway also hasn’t responded to requests for comment. While the spirits and

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update wine distribution tier has undergone a massive consolidation over the past decade, Georgia and other so-called “franchise” states have remained largely immune from the trend, because the laws governing the business in those states inhibit brand and portfolio shifts between distribution houses. Still, the entrance of a seminal figure like Buffett into an increasingly national industry that’s still dominated by family-owned companies would surely shake things up.

http://www.tradenewsonline.com/content/show/id/7254

The Squeeze on Napa Valley Wine

BUSINESS WEEK, USA

11.03.10: That sound you hear is not the uncorking of a cabernet—it's the popping of California's wine country bubble. Crumbling land prices and a newfound popularity of cheaper wine may turn 2010 into a vintage year for Napa Valley foreclosures. As many as 10 premium wineries and vineyards in the area—home to the nation's priciest grapes—will change hands in distressed sales or foreclosures this year and next, according to an estimate by Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB). (In 2008 there were none.)

Napa land values, which average $150,000 to $200,000 an acre for a planted with red varietals, have fallen 15% from the 2007 peak. Falling land prices, of course, make it harder to refinance mortgages. Adding to their woes is the sudden frugality of the American wine drinker. Between 1991 and 2008 the dollar value of U.S. retail wine sales rose every year, almost tripling in that time, according to consultant Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates in Woodside, Calif. Last year sales dropped by 3.3%, to $29 billion, as prices were driven down by wine from Chile, Argentina, Australia, and elsewhere. (Chile's recent earthquake devastated many wineries but isn't expected to affect world prices, Gomberg Fredrikson says.) Rabobank Nederland, a Utrecht-based bank that finances agriculture, says sales of bottles priced above $30 fell at least 15% last year. "No more is it about stocking wine cellars with 5,000 bottles of Screaming Eagle," says Peter Kaufman, managing partner of Bacchus Capital Management, a private equity firm in Pleasanton, Calif., referring to a Napa cult cabernet that can sell for $750 or more a bottle. "High-rollers are discovering that there are lots of drinkable $20 to $40 bottles of wine." Now the strongest vintners are snapping up some bargains of their own. In December, Bill Harlan, who purchased his Oakville land in 1984, bought 21 acres next door known as Diamond Oaks Winery from businessman Dinesh Maniar. He's the owner of two other Napa parcels that face foreclosure, according to county land records and bankruptcy court documents. "In the long run," says Harlan, whose 2007 vintage Harlan Estate Proprietary Red sells for $500 a bottle, "those that manage their wines better and manage their land better will be fine." http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_12/b4171074642299.htm?chan=auto s_living+well+--+lifestyle+subindex+page_living+well+features

Also published:

Wine Is Not an Immunity to Foreclosure - NBC, USA http://www.nbcbayarea.com/around-town/food-drink/Wine-Is-Not-an-Immunity-to- Foreclosures-87156302.html

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Gallo invests in five core brands

OFF LICENCE NEWS, UK

10.03.10: E&J Gallo Winery will continue to focus its marketing and promotional efforts in the UK on five core brands in a bid to drive “sustainable, profitable growth throughout 2010”.The move is part of a wider strategy that begun last year to survive in challenging market conditions. It included reducing the amount of SKUs in Gallo’s portfolio to less than 100, scaling back on promotional activity, and implementing targeted price rises that resulted in a drop in volume sales. The family-owned producer also refocused its UK wine range by identifying Gallo Family Vineyards, Turning Leaf, Redwood Creek, Barefoot and Carlo Rossi as the key brands that will deliver future growth.This year the company will focus “all resources” behind those five ranges, according to George Marsden, vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.“We feel we are in a much better and much more sustainable place. We now have five core brands, we used to have over 20. We realised we cannot be everything to everyone, we have reduced our whole business.“Our definition of value is quality for the price that you pay – we decided to invest in quality. We took measured calculated price increases across our portfolio that put us at a disadvantage,” he said. Barefoot will be “the brand to watch for in 2010”, according to Marsden, who predicted it will be “the number one global brand within five years time”. This year’s plans include sponsorship of 500 events across the UK, including The Secret Garden Party and Pride, and a Europe-wide sampling campaign targeting 60,000 consumers.Gallo will build on the continuing demand for rosé by promoting a new cocktail called Gallo Rosito, which mixes the brand’s White rosé with ginger ale and red fruits. A Pinot Noir will also be added to the range.The other three brands will be backed by “robust, strategic marketing plans and partnerships”, Marsden added.

http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/articles/80390/Gallo-invests-in-five-core- brands.aspx?categoryid=9059

Nouveau World Wine investigated over vintage claims

THE DAILY MIRROR, UK

06.03.10: A company at the centre of a suspected £3million wine investment fraud has been raided by Scotland Yard. Detectives are investigating Nouveau World Wine's claim of "lucrative" returns on vintage . Cold-call salesmen tempted buyers by saying wine increases in value with age.But one £40,000 investor said: "To date I have nothing!" Twenty other firms offering the same deal have been closed in the past 10 years. Six people at the firm in Bromley, Kent, have been arrested and bailed.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/03/06/nouveau-world-wine-investigated- over-vintage-claims-115875-22089160/

Local focus for Wine Shak

OFF LICENCE NEWS, UK

05.03.10: Hampshire-based Wickham Vineyards has vowed to stock the 15 former

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

First Quench stores it rescued from closure with “local products from local suppliers”.The wine producer is in talks with local wine suppliers and breweries after buying nine Wine Rack stores and five Threshers in Hampshire – including branches in Southampton, Winchester and the New Forest – and one Wine Rack store in Dorset. The new shops have been renamed Wine Shak.Owner Nitin Parekh told OLN: “The first thing we wanted to do was source as locally as we could. Our key to differentiation is that we are a local company –we want to make sure other local businesses are able to survive.” Alongside wines from Wickham’s own portfolio, the shops will stock a “strong organic and Fairtrade offering” and wines from Europe and the New World that aren’t available in supermarkets.The tobacco range previously offered by Threshers and Wine Rack will be reduced. …

Tastings in the shops will be used to promote Wickham’s Wine Share club, which gives members the opportunity to attend tutored tastings and events at Wickham’s vineyards and others in , Provence, Côtes de Duras and Chianti. Members can also buy wines at special rates or from Wickham’s warehouse in Calais.

http://www.offlicencenews.co.uk/articles/80273/Local-focus-for-Wine- Shak.aspx?categoryid=257

SA bottling jobs shifted overseas

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA

10.03.10: THE American group Constellation Brands, which owns Australia's largest wine business, BRL Hardy Wine, has laid off 40 staff at its South Australian bottling headquarters as it shifts more production to Britain in order to cope with the downturn in the global wine industry and fluctuating exchange ratesBusinessDay has learnt that the slimming of the Australian operations is part of Constellation Brands's new ''in-market bottling'' strategy: it is aiming to bottle a greater proportion of wine in countries close to its target markets. This means a greater volume of Australian wine destined for Europe will be bottled, packaged and processed in Britain.The job losses are the latest blow to the Australian wine sector, which has suffered over the past year from a huge oversupply of grapes, the global financial crisis and the strong Australian dollar…

The Foster's wine review, which began in February last year, led to 300 employees being cut loose. The company says it has also reinvested in some of its brands, including its Wolf Blass portfolio.Meanwhile, Constellation Brands is still talking to Australian Vintage, formerly McGuigan Simeon, about a possible merger of their Australian and British wine assets. It is unclear whether a deal would lead to further job losses and a restructuring of the Australian operations.Net sales by Constellation's wine division fell to $US876.8 million ($961 million) for the second quarter of 2009-10 from $US956.5 million in the 2008-09 second quarter. Constellation's shares were steady at $1.65 yesterday.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/sa-bottling-jobs-shifted-overseas-20100309-pvrg.html

Quake puts dent in Chile's wine business

USA TODAY, USA

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

05.03.10: Samuel Castro, a security guard at Bisquertt Winery's 1,400-acre vineyard here in the Colchagua Valley, arrived at his job at 7 a.m. last Saturday and couldn't believe what he saw.

"The road was turned into a red torrent; the wine was streaming down the irrigation ditch," he remembered. Five days after the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake that hit Chile, the more than 300-foot-long dirt road that leads to Bisquertt's main cellar was still soaked, had a dark- purple color and emanated a smell of putrid wine.Several storage tanks cracked, dozens of barrels burst and hundreds of bottles shattered, releasing about 20,000 liters of , said Jaime Araya, a manager at Bisquertt.Similar devastations struck most of the wineries in this valley and many more along the central-south region of Chile, which is home to 70% of the wine production in this country and which the quake hit hardest.The nation's largest wine growers association, Vinos de Chile, estimates that 12.5% of current production was destroyed, putting losses at $250 million. Chile is the world's ninth-largest producer of wine, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine, with exports reaching $1.3 billion in 2009 or about 70% of total production. The United States was the second-biggest market for Chilean wines after Europe, importing some $250 million worth. René Merino, president of Vinos de Chile, said at a news conference that local and foreign shipments will return to normal soon.Patricio Middleton, managing director and partner of Montgras Winery here in the Colchagua Valley, is not so optimistic. "This will be the end for many growers," he said, pointing out that many winemakers were already squeezed by a weakened dollar and that some might not have had earthquake insurance. The quake severely damaged the facilities at Montgras, a premium wine producer focused on foreign markets. Middleton estimated that 30,000 liters of wine have been lost because of the quake, while pointing to the rubble of barrels in Montgras' main cellar. He predicted that Montgras will need to invest $5 million to repair all the damage and make up for the losses. In 2009, the company's export revenue was $22 million. People in Santa Cruz, the largest city in the Colchagua Valley with just over 30,000 residents, are likely to be hit especially hard by the heavy damage in wineries. Winemakers provide employment to almost 20% of the city's population, said Fermin Gutierrez, municipal secretary at the mayor's office. Now the situation is uncertain. The quake hit just a few days before the start of the . This weekend was supposed to see a three-day-long wine harvest celebration in Santa Cruz, which attracts thousands of visitors each year. The coronation of the wine harvest queen is the main summer-end event in this city. All activities were canceled. Just as in some parts of California, wine in this Chilean region is part of local culture and pride. Residents' lives revolve around it. Santa Cruz's main bakery, Panificadora Santa Cruz, has its own and, besides bread and cakes, sells bottled wine to the public.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-03-04-Chile-wineries_N.htm

Wine export gap after Chile quake

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, AUSTRALIA

06.03.10: AT THE risk of insensitivity, the earthquake that has affected Chile's previously robust wine industry has provided a rare glimmer of opportunity for an Australian sector that mostly has gone backwards. There are more than 100 million cases of Australian wine languishing in storage without throats to lubricate.While our exports fell by 8 million cases and 21 per cent of value from an October 2007 peak, Chile generally rode a wave of export success, pegging back Australia's long-time lead.The managing

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update director of Angove Wines, John Angove, said yesterday Australia had plenty of extra stock and production capacity to meet shortfalls.One report yesterday put the Chilean loss at 12 per cent of the 2009 vintage - 125 million litres. The quake on February 27 also devastated production capacity, from vineyards to wineries.''Without wishing to take advantage of an export rival's devastation, Australia has large surpluses in stock and growing capacity to help meet any new shortfalls,'' Mr Angove said.But this could be achieved only if Australia could meet Chile's relatively low prices. Therein lies Australian wine's biggest challenge.In a November statement to producers, the Winemakers' Federation of Australia, Wine Grape Growers' Australia and the federal government said the global financial crisis had not helped but was ''far from the only factor'' dragging down Australian wine profits. ''A strong dollar and our industry's cost competitiveness have been more significant,'' the statement said. Australia had lost more ground in higher priced wines and any growth at the lower end was unprofitable.''Better economic conditions will not automatically restore previous demand and even if they do, this would be insufficient to deal with our fundamental problem.'' One in five Australian grape vines are surplus to requirements and at least 17 per cent of vineyard capacity is uneconomic. Australia produces 20 to 40 million cases a year more than it sells, the equivalent of annual sales to Britain, where Australian wine dominates. ''Our surplus exceeds 100 million cases and at current rates of production and demand, this will more than double in two years,'' the statement said.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/wine-export-gap-after-chile-quake-20100305-poqo.html

Producers in denial as blight leaves some French white wines 'almost undrinkable'

THE TIMES, UK

07.03.10: THE industry has been accused of trying to cover up a blight that is cutting a swathe through some of the country's top vineyards. It is not yet understood why, but premature oxidation is making many white burgundy almost undrinkable just when they should be coming into their own. “Everywhere else in the world this worrying problem is the subject of internet websites dedicated entirely to it,” said Bernard Burtschy, a highly respected French wine critic. “But there is a real ‘omerta’, or code of honour, on the subject in France.” Producers are under attack for refusing to replace highly expensive “grand cru” bottles of white burgundy that should have been at their best a decade after being bottled but which instead tasted like . “They deny the problem exists and cast doubt on the quality of your cellar as a place to store wine, or on the cork, but they won’t give you a new bottle,” another expert told Le Figaro newspaper. Several explanations have been put forward, from global warming and subtle changes in production techniques to the declining quality of corks and increased yields of grapes. All white wine gradually oxidises in the bottle, going a darker colour and developing a distinctive flavour and smell, but this should not happen to the finest white burgundies for several years — and in some cases decades — after being bottled. The wines worst affected include some of the most prestigious in Burgundy, including Meursault and Montrachet. …

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article7052514.ece

China becomes biggest export market for bordeaux wine outside EU

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

11.03.10: The sector has high hopes of the 2009 harvest, with young wines being presented to the international trade and journalists over the coming weeks. "The situation is difficult for everybody," Alain Vironneau, chairman of the CIVB bordeaux wine body, said on Thursday. "Several hundreds of vineyards are at peril due to insufficient cash...Our companies, especially the smallest, need financial support," he added. He called the 2009 sales year "catastrophic", with exports down 14 per cent in volume and 23 per cent in value. However, he added that during the past three months there had been a slight revival that could indicate the depth of the crisis is behind and the 2009 "millisime" wines could help the sector recover again. …

The rise of China is undeniable and we expect that market to move up the value chain just as has happened in Japan," said Bertrand Carles, a wine trader for the Ginestet group. "We have set up shop in Bombay because we expect India to follow the same route. And then, think about Brazil that makes no wine such as Argentina and Chile do, think about countries in Africa...soon we may be short of bordeaux," he said. Bordeaux makes up around 2.5 per cent of world wine production.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/7423067/China-becomes-biggest-export- market-for-bordeaux-wine-outside-EU.html

Wine Domain Catalysts Watch

This section records the most important articles written by those widely considered to be thought experts in the wine domain. These opinions are not only a valuable source of information but also provide important indications for current and evolving trends in the wine domain.

Are you ready for wines from Japan?

FINANCIAL TIMES, UK

05.03.10: The words “Japan, wine exporter” have a somewhat unlikely ring but that is the aim of a new organisation, Koshu of Japan, which is keen to shine an international spotlight on a grape variety that is often dismissed within its native country.I have just made my second visit in 12 years to Yamanashi prefecture, the Bordeaux of Japan in terms of winemaking. Except it reminds me more of Switzerland than Bordeaux. Every square metre in the heavily populated Kofu basin overlooked by Mount Fuji is cosseted. Individual vineyards are tiny, partly thanks to the postwar policy, implemented by General Douglas MacArthur, who oversaw Japan’s reconstruction, of weakening the powerful landowners by redistribution. Farmers are protected. Labour costs are high. And the most- planted vine variety, like the Chasselas that is known as Fendant in French-speaking Switzerland, is also a table grape.Perhaps it is this familiarity with the pink-skinned Koshu in the fruit basket that makes many of Japan’s army of wine lovers suspicious of wine made from it.

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Perhaps it is the fact that Koshu’s thick skins, which help make it resistant to the fungal diseases that can plague other varieties in Japan’s exceptionally humid summers, can all too easily translate in the glass into bitterness. Or perhaps it is simply that Koshu is just too much a part of the national furniture to be taken seriously.Chardonnay, and are regarded as much more foreign and, therefore, glamorous in Japan. Certainly the likes of Chateau Mercian’s Private Reserve Hokushin Chardonnay 2006 and Suntory’s Tomi Réserve Special 1997 mature red bordeaux blend, top Yamanashi wines from two of the biggest companies, are thoroughly admirable. But it seems unlikely that anyone other than the Japanese would be prepared to pay around £100 a bottle for such wines and, besides, they are made in such small quantities that exporting is hardly viable.Still, the national government and local authorities are supporting this new initiative to launch an export campaign for varietal Koshu, a drive set in motion only last year by the single-minded Yamanashi wine producer Shigekazu Misawa of Grace Winery. “It is my dream to see Koshu wine recognised for the qualities I know it can have,” he says.Equally determined is a former sommelier and Master of Wine student Yuka Kudo, whose job it is to translate the plan into sales. She says: “We decided to focus on a market that was stable economically, had a real interest in Japanese cuisine, and was not a major wine producer itself: Britain.” Some may question the stability of the British economy but they would not deny that the culture of sake-drinking is much less established in Britain than in the US, leaving a convenient gap that might just be filled by Koshu on the wine lists of superior Japanese restaurants in the UK.Accordingly, a delegation of producers flew to London in January and took over Japanese restaurant Umu to prove to some of us fortunate wine writers that Koshu goes with the likes of shiizakana, grilled sea bream with miso, and then held a much bigger tasting for members of the UK wine trade. They stayed at a modest hotel in Tavistock Square so that they could afford to have 15 translators in attendance when showing off their wines.Lynne Sherriff, Koshu of Japan’s European co-ordinator, says so far three or four British outfits have expressed an interest in importing this exotic new variety – new to Europe that is, even if there is apparently evidence that this vine was grown in Yamanashi a millennium ago. DNA analysis reveals that its genes are predominantly European, prompting some to speculate that it was brought to Japan along the Silk Road. There is a problem, however. Neither the grape Koshu nor the Yamanashi are officially registered with the European Union. The second is likely to take much longer to remedy than the first. Understandably, EU regulations do not permit winemakers to add both sugar to increase final alcohol levels and acid to increase final acid levels in the same wine. Koshu grapes are naturally low in both acid and sugar – though the 2009 vintage was exceptional in both these respects – and export requirements could have a long-term beneficial effect on winemaking techniques.Because Koshu is so light-bodied and transparent, it is best served relatively cool. It is also advisable to drink it relatively young, so I cannot see how the Japanese will manage to persuade British wine buyers to pay more for it than, for example, they would for a Muscadet from one of the best addresses, which means about £10 a bottle retail. It is not going to be easy for Koshu of Japan. (Pending export agreements and other factors make it impossible to predict exactly when the wines will be available in the UK.) …

Subscription based

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Wine: Beware of floods, fires and locusts

THE TIMES, UK

11.03.10: If “Sex change bishop in mercy dash to Palace” is the funniest fictitious headline ever written, then “Small earthquake in Chile: not many dead” is surely the dullest. Claud Cockburn’s winning entry for an in-house competition on this very newspaper in the 1930s was turned on its head two weeks ago when Chile suffered one of the worst quakes in history. With the estimated death toll approaching 1,000, the joke isn’t funny any more. It might seem misguided to focus on Chile’s wine industry at such a time — like asking Abraham Lincoln’s wife what she thought of the play — but the disaster has had a profound effect on producers in South America. One friend of mine, who advises wineries on where to plant vineyards and lives close to the epicentre in Concepción, says the past fortnight was a “glimpse of hell”. Fortunately for the country’s wineries, the losses appear to be exclusively material, with some damage to buildings and the equivalent of 166 million bottles spilt. The Chilean earthquake isn’t the only natural disaster to hit the wine business in the past year. Madeira, the tiny volcanic island that produces some of the best fortified wines on the planet, was pounded by floods last month, with many of its vineyards washed away, while in Australia, the bushfires that killed 173 people in the summer of 2009 also torched a significant part of the Yarra Valley’s vineyards.

The Yarra blaze wasn’t an isolated incident. In the past decade, fires have hit wine regions in California (2008), Greece (2007) and the Cape (2005 and 2009), as well as other parts of Australia (2003 and 2007). Even the grapes that aren’t consumed by the flames often suffer from smoke taint, which can leave a bonfire-like note in the wine. Not what you’d wish for in a bottle of red. Australia seems to suffer more than most from bad luck. In one growing season in 2007, growers in the Hunter Valley near Sydney had to put up with drought, frost, hail, bushfires (again), heavy rain and a plague of locusts. Add the continuing water shortage, which has forced some producers to abandon their vineyards, and you can understand why the Aussies aren’t as chipper as they once were. Locusts aren’t the only wild things that damage vines. I’ve seen vineyards that have been stripped by birds, wild boars and even baboons. Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards in South Africa had such a bad problem with primates that it resorted to increasingly drastic remedies. It tried lion dung from the local zoo, it tried electric fencing and finally it tried a shotgun, leaving a baboon’s carcass near the vines, “pour encourager les autres” as it were. None worked. The baboons returned in a fighting mood. One morning the vineyard manager was greeted by a shower of stones from a nearby hill. All of these are insignificant when compared with , the tiny aphid that wiped out most of Europe’s vineyards in the late 19th century. After numerous botched attempts to stop the spread of the disease, the eventual remedy, still used to this day, was to graft European vines onto native American roots, which are phylloxera-resistant. If you want to read about this, the darkest period in the , Christy Campbell’s book Phylloxera tells the tale with humour and insight. Some parts of the New World are still phylloxera free. …

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article7056917.ece

Russia's bulk wine imports plummet

JANCIS ROBINSON, UK

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

11.03.10: The Russian wine market continues to be an unpredictable concoction of local producers', bottlers' and importers' interests, mixed with ever-changing state regulations, weak distribution channels and local and global crises that trigger drastic changes every now and then. You never know what will happen tomorrow. Overall wine imports in 2009 accounted for a total of 430 million litres of still, sparkling and bulk wine, down 20% from 2008. The top 10 suppliers, representing 80% of all imports, were (in descending order): Spain, Ukraine, Italy, France, Argentina, Moldova, Bulgaria, Brazil and Germany. About 24.9 million litres of the imported wine was 'of unknown origin', enough to put this category in the top 10. Italy, Ukraine, Moldova and Brazil are those that showed some or substantial growth in exports to Russia during 2009. For the first time in many years, Chile is not among the top 10 suppliers (being number 11 with 18 million litres). Owing to changes in regulations earlier in the year that raised duties for imported bulk wine from 5% to 20%, bringing them in line with the duties on all other types of wine, bulk wine imports continued to plummet in 2009. Russia stopped, or practically stopped, importing bulk wine from Ukraine, South Africa, Uruguay, Bulgaria and France in the second half of 2009. The inflow from Spain, Brazil and Chile remained stable, while that from Argentina and Italy nearly halved. All in all, Russia imported 105.8 million litres of bulk wine, 60% down from 2008. This is official data from Russian Customs' office. There are, however, some other figures in circulation such as the ones taken from the Moscow Independent Wine Club (MIWC) and published recently by Vitisphère in France. They claim a total of 94.5 million hl of overall imports and local wine production, which would make Russia the world's biggest consumer of wine with 67.5 litres per capita a year, exactly 10 times greater than the real figure. The error comes from the fact that internal Russian spirit statistics are done in 'dal' - a measure for vodka equal to 10 litres. The French just took the dals and replaced them with hectolitres without doing the re-calculations. The second error - concerning bulk wine imports - comes from the fact that MIWC has put together the bulk with the bottled or packed wines in volumes bigger than two litres (ie double magnums or bigger, plus bag in box). …

Russian wine and 'wine'

As for wine produced in Russia itself, if we look at the corrected figures of MIWC we see that local wineries declared 225 million litres of wine produced during 2009. The wine bottled in Russia in 2009 accounted for 690 million litres. This means that Russian grapes account for 32% of national production needs and 20% of national consumption, this last figure having been confirmed to Jancis after her visit to Russia in September 2009. The question is how do you produce a total of 690 million litres from 225 million litres made from Russian vines and 106 million litres of imported bulk wine? Most of the wine imported in bulk is chaptalised and diluted with water down to 10.5% alcohol from the initial 12-13%. If one assumes that most locally produced wine is treated in the same way (sugared and diluted), one can account for 60% of the liquid bottled as 'wine' in Russia. What is the remaining 40% then? There are two possibilities or a mix of both: either Russian customs consider the flexi-tanks as 'packed wine in volumes of more than two litres' (and that will cover another 23%); or all the rest (or part of it) is a chemical mixture of water, spirits, sugar, colouring and aroma substances that is declared, state certified (sic) and sold as wine! This means 200 to 230 million litres of fraudulent wine is officially sold on the market every year. Russian wine producers may strive to make good wine by world standards, but clearly some of them are also importing wine in bulk and there are no official controls on whether it is bottled separately, or perhaps in some cases used to raise the quality of their own production. A second set of laws that should presumably regulate wines of denominated origin has not yet

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update been adopted as the state is busy as usual regulating vodka production. You can find Russian wines stating 'appellation of origin' in English (with the name of the appellation missing) on the front label even though this has no legal meaning at all. With the economic crisis, the supermarket shelves are filled with cheaper and cheaper wine. Even in Moscow, which had tended to overlook the traditional Soviet taste for sweet wines, you can find more and more semi-sweet wines not only imported in bulk and bottled locally but also produced and bottled in Chile, Spain, Argentina, France etc and imported by unknown entities. …

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a201003091.html

Scientific Developments & Technological Breakthroughs Watch

This section captures the developments in the scientific research landscape in terms of technological breakthroughs and emerging research covering both R&D from companies but also research from academia and institutional bodies. These are essential elements of future trends or cumulatively combined indicators of future market trends and consumer awareness as well as industry practice development.

Women who drink wine 'less likely to gain weight'

BBC NEWS, UK

08.03.10: Women can enjoy a tipple and stay slim, according to a study that shows moderate drinkers gain less weight than teetotallers.Women who drank red wine gained the least, but the results held for other wines, beers and spirits. Although alcohol contains calories, the US researchers believe the women may have substituted it for other food. Their work in the Archives of Internal Medicine followed over 19,000 women over 13 years. The women recruited into the study were aged 39 or over and of normal weight at the time they joined. Over the next 13 years, on average, they gained weight progressively. Those who drank no alcohol gained the most weight, and there was an inverse relationship between weight gain and alcohol consumption. Even after accounting for lifestyle, dietary factors and things like smoking and exercise, the study found those who drank the least gained the most weight. oderate drinking was classed as drinking up to about two 150ml glasses of wine a day. Although the study did not include men, the authors believe the findings may not apply to men. The women in the study who drank appeared to substitute alcohol for other food, meaning their overall calorie intake did not go up that much. They say men who drink might not do this.

Also the way men and women break down alcohol in their liver may differ, which help might explain why women do not pile on the pounds. But British researchers cautioned that people should be wary of concluding they can shed pounds by drinking more. Catherine Collins, dietician and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said: "It would be a mistake to think that drinking alcohol helps you lose weight." …

She pointed out that the study was based on women who were normal weight when they were recruited. "These are quite an unusual group, who were likely to be mindful of keeping their body healthy," she said. "Most women would have gained a few extra pounds by the age of 39.

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

"To be of normal weight by that age is quite a feat in itself. "So findings about weight gain among this group may not be translate to others." She said another limitation of the research was that it did not report how much snack food the participants ate. "It may be that those who had wine as their treat ate less chocolate and snacks," she said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8555461.stm

The Claim: A Glass of Wine With Dinner Aids Digestion

THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

04.03.10: Pairing the right wine with a meal can round out flavors and stimulate conversation. But can it really help digest the meal, as suggested by a host of authorities through the ages, even the Bible? (“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake.”) Millenniums later, scientists are still working on that one. Some have found that alcoholic beverages speed the emptying of food from the stomach and stimulate gastric acid, while others maintain there is little effect. One study by German researchers, in the aptly named journal Gut, may explain the discrepancy: it found an effect from fermented drinks (wine, sherry and beer) but not from drinks that were fermented and distilled, like rum, cognac and whiskey. “The alcoholic beverage constituents that stimulate gastric acid output and release of gastrin are most probably produced during the process of fermentation and removed during distillation,” they concluded. Other studies help explain why red wine and red meat pair so well. Protein softens the wine’s tannins, and red wine also helps counteract potentially harmful substances — oxidized fats called malonaldehydes, or MDA — released when meat is digested. A 2008 study found that a serving of dark meat from turkey elevated levels of the substance in subjects’ blood. But when they combined it with a glass of cabernet sauvignon or shiraz, the increase in MDA was “completely prevented.”

THE BOTTOM LINE

In more ways than one, a glass of wine may aid digestion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/health/09real.html

Wines from Greece Publicity Monitor

This section presents all international publicity relating to wines from Greece.

The big bangs: For wine that packs a huge punch, try a bottle from a volcanic region

THE DAILY MAIL, UK

06.03.10: Volcanoes are awesome. They're cauldrons of energetic destruction, but they also unleash energy and life and create soil that produces unique wines with stacks of character. I've been fascinated by volcanoes ever since I was 19, when I climbed Mount Merapi in Java during a minor eruption. You needn't be dodging lava to appreciate their power, though - you can feel the Earth flexing its mighty muscles by sampling a glass of intense volcanic vino. The long-term

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update impact of volcanoes on soil and wine production is extraordinary. Vineyards situated on volcanic soils usually produce intensely flavoured wines with striking personality. The number of volcanic wine-producing regions is amazing. Millions of years ago, California's Napa Valley was an area of huge volcanic activity, many of the vineyards of Chile have volcanic soil, and there's a winery in Hawaii that calls itself 'Volcano Winery'. You can also look a lot closer to home to find volcanic wines of astonishing impact. We've got some beautiful volcanic vineyards in Europe, in countries such as Germany, Hungary and Italy. Perhaps my favourite volcano wine comes from the Greek holiday island of Santorini. After the eruption that took place around 1500BC, the island was covered in ash and pumice, which laid the foundations for some of the world's most unique vineyards. The local white grape variety Assyrtiko copes amazingly growing in the volcanic soil, with living vines woven into basket shapes to keep them cool, producing zinging white wines of serious intensity and class. With no irrigation and low rainfall, the vineyards often rely on moisture from sea mist, which is said to give some wines a bone-dry salty tang. One such wine produced by Gaia is called 'Thalassitis', which means 'from the sea'.

The man who makes it, Yiannis Paraskevopoulos, the George Clooney lookalike of , can be found each summer in his winery, formerly a tomato-canning factory, creating his salty-edged white wine right on the seashore. Other top producers to look out for include Domaine Sigalas and Domaine Hatzidakis, whose zappy whites feature delicate floral notes - and if you find yourself on the island, try the sweet Vinsanto wines of Canava Argyros: lusciously sweet with a terrific zippy tang due to fermenting the grapes after a period drying in the hot sun. Italy too has some magical wines produced from vines in volcanic regions. Greco di Tufo comes from vineyards that thrive in the volcanic soil around Avellino in Campania. This crisp dry beauty is charged with energy and mineral-power and is great with seafood. Sicily is another huge wine- producing area, and home to Mount Etna, whose slopes are peppered with vineyards. According to Homer, it was wine from Etna that Odysseus poured to get the Cyclops hammered so he could escape being eaten alive. I've tasted white wines from Etna grapes, such as Minella, with pristine purity and potency, and reds with a uniquely spicy intensity, and I can see how the Cyclops found it hard to resist their charms. If you're a fan of full-on flavour and up for tasting some of the world's most unforgettable wines, then shake up your palate with some volcano power - it goes all the way up to 11.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1255168/OLLY-SMITH-The-big-bangs-- For-wine-packs-huge-punch-try-bottle-volcanic-region.html

Blogosphere Monitor

In this section the most important blog entries for wine and Greek wine are recorded.

Napa Report: My Adventures in Wine Country

FULL PLATE BLOG, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, USA

10.03.10: I consider it a good day when I begin sipping Vermentino at 11 o’clock in the morning, looking out over the green grasses and golden-hued wild mustard flowers that carpet the Napa Valley. Oh, yes— I’d pay for these sips later! But, in the moment, in that California

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update sunshine, I experienced a moment of quiet bliss.

Heaven can be a landscape… and heaven can also fill your glass.

Driving through the Napa Valley, sometimes with Hubby, other times with my best girlfriend, I keep thinking, “I’ve been here before.” California was supposed to be so different and so exotic (Remember? This is my first trip to the West Coast) and yet I can’t shake the thought, “I’ve been here before.” The lush valleys and the gentle plains of the Carneros appellation within Napa Valley (“appellation” is fancy wine talk for “region” or “sub-region”) do remind me of Western North Carolina. Though my childhood summers spent in the Blue Ridge Mountains were a different kind of bliss—pleasure that you couldn’t consume though it would absolutely consume you. Mornings swimming in streams, afternoons hiking in the hills, evenings around a campfire… My association between the two places is legitimate—and a happy one. But, still, here in country, the vineyards are so vast, the sunsets are so big and the weather is such a temperamental beauty, hailing with scornful disregard one minute and beaming gorgeous rays of golden light the next, no comparisons can really be made. And this custom of mine—to find an equivalent from the past for every beautiful place (or beautiful face) that I see—is unnecessary. It’s as if I don’t want to be too intimidated by the (new) loveliness that confronts me. …

Napa: Brooke’s Best Bets

I’ve fit a season of winery visits, cheese tastings and farm-to-table dinners in one long- weekend. Not sure how many cases of wine I’ve shipped back to New York… Think I’m going to have to tip my UPS man in Cabernet Sauvignon. The Carneros Inn-The perfect place for a girls weekend… or a romantic getaway… or life-is-too-short-I-must-sip-wine-in-a-hot-tub-overooking- lush-vineyards. Whatever. The Carneros Inn will cure all that ails you—and then some. The luxury resort is situated on 27 acres of rolling vineyards and delivers the authentic wine country experience. While so much of Napa has tried to transport Tuscany to the West Coast, the Carneros Inn is more than happy to celebrate its roots with locally inspired architecture and landscaping. My little cottage featured an outdoor shower and and outdoor soaking tub. I’m pretty sure the linens were 1,000 count Egyptian cotton or something extravagant along those lines. But before the linens or the tubs could tempt us, we enjoyed a filet and short rib duo at the property’s premiere restaurant, The Farm. We also dove into a super-thin crust Maine Lobster pizza with manchego, caramelized onions, arugula and Meyer Lemon. Nestled next to the restaurant’s fireplace with a spectacular bottle of pinot and our exquisite food, I think I had trouble keeping up my end of the conversation. I was just so content. Domaine Carneros- I wanted to ask Taryn, our wine guide, if she’d be my new best friend. Pretty please? The lawyer who moonlights as a Domaine Carneros wine aficionado and guide, spends her weekends enlightening the masses about the magical process that creates sparkling wine or . And boy does she know how to keep a girl’s attention (imagine the energy of Rachel Ray mixed with focus and eloquence of Diane Sawyer). For two hours, I was completely engrossed in the bubble and bottling process. Throughout the tour, Taryn poured us everything from the 2006 Brut Cuvee ($26) to the grand dame of the Domaine Carneros sparkling wines, “La Reve ($85). The 2007 Domaine Carneros Estate Pinot Noir ($35) also proved to be smooth and inviting. I ordered 6 bottles of the pinot for upcoming spring dinner parties along with a bottle or two of bubbly for Baby’s upcoming 1st birthday. Artesa Winery-Imagine the Museum of Modern Art perched on a verdant, breezy hilltop. Beauty abounds—indoors and out—and they happily serve you a 2007 Carneros Chardonnay then a 2004 Napa Valley Merlot Reserve then a 2005 Carneros Estate Pinot Noir reserve…Artesa is a sophisticate’s stop. And, at the same time, our

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update very down-to-earth winery guide, Jen Brady, gave us an interesting, unpretentious peak at what makes the Spanish-owned, Cordoniu family-run winery tick. My bestfriend and I loved checking out the state-of-the art fermentation rooms almost as much as we enjoyed our yummy wine and cheese pairing. I ordered 9 bottles (a mix of white and red) and made sure to send my mom a few bottles as well. You definitely want to end your day with a glass (or three) of Artesa. V Wine Cellar-Scott, the owner and spirit behind “V” Wine Cellar, is a honey (as mischievous Irishman tend to be). While we attended many events in the “V” Marketplace (think of it as an uber-posh Napa food, wine and art-centric “mall”), his wine store is definitely the heart and soul of the entire complex. Oh, and did I mention this is, hands-down, the most gorgeous, well-appointed wine store I have ever visited? Scott and his not only carry wines from large and small wineries alike, but they have created their own. I adored Scott’s pinot noir, “Pneu,” and made sure to order several bottles for—what else?—my daughter’s first birthday. Boy is she going to be happy that Mamma went to Napa!

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/fullplate/2010/03/napa-report-my-adventures-in- w.html

Maryland wine shipping rides a wave of support–and pessimism

DR VINO, USA

08.03.10: Friday was a rare moment in the legislative sun for the subject of wine direct shipping in the Maryland, where, as we discussed, is a felony to ship wine. Consumers and wine industry experts gave testimony before a committee. Tom Wark, executive director of the Specialty Wine Retailers’ Association, who was there writes via email: “Huge turnout in favor of shipping. Largest contingent of consumers I’ve ever seen at such a hearing. Yet, there is pessimism. The chair said what we all knew…that it was unlikely to pass. Distributor opposition, the “minors” red herring and fear of job losses.” On Friday afternoon, Adam Borden resigned as executive director of the pro-reform group. The Sun reported that he had lobbied aggressively for the cause–even calling a delegate’s mother–and ruffled some feathers. They quote him as saying he was resigning because he didn’t want his style to hurt the cause. His resignation letter is reproduced here in full after the jump.

My name is Adam Borden, and I’m a wine drinker.

I am also the Executive Director of Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws, a non-profit advocacy group trying to legalize wine shipping in our state. Friday, I spoke for the last time in that capacity. I am hereby announcing my resignation as Executive Director effective immediately. When I first took over Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws 15 months ago, I always knew consumers wanted wine shipping. What I neither knew then nor could have imagined was just how substantial our group would become. During my tenure, MBBWL has increased its membership from 1,500 members to over 20,000. Our elected officials have been inundated with calls, emails and faxes pleading with them to finally make this a reality. Not just fine wine drinkers are upset that wine cannot be delivered. I received an email last week from someone who is angry that he can’t send a bottle of wine as a gift to someone … and he doesn’t even drink. Period.Wine shipping is not just a consumer issue. Our supporters are also county governments, chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, wineries, retailers, gift basket makers, entrepreneurs, farmers, grape growers … the list goes on and on. The only people not on this list are the liquor wholesalers, who refuse to this day to meet with us. They do not want

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update wine shipping because it would amount to 1% of the wine sold in the state … and these are wines they don’t even carry. Sure, they espouse arguments that seem legitimate like worrying about the kids, the difficulty the state might have in collecting taxes or the detrimental impact on local liquor stores. These arguments like all their others are smokescreens. They are cover for the plain business interest driving their motivation. They will stop at nothing to maintain their stranglehold on Maryland’s liquor supply and fear that wine shipping is the proverbial “camel’s nose under the tent” that would loosen their profitable franchise. …

http://www.drvino.com/2010/03/08/maryland-wine-shipping-support-pessimism/

An Open Letter to Warren Buffett, Wine and Spirits Distributor

VINOGRAPHY, USA

10.03.10: Dear Mr. Buffett,

Congratulations on your purchase of Empire Distributing, and roughly 25% of the wine and spirits distribution business in Georgia and North Carolina that came with it. And welcome to the wine and spirits world -- we need more enlightened business people in this industry. …

So let me get to the point. I think you now have the opportunity, and the obligation, to get on board with those of us who think the time has come to throw out the prohibition-era, antiquated laws we've got on the books and put something rational in place that benefits both consumers and business owners like yourself. In short, I urge you to renounce membership to the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, and instead support the efforts of those like Free the Grapes and the SWRA who are trying to turn this country into a real wine and spirits marketplace. We need a marketplace where companies can compete to meet consumer demands without meddling by state bureaucracies and cronyism. We need businesses more interested in growing the overall market, than using scare tactics and BS to protect their little slices of it.All the analysts say that with this purchase you're betting on the Millennials as the largest wine drinking generation in decades. That seems like a pretty good bet to me. And since these young wine drinkers are more interested in a diverse, wide range of products and services, I hope you'll join those of us who want to expand choice and buying opportunities in the market.

Raising my glass to you,

Alder Yarrow

http://www.vinography.com/archives/2010/03/an_open_letter_to_warren_buffe.html

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update

Peripheral Domains Intelligence

This section covers developments from associated domains such as Greek food, taste and culinary trends, as well as any other significant information that has an impact on or derives from the global wine domain.

Asia’s first Master of Wine

FINANCIAL TIMES, UK

05.03.10: What wine would do justice to the explosive taste of fried chilli prawns? How about beef satay, or chicken in a spicy coconut sauce? Now imagine you are in Singapore or Malaysia and that all three dishes, plus half a dozen more besides, are set before you. How could you possibly match wine to such a panoply of competing and powerful flavours?Korean-born Jeannie Cho Lee, the only Asian among the world’s 279 Masters of Wine, spent two years trying to puzzle out precisely that. She travelled to 10 Asian food cities – Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Mumbai – sampling dishes and figuring out which wines, if any, would make a worthy addition to an already sumptuous table. The resulting book, Asian Palate, published in November, is an attempt to understand food in its own context and to suggest appropriate wine without imposing alien tastes on some of the world’s complex cuisines.

A Tokyo restaurateur’s passion for rice - Mar-05“I wanted to see how wine fits in to our Asian food culture,” she says when I meet her in a private dining room in the China Club, a Hong Kong club that eschews the stuffiness of more traditional establishments. “I think food is place- driven,” she says, drawing a parallel with what wine experts refer to as the to denote the characteristics that a grape draws from its geography. “It is the entire environment from which that particular ingredient comes from, the climate, the weather, the soil, even the people. It is the same with food,” she says. “I wanted to look at how to introduce wine to a table without disrespecting the harmony and the integrity of the dishes.”Lee, who grew up eating Korean food cooked by her mother in the US and who now lives in Hong Kong, says the starting point must be a true love of Asian food. “I have an Asian palate,” she says. “My familiar tastes are of dried squid, salted anchovies, pungent soybean paste. You need to love the chewiness of intestines, the gelatinous and chewy texture of chicken feet and to appreciate jellyfish. You need to love that very soft mushy texture of sea cucumber and sea urchin. You can’t tell someone to like that.”Lee’s love of wine began in Oxford, where she spent a year as part of her degree. She remembers being served “two or three clarets and perhaps a white wine to start”. Her interest piqued, she began to explore the wines of France and Italy and, when she returned to New York, she attended the famous Windows on the World Wine School, then on the top two floors of the World Trade Center. After moving to Hong Kong with her husband – whom she met at wine school – she continued to study, now with the UK-based Wine & Spirits Education Trust. At that time, wine taxes were high in Hong Kong – they were cut to zero in February 2008, transforming the city into Asia’s wine capital – and there wasn’t much of a wine culture. Lee pushed on, taking detailed tasting notes of every wine she came across in her job as a food and wine writer. By 2005, she felt ready to sit the daunting Master of Wine examination, a four- day test that includes four theoretical papers as well as a rigorous assault course of blind

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update tasting, held annually in Sydney, London and Napa Valley. “I thought, ‘It’s a wine exam. How difficult can it be?’ ” she recalls. Like most first-timers, she failed. Second time around, in 2008, she cracked it. Armed with that distinction, she set off on her 10-city quest to pair wine with Asian food. But she was determined not to force one culture on to another. Some food, she concluded, was simply better enjoyed without wine. “If you want chilli crabs in Singapore, whether the chilli or the black pepper crabs, perhaps it is better to have something thirst-quenching, like a beer, or cold water or some lemonade.” She understands why some Japanese chefs stick to rice-based sake, refusing to serve wine with their food, even though wine became popular in Japan a generation before it took hold in Hong Kong and mainland China. “Wine comes with unique flavours. It can intrude or take away from the balance of the food,” she says. Her approach is to recommend wines in keeping with the flavours already present. “I would never suggest a sweet wine in northern China even though it would go well with the food in theory, because it is not culturally part of the local palate,” she says. But in Thailand, where a typical meal might include coconut, fresh fruit or sweet tea, she is comfortable recommending a medium-sweet wine. …

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Government wine committee raises a glass in spirit of defiance

THE TIMES, UK

12.03.10: Whitehall is unlikely to be a hive of activity on May 5, but one small corner will be diligently ploughing on with its work regardless of the impending election. With admirable sang froid, the Government Hospitality Advisory Committee for the Purchase of Wine is also steadfastly ignoring reports of its imminent demise. Embarrassed, perhaps, by the £6,000 bill for wines for the G20 London summit on the global economic crisis, Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, singled out the body last December as among the first to be sacrificed to reduce the deficit. As minutes of its quarterly meetings obtained by The Times reveal, however, the committee appears determined to soldier on. Less than a week after Mr Byrne earmarked it for oblivion the body “regretted the manner in which the matter had been raised and the lack of consultation” before agreeing to establish how the body “would continue its work”.At an annual cost to the taxpayer of about £10,000, Sir David Wright, a former ambassador, oversees the four masters of wine who decide which vintages the taxpayer should add to the 37,000 bottles of wines and spirits in a cellar worth about £2.5 million. For its 245th meeting on the eve of the likely polling date, for example, the committee is to convene in its usual room within the grandeur of Lancaster House to taste a selection of white burgundies from the 2007 and 2008 vintages.The need to replenish is : at the 243rd meeting a stock review showed the “high volume of white burgundies being used” at official functions, which included a Christmas dinner for Foreign Office ministers. It would be quite wrong to suggest that the body is insensible to public opinion of the tax-funded cellar. At its December meeting, members asked themselves whether they “should consider buying less wine during the recession”. After a brief discussion it was agreed “that the overriding reasons to purchase wines should be the requirements of the cellar, quality and value for money” but that “potential public perception ... should be legitimately part of the decisionmaking process”. There are, however,

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update limits. When Gillian Merron, then the Foreign Office minister responsible for the advisory body, suggested that the quango buy Fairtrade wine from Chile, it listened politely (before inviting her to join a tasting of vintage champagne). The resulting experiment was not a success. “The committee tasted a selection of red and white ‘Fairtrade’ wines,” it recorded in the minutes for last August’s meeting. “None was of a sufficient quality for the committee to recommend their purchase.” Happily, the tasting for German and Alsace whites and Rhône reds did result in some firm commendations. Mystery surrounds the Croft 1985, however. Item 1883 in the minutes of the December 2009 meeting hints that all may not be well with the vintage, but an official censor has excised details relating to a request to retaste it.Item 1886 records that the committee tasted the 2006 red bordeaux and item 1887 that it was “joined for lunch by the Prime Minister’s Foreign Policy Adviser, Mr Simon McDonald, and by the Director of Protocol, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mr Simon Martin”. There being no other business, the meeting concluded until May 5.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7058906.ece

Global Sustaining & Emerging Trends Digest

This section presents those global, macro and micro trends that affect or potentially affect the wine domain. Comprehensive fusion and distillation of the above publicity parathesis concludes to the most important aspects as those appear in the current setting.

Fine wine at 14% alcohol is impossible - or is it?

DECANTER, UK

10.03.10: The great alcohol debate is alive and well, with the jury undecided as to whether higher levels of alcohol make or mar a fine wine, Andrew Jefford finds in the latest issue of Decanter. Writing in the April issue of Decanter magazine, Jefford interviews some of the world's most renowned winemakers and finds them polarised on the question of whether fine wine can be made at 14% alcohol or more. Jefford has spoken to Fiona Thienpont of Chateau Le Pin in Pomerol, Frederic Engerer of Chateau Latour, Dirk Niepoort in the Douro, Vanya Cullen in Margaret River, consultant Stephane Derenoncourt, 's David Schildknecht, and many others. And they are utterly at odds. Cullen, for example, says you can 'lose varietal character above 14%', and she is backed up by Thienpont, who with her husband Jacques do everything they can 'to keep levels down'. Cast your vote on the decanter.com POLL - on this page! Steve Webber at Victoria's de Bortoli agrees, suggesting wines above 14% can lack 'detail, sense of place, nuance of variety and balance.' Schildknecht, on the other hand, says the concept is 'fatuous'. 'To choose 14% alcohol as a limit means you call into question a fifth of what is produced by the most renowned growers of Bordeaux, Burgundy…and 90% of what issues from the elite growers of the South of France, Spain, California or Australia.'

At Latour, Engerer agrees, though not so forcefully. 'The expression of the fruit is what counts,' he tells Jefford. 'Everything depends on the place and the variety.' decanter.com visitors are as undecided as the winemaking world. This month's poll - on all decanter.com pages - asks the question, 'Can you make fine wine over 14%?' At the time of writing, 26% agree with Webber that nuance and balance are lost. A further 26% say, 'Yes! Bring on the blockbusters.' Thirty-two percent say yes, the Australians seem to have the

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Global Wine Trends 12/03/2010 Weekly Update knack, and 17% are undecided. And Jefford himself? His view is that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The most important thing is 'digestive harmony', the renowned writer and critic says. 'In wine aesthetics, nothing is more dangerous than unsupported by corroborative drinking.'

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=295809

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