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Global Wine Trends Weekly Update

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26.06.2009

Critical Publics | EDOAO

Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ...... 2

Global Market Watch ...... 4

Trophies awarded to 122 IWC wines ...... 4 On the bottle: rioja ...... 4 Sauce: easy-drinking white wines for summer ...... 5 Is sauvignon blanc in danger of becoming like Chardonnay? ...... 5 Ah, a Cold, Refreshing ... Red? ...... 6 English winemakers get that warm feeling ...... 8 Britain's losing its bottle: health fears drive consumers away from wine ..... 9 Rosé sparklings are star of new products at Vinexpo ...... 9

Global Industry Watch ...... 10

Joseph Drouhin to relaunch Chablis wines ...... 10 Chinese investors buy majority stake in Bordeaux Chateau Richelieu ...... 10 Lanson launches new Champagne at Wimbledon ...... 11 Constellation Brands posts another deficit...... 11 A glass of wine with your picnic? It's against the law ...... 12 EU has no plans for an 'alcohol-free Europe' ...... 13 A Grim Morning After for Australian Wines ...... 13 Rise in wine consumption in China and the opening of the market interests Portuguese producers ...... 14 Spanish exports eclipse France ...... 15 En primeur: Bordeaux 2008 puts cat among the vintages ...... 15 Majestic Wine to stay expansion course despite profits plunge ...... 16

Wine Domain Catalysts Watch ...... 17

Britain's biggest wine company ...... 17 Spanish mixup caused Albariño confusion ...... 18 Tim Atkin says Sancerre isn't the only wine from the Loire region ...... 19

Scientific Developments & Technological Breakthroughs Watch ...... 20

Wine, veg and little meat 'a recipe for long life' ...... 20 Why apples, avocados and a glass of red wine could ease your arthritis .... 21

Wines from Greece Publicity Monitor ...... 21

A new age dawns for the wines of Greece ...... 21

Blogosphere Monitor ...... 22

Some summer wine picks - and Forbes.com ...... 22

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

Pine nuts, the whale, the anchor, Vinexpo - sipped and spit ...... 23 Giveaway: Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger ...... 23 The U.S. Open of Wine? ...... 24 The Three-Tier System and Consumer Access To Wine ...... 25 The Wrong Grape Can Make Sparkling Wines Seem Flat ...... 28

Peripheral Domains Intelligence ...... 28

France's first bonded warehouse ready to open...... 28 Bordeaux to host major new wine culture centre ...... 29 BA may start charging for peanuts and wine ...... 29

Global Sustaining & Emerging Trends Digest ...... 30

Join the bio bunch: Bertie Eden's vineyard is reaping the rewards of biodynamic wine-making ...... 30

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 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.

Trophies awarded to 122 IWC wines

HARPERS, UK

24.06.09: A record 122 wines have been awarded Trophy status at this year's International Wine Challenge. France came top of the country board, with 21 wines being awarded a Trophy, followed by Australia (15) in second place and in joint third Italy and Japan (12). A record eight wines from Chile were promoted to Trophy status. The Camel Valley Bacchus 2007 won the English Trophy. IWC director Andrew Reed said: "The Trophies are awarded for region, variety or style or a combination of all three. It's a fantastic achievement for a wine to be elevated to Trophy status acknowledging their unrivalled balance, complexity and personality."…

http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/8135-trophies-awarded-to-122-iwc- wines.html

On the bottle: rioja

THE TIMES, UK

21.06.09: … Daddy is long gone now. Miguel Jr has taken the company to great heights. His wines can cost more than £50 a bottle, but the basic range is tasty, reliable and cheap. Torres has a strong presence in Chile and even a joint venture in China. It has taken a long time, however, to do something seemingly obvious much closer to home.

In the days when rioja was the only Spanish wine region most British drinkers could name, Don Miguel was emphatically different. His wines were bolder and his vineyards near Barcelona were 200 miles from the Rioja region. But Mireia, his granddaughter, is now the company’s technical director, and she has made the first Torres rioja. It’s called Ibericos and has some typically flowery nonsense on the bottle about Spanish oaks. What’s important is the stuff inside, which is delicious.

Rioja used to mean a thin red infused with vanilla from spending too long in American oak barrels. That old, attenuated style — just about drinkable with salty jamon serrano — barely survives. Modern rioja has texture.

Ibericos has the old vanilla overtones but is a wine of substance with a spicy nose and fresh, plummy, meaty flavours. At the moment only Waitrose sells it. Old Señor Torres had an odd distaste for supermarkets and perhaps that snobbery lives on. But there’s nothing upmarket about the price: £8.99. For this quality, it’s a bargain.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/wine/article6510025.ece

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

Sauce: easy-drinking white wines for summer

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

26.06.09: The annual search for the perfect 'house’ white has yielded good results this year. I’m not talking restaurant house wines here (an outdated concept, anyway), but literally a wine for your household – the kind of delicious, good-value bottle to buy in some quantity and keep, chilled in the fridge, ready to open on a whim over the next few weeks.

The best styles are easy-going, well-balanced, unoaked whites. Avoid anything 'difficult’: spiky, sour acid; sweet tropical fruit; weird over-dominant flavours. I’m all for a bit of character, and love, say, a syrupy rose-scented gewürztraminer at the right moment, but it will never make a good house white. Even much-loved New Zealand sauvignon blanc can be too strong, too sweet ’n’ sour, for everyday hot-weather quaffing.

Instead, I’ve turned to fairly straightforward, elegant European whites. A fine dry Italian or Spanish white is a versatile partner for lighter summer food, not only the obvious fish, seafood and salad, but tomato, goat’s cheese and peppery charcuterie as well. And a modern label from a newly serious white-wine region such as Rueda in Spain, or Sicily, promises a much better glassful than it did five years ago. Cool-temperature winemaking (keeping the grapes and the juice cold to preserve fruit character) has almost put paid to dull, oxidised whites. … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/5639243/Sauce-easy-drinking-white-wines- for-summer.html

Is sauvignon blanc in danger of becoming like Chardonnay?

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

26.05.09: I had a glorious glass of New Zealand sauvignon blanc yesterday, except that it came from South Africa. It was crammed with ripe tropical fruit flavours, grass, gooseberries, nettles, cat's pee, the lot. It was full-bodied and rounded, yet crisp and zesty and deliciously succulent.

Now I adore New Zealand sauvignons and I adored this, but it just didn't seem right. I want my South African sauvignons to taste as if they come from South Africa, not New Zealand. Formerly inimitable, Kiwi 'savvy' is now apparently very imitable.

Even E&J Gallo from California is now making the stuff (in New Zealand, I might add, but bottled in California). Their 2008 Starborough Marlborough sauvignon has just arrived in Sainsbury's and Wine Rack.

Does all this mean that sauvignon blanc is in danger of becoming the chardonnay de nos jours, condemned to a dread uniformity?

"Absolutely not," says Kate Radburnd, who makes excellent – and very un-Marlborough-like – sauvignons at CJ Pask Winery in New Zealand's Hawkes Bay. "It's very flattering that other countries are seeking to emulate us, but they won't ever be completely the same, just as my Hawkes Bay wines will never be the same as those of Marlborough."

I agree. New World sauvignons are becoming more complex each year and therefore more

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update different, thanks to better clonal selection, barrel fermentation, oak-ageing, the use of indigenous yeast and so on. Radburnd reckons the similarity I mentioned is a one-off.

Many of us fell in love with sauvignon blanc while falling out of love with chardonnay. You remember that time when all chardonnays started to taste the same – blandly buttery with faint whiffs of vanilla. "ABC!" we shouted. "Anything But Chardonnay!"

And we were, of course, seduced by sauvignon's astonishing success in New Zealand. Remarkably, the Kiwis only planted the variety as recently as 1973. And in the wrong place too, initially, near Auckland rather than in Marlborough, the spiritual home in which it now shines. Still, anything had to be better than the dreary bubblegum Muller-Thurgau they had been churning out hitherto.

We couldn't get enough of it, thanks to which the growth in subsequent plantings has been dramatic. In 2003 there were approximately 4,500 hectares of sauvignon blanc in New Zealand, whereas by the end of next year there will be 14,000, accounting for around half of the country's vineyard area.

But in a sign that the market might be overheating, Kiwi sauvignons in UK supermarkets are now cheaper than ever. Added to which, in a clever bit of double bandwagon-jumping, they have been joined on the shelves by the newfangled sauvignon blanc rosé (no, nor me, I think they must put a bit of pinot noir in).

"It's thanks to the Kiwis that French sauvignon blanc is now as good as it is," argues my old friend Jason Yapp, who specialises in importing wines from the Loire. "Their success was a real wake up call. Cooler vinification, better vineyard management, longer hang-time and expressive fruit have all led to some cracking wines. It was a case of Old World arrogance meeting New World diligence and better wines resulting."

I have had some great sancerres and pouilly fumés in Yapp's company, relishing the fact that they don't taste like anything else. I love their zingy minerality and their lean, crisp, upright structure. I particularly like the fact that they speak of the Loire and not of New Zealand. …

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/wine/5625616/Top-wine-deals-this-week.html

Ah, a Cold, Refreshing ... Red?

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA

26.06.09: We have come to relish chilled red wines in summer. There was a time when we drank only whites and rosés in hot weather. It seemed like the right thing to do and they were refreshing. But as the years have gone on, we have found some reds more refreshing, in their own way. It’s an odd thing, but some of today’s whites, such as some New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, can seem too bright on a hot day. Matching those wines and sunshine is like matching food and wine too closely: The result can be a bit much, like a blinding white light. Chilled red wines, on the other hand, can be soothing, relaxing and juicy in their redness—and they happen to go well with many traditional summer foods. ...

First, let’s say this: There is a lot of dogma about the “correct” serving temperature of wine. In fact, there is no one-size-fits all “correct” serving temperature. It depends on the kind of wine, individual palates, the circumstances under which the wine is served and many other factors. Personally, we generally prefer fine reds and whites somewhere around cellar temperature of 55 degrees—we find that good wines show off their many layers

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update of flavor well around this temperature—but it all depends. For instance, we generally prefer California Chardonnay warmer than French white Burgundy, which is made from Chardonnay. The good thing about temperature, though, is that it’s easy to play around with it. Does that white seem too cold? Leave it on the table for a few minutes. Does that red seem too warm? Drop it in an ice bucket briefly.

Wine Notes

We usually do not drink our reds chilled, but summer is a time of short pants, informality and comfort. So, in our tasting, we tried all of the wines straight from the refrigerator. The bottles we sampled are wines that, generally, we’ve liked in tastings of their type. It was interesting how some took to a chill really well and some didn’t. The cold deadens some, making their fruit seem to disappear into a cold, black hole. In other cases, the chill dulled the wines, reducing them into characterless flat planes, less interesting and complex than they would be with some warmth. In some cases, it was more difficult to explain. For instance, when we tried Concha y Toro “Casillero del Diablo” Cabernet Sauvignon, an $11 wine that we enjoy at usual “red wine” temperature, we struggled to keep tasting it. It seemed pleasant enough and there wasn’t anything wrong with it, but finally Dottie put her finger on the problem. “It seems like work to drink it,” she said. “The other ones were just fun.” There was an overly herbal, somewhat sluggish quality about it that made it too challenging to enjoy.

What were the other ones? After weeks of trying inexpensive, informal reds straight from the refrigerator, these are the ones we would recommend for summer fun:

Malbec from Argentina

We are listing this first because it’s probably the most surprising. Malbec is very much the red wine of the moment, responsible for a stunning surge of imports into the U.S. from Argentina. (In the first four months of the year, Argentina’s imports rose yet another 31% by volume, overtaking imports from France, which dropped more than 8%.) Malbec has spicy, black-pepper tastes and we really weren’t sure ourselves how well it would stand up to a chill. The answer: fascinating. It seemed like a different wine, but equally good in its own way. Its tastes seemed darker, rounder, a little bit thicker and more mouth-coating and the black pepper continued to be quite pronounced. And yet, the chill at the same time seemed to lift, freshen and lighten it, delivering an effortlessly pleasant red-wine experience. With a steak right off the grill or a rare hamburger, it would be hard to beat this taste on a hot day. Dottie, in fact, said the wine actually reminded her of steak blood, which, in her case, is a big compliment. In any event, even if you’re not planning a cook-out anytime soon, try putting your Malbec in the refrigerator and see what you think. The difference in the wine at the cooler temperature really is discussion-worthy. One Malbec that’s always a good bet is Altos Las Hormigas, which costs about $11.

Beaujolais-Villages from France

We generally think it’s worth spending a little bit more for one of the cru Beaujolais, like Chiroubles. But for chilling purposes, it’s hard to beat plain old, simple Beaujolais-Villages (get the 2007 until the 2008 appears; do not get Nouveau this late in the year). The one you are most likely to see is Georges Duboeuf, which costs about $11, and that’s fine because it’s consistently reliable. Beaujolais tastes like just-picked grapes—fruity and fun—which makes it great for summer. A chill leaves the red-berry fruitiness intact and focused, but sometimes enhances the wine’s earthiness, which makes it all that more fulfilling. This is particularly good with salmon, grilled or chilled.

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

Inexpensive Rioja from Spain

Better, more expensive Rioja is one of the world’s great wines and really does need to be served around cellar temperature to fully show its nuances. But the widely available inexpensive Riojas, such as Marqués de Cáceres (around $13), are a special summertime treat. We tried these on a particularly hot day in Orlando and simply loved them. They tasted roasted and crisp, which reminded us of barbecues and picnics. They were festive and fun, with dry, spicy, focused tastes. They were easy, relaxed and really tasted like summer to us. Because these wines have some oomph, they go well with barbecued spare ribs and with some of the more complexly seasoned dishes of summer, such as curried chicken salad, curried vegetables and herbed meat sandwiches.

Antinori Santa Cristina from Italy

The three recommendations above are for types of wine and this recommendation is for a specific wine because, while it does represent something more general—generic Sangiovese wines from Tuscany—Santa Cristina is widely available and consistently good. It’s also often on sale: We generally pay about $11 but sometimes see it for $8. Look for the 2007, which is made from Sangiovese and 10% Merlot. We drank this by the pool on a sweltering day and we described it as “cooling.” We are big fans of Santa Cristina at room temperature in a carafe, too, but, with a chill, it became calmer, with its tastes becoming more black cherry than cherry, more deeply fruited. It retained its grapey quality, but also had a little bite at the end, with nice tannins, good acidity and a smooth, calm, relaxed taste that was perfect for a day off.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204482304574220183250628914.html

English winemakers get that warm feeling

FINANCIAL TIMES, UK

23.06.09: It is Wimbledon fortnight and England’s proliferating band of commercial winemakers are praying for continued good weather. If rain interrupts the gurning and grunting on the outer courts it will also reduce the number of vine flowers that fructify into grapes. But if the weather stays dry, yields and profits will soar – bolstering an activity that global warming is turning from a hobby into a serious business.

English wine has overcome formidable sales resistance to become a desirable tipple. The damaging confusion is with “British wine”. This is an economical white spirit substitute made from imported grape extract on industrial estates. Impecunious students used to take British wine to “bring a bottle” parties in the 1980s. To gain admittance you wrapped your bottle to hide the label, then furtively swapped it for something French and palatable at the drinks table.

Back then, the production of wine from English-grown grapes was largely, as Martin Fowke of the Three Choirs winery puts it, “alchemy performed by retired colonels in their garages”. But amateurs have slowly been edged out by young Turks such as Mr Fowke, who learnt his craft producing vintages in Australia and Chile. Wine critics accordingly started swapping such terms as “hesitant” for “zesty” in their descriptions of English plonk. The last die- hard dissenter is Malcolm Gluck, who says: “English wine is on a par with Japanese clog dancing. It should not figure on anyone’s horizon.” The terms that English winemakers apply to Mr Gluck are accordingly unprintable and sometimes rhyme with his surname.

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

The management of English wine businesses has professionalised thanks to an influx of City types. Mr Roberts is a former computing entrepreneur who invested £2m from a business sale into Ridgeview. Bolney Wine Estate in Kent was set up by Rodney Pratt, a commodities trader, who handed the business on to his daughter Samantha Linter. Chapel Down is part-owned by Nigel Wray, the prominent investor, and Mr Thompson, chief executive, was formerly brand director of Heineken.

English wineries may no longer be hobby businesses, but nor are they hugely lucrative. …

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Britain's losing its bottle: health fears drive consumers away from wine

THE INDEPENDENT, UK

18.06.09: After years of piling more chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and merlot bottles into shopping baskets, British consumers have suddenly lost their previously unshakeable thirst for wine.

Wine sales in the UK fell for the first time in more than a decade last year, according to new research, which suggests Britain's £9.6bn a year industry is entering a prolonged slump that is predicted to last five years. Reduced discretionary spending in the recession, increased tax and health concerns were all behind the fall, according to Mintel. Wine merchants blamed tax rises for making it harder to sell bottles at the £3.99 mark, and warned that unless margins improved, the quality of wine on sale would decline in the future as producers switched supplies to more lucrative foreign markets. Masters of Wine claim there is evidence that wine is losing sales to trendier cider and craft beers.

By volume, Britons bought 1.16 billion litres last year compared with 1.18 billion litres in 2007, a fall of 2 per cent, or 17 million fewer bottles, according to Mintel. By value, sales fell by 1 per cent to £9.6bn. Both red and white wines fell, but more people drank rose, which has become a popular summertime drink. The fall was the first drop in wine volumes since 1995. … However in Mintel's report, UK Wine 2009, it found young buyers were increasingly unwilling to experiment with wine. A fifth of 25-34s it surveyed found the choice confusing – the highest for all age groups."In contrast to the majority of alcoholic drinks, people gravitate towards wine as they become older," said Jonny Forsyth, Mintel's senior drinks analyst. "This means that usage starts to take-off amongst the over 35s, with people continuing into their retirement. "[Yet] drinkers aged 25-34 are the most likely of all age groups to be influenced by what wines they have drunk before when purchasing wine, suggesting they do not have the knowledge or confidence to experiment further. Once people join the wine 'club' they tend to stay in it for life. The problem for industry is getting people to join earlier."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/britains-losing-its-bottle- health-fears-drive-consumers-away-from-wine-1705292.html

Rosé sparklings are star of new products at Vinexpo

HARPERS, UK

21.06.09: Rosé sparkling wines and lower sugar Champagnes are some of the many new product launches expected to take centre stage at this week's 15th Vinexpo

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update exhibition that opened in Bordeaux on Sunday, June 21. A number of French producers are unveiling new ranges of rosé sparkling or updating and revamping existing lines with more eye-catching and modern labels. These include, Distilleries et Domaines de Provence with its new Bau Rosé brand, Champagne Mailly Grand Cru with L'Intemporelle Rosé and its first vintage, the 2004 and Champagne de Venoge with its Louis XV RoséExtra-Brut. Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte is also looking to introduce a sparkling rosé suitable for long- ageing with its Cuvée 225 Brut Rosé 2004. Cave Jean Gelier, meanwhile, is releasing its Gelier's Pink a rosé crémant d'Alsace. Veuve a Deveaux is looking to target the trend for lower- alcohol, less sugared wines with its very lightly dosed cuvée Ultra D. Pol Roger's Pure Brut is also a new non-dosed wine for the market released at the show. Other key trends at this year's Vinexpo is a resurgence in interest in more organic and biodynamic wines and those that are marketing themselves around sustainability and a return to the values of terroir through improved and more modern packaging. This is also seen in the large number of exhibitors who are using recyclable labels, packaging and closures in more mainstream products at this year's show.

http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/8129-rose-sparklings-are-star-of-new- products-at-vinexpo-.html

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.

Joseph Drouhin to relaunch Chablis wines

DECANTER, UK

19.06.09: Burgundy house Joseph Drouhin is relaunching its Chablis wines under the Drouhin Vaudon banner, 40 years after the company helped to pioneer the resurgence of the region. Drouhin's extensive roster of Chablis wines, including standard AOC Chablis, plus Premiers Crus and Grands Crus such as Vaudésir, Les Clos and Bougros, will now be known as Drouhin Vaudon. The Vaudon name comes from a watermill in a village near the town of Chablis. Company president Frédéric Drouhin said the change, including a redesigned label, was being made because of Drouhin's primary association with the heartland of Burgundy. 'I think the changes we are making in Chablis, rebranding the wines as Drouhin Vaudon, make perfect sense,' he said. 'We are from the Côte d'Or and Chablis is a very different place.' The changes come 40 years after Robert Drouhin, Frédéric's father, bought a selection of vineyards in the then neglected Chablis region. One of the first Beaune-based companies to show interest in the unfashionable region, he built up an estate which now totals 38 hectares (ha), nearly half the total Drouhin vineyard holding in Burgundy as a whole (73ha). It includes 27ha in the Chablis appellation, plus a good selection of Premiers and Grands Crus.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=284850

Chinese investors buy majority stake in Bordeaux Chateau Richelieu

DECANTER, UK

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

23.06.09: Chinese luxury goods company Hongkong A&A International has bought a controlling interest in Chateau Richelieu, one of Bordeaux's oldest estates. Located in AOC Fronsac, a few kilometres from Saint Emilion, the 15-hectare property traces its history back over 1,250 years old, to the reign of Charlemagne.

'The Chinese have a great love for Bordeaux grand crus, and of course the current crisis is offering interesting opportunities to buy into this iconic wine region,' Patrice Klug, president of MK Finance - which organised the sale - told decanter.com. Klug confirmed the new shareholders plan to increase the property's production by buying or renting local vineyards over the next few years. The Dutch co-owner Arjen Pen and his team will remain in place in Bordeaux, while A&A International will oversee sales and distribution to a range of high-end restaurants, hotels and wine bars across China.

The purchase price was not disclosed, but a Bordeaux vineyard expert estimated that a Fronsac estate of this quality should fetch around €200,000 (£171,618) per hectare, which translates to around €3m. According to Klug, sales of Bordeaux wine in China increased 36% last year, while consumption of all wine rose 15%.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=284997

Lanson launches new Champagne at Wimbledon

HARPERS, UK

24.06.09: Champagne Lanson have launched its new Extra Age Brut cuvée at the Wimbledon Championships in London and VinExpo in Bordeaux. Released just ahead of the company’s 250th anniversary in 2010, and in keeping with house style, the new blend is a recreation of the style of Champagnes produced by Champagne Lanson during the 19th century and made by the traditional method of suppressing malo-lactic fermentation to give a fresher style with a propensity for long ageing. The company crest, a red Maltese cross, is given great prominence on the bottle and packaging includes a smart, black label and neck foil featuring the Royal Warrant which Champagne Lanson has held since the 19th Century. The symbol has been used by Champagne Lanson since 1798 when the founder was succeeded by his son, Nicolas- Louis Delamotte, a knight of the Order of Malta.

Cellar master Jean Paul Gandon has crafted a wine which is a blend of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay from Grand Cru and Premier Cru vineyards. The aim is to show both complexity and freshness by using wines from the 1999, 2002 and 2003 vintages.

The Pinot Noir is taken from Verzenay and Bouzy’s best parcels and is balanced with Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs: Chouilly, Avize, Oger and Vertus. Aged for a minimum of 5 years, the Chmpagne retains a freshness associated with non-malolactic Champagnes. It is aimed at the on-trade and independent specialist retailers, with a guide retail price of £50. http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/8141-lanson-launches-new-champagne-at- wimbledon.html

Constellation Brands posts another deficit

THE NATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW, NEW ZELAND

17.06.09: The world’s largest wine company Constellation Brands has posted its second successive loss in its annual report, blaming tough operating conditions

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update outside of the US market. The company posted a $US301.4 million loss in its year to February 28, after a $US613.3 million loss the year prior. Sales were at $US4723 million, down from $US4885.1 million in 2008. President Rob Sands says the company is focusing on long- term, sustainable growth by strengthening free cash flow, rapidly reducing debt, improving return on invested capital and creating internal efficiencies while nurturing the company’s premium brands. The New Zealand division of the company, ConstellationNZ (formerly Nobilo Wine Group) has had a growth year, recently taking Nobilo’s sauvignon blanc to first place in the US sauvignon blanc market across April. ContellationNZ’s other major brands are Kim Crawford and Monkey Bay. Constellation’s Australian division, dominated by its Hardy’s brand, has suffered from oversupply and is now aiming to premiumise its domestic portfolio, consolidating bottling operations and eliminate of 30% of its lesser brands. Australia and New Zealand accounted for $351.4 million in sales, down from $395.4 million. The global economic downturn has hurt the company’s U.K. operations, which has dropped to $631.7 million from $867.8 million in 2008. Constellation blames the weakening economic conditions and government actions, which includes large duty increases and volatile exchange rates. The deteriorating economy caused consumers to become conservative in their spending and retailers to focus on heavy promotions while reducing inventory. Constellation’s Canadian operations stayed flat at $448.2 million in sales, against $449.8 million in 2008, mostly due to its Vincor subsidiary, which accounts for 20% of the Canadian market. The US market remains Constellation’s strongest performer, boosting sales on the back of Robert Mondavi to $US2196 million, $US from 2031 million last year.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/constellation-brands-posts-another-deficit-103823

A glass of wine with your picnic? It's against the law

THE TIMES, UK

25.06.09: More than 700 “controlled drinking zones” have been set up across England, giving police sweeping powers to confiscate beer and wine from anyone enjoying a quiet outdoor tipple.

Local authorities are introducing the zones at a rate of 100 a year, The Times has learnt. Some cover whole cities, a radical departure from what the law intended.

Once a control zone is in place, police can seize alcohol from anyone who is not on licensed premises, even if the bottles or cans are unopened. Although drinking is not banned in the zones, police can ask anyone to stop drinking and it is an offence to refuse, punishable by a maximum £500 fine. No explanation or suspicion that the person could be a public nuisance is required. The highest fine will soon rise to £2,500.

Campaigners say that if the rapid spread of the zones is not halted it will soon be impossible to find anywhere to have a picnic or outdoor drink on a summer’s evening.

Laws giving local authorities the power to set up the zones, or “designated public place orders”, were introduced in 2001 at the height of government concern over public drunkenness. The law made clear that the zones should cover only streets or city centre areas with a record of alcohol-related disorder or nuisance. …

The Manifesto Club estimates that, on current trends, 20,000 bottles or cans of alcohol will be confiscated over the summer months. The Home Office acknowledged that there was a problem with the law, and pointed to revised guidelines issued to police and

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update local authorities in December last year to try to curb over-zealous policing.

“The law is clear that these powers should only be used to address nuisance associated with drinking alcohol in a public place, not to disrupt peaceful activities such as family picnics or to challenge people consuming alcohol who are not causing a problem. We expect local police forces to use common sense in the application of these powers,” a Home Office spokesman said. He said that the zones were never intended to cover entire boroughs.

To protest at what it considers an excessive approach, the Manifesto Club is hosting a picnic on Brighton beach with alcoholic drinks on Saturday. Josie Appleton, author of the report, said that she hoped it would result in a more proportionate response towards drinking outdoors.

“These measures were designed to tackle serious public drunkenness and disorder, yet they are being used against people doing absolutely nothing wrong,” she said. ‘I had to pour beer down drain’ …

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article6571617.ece

EU has no plans for an 'alcohol-free Europe'

DECANTER, UK

24.06.09: While the European Union must take a stronger stance on addressing alcohol abuse, there are no plans for an alcohol-free Europe, says the European Commission's Director of Consumption. Speaking at a conference at the Vinexpo trade fair in Bordeaux, Robert Madelin urged EU member countries to be more proactive about implementing effective alcohol strategies locally. 'The subject of moderate consumption of alcohol is the background to the success of this whole industry,' said Madelin. 'We are not moving towards standardising policy across countries, but ensuring a more proactive, targeted approach from the whole economic value chain.' The Commission has been working to get relevant parties - from across production, retail, academia, government and non- governmental organisations - to publicly commit to concrete actions. So far, 102 groups have introduced specific programmes, including enforcing age identification at points of sale; tightening drink driving laws; and introducing alcohol education to young children. Standing in front of a screen featuring the image of a hamburger, a packet of cigarettes, and a bottle of wine, Madelin acknowledged the confusion caused by health stories that suggest all 'vices' are equally culpable. He cited a recent study that implied a consumer's very first drink could lead to cancer, just as a cigarette could. 'The sector must decide how it wants to position itself,' he said. 'But in terms of the EU's public health agenda, alcohol is not treated the same as cigarettes because it is not recognised as being dangerous from the first glass. There may be a vision of a cigarette-free Europe, but not of an alcohol- free Europe.' Madelin downplayed the three-hour conference's low attendance - only 40 people were in the room at any time - telling decanter.com that this was normal for a 'policy seminar.' However he emphasised that the more the industry regulates itself, the less official legislation is required, and 'the less people like me have to worry.'

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=285044

A Grim Morning After for Australian Wines

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, FRANCE

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

23.06.09: Just a few years ago, Australia was being hailed as the great international success story of the wine business, challenging the dominance of France, Italy and Spain. From 1999 to 2007, foreign sales grew more than threefold, making Australia the world’s fourth-largest exporter.

But even as its star appeared to be rising, the Australian wine industry was sliding, selling a greater volume of wine at increasingly lower prices. Last year, the average price per liter of Australian wine sold overseas was about 25 percent lower than it was a decade ago, a level many say is unsustainable.

The industry is also facing increased competition from lower-cost rivals and changing consumer tastes. Last year, exports fell 9 percent by volume, the first such drop in a decade. Many vintners are hanging by a thread.

“The industry is in crisis — anything less than that is avoiding reality,” said Jeremy Oliver, an Australian winemaker and critic. “It is interesting that nobody really saw this coming.”

The reversal of fortune is prompting tough questions about what went wrong, and stimulating efforts by the industry to reinvent itself. Some vintners say Australian wine needs an image makeover; others are shifting their sights to the relatively undeveloped Asian market.

Australians have been making wine almost since the first convict settlers arrived in 1788. With a few exceptions, local winemakers toiled in relative obscurity until the late 1980s, when some entrepreneurs and government officials spotted an opportunity in the growing demand for wine in Britain and the United States. Encouraged by tax incentives, investors planted vines and opened wineries at breakneck speed.

Australia took the British market by storm, surpassing Italy and France as the country’s top seller in 2004. What many suppliers did not foresee was the extent to which their sales in Britain would be dominated by a few large supermarkets, which would use their influence to push down prices, especially as competition increased from newcomers like Chile, Argentina and South Africa.

About 85 percent of Australian wine sales in Britain are made through supermarkets. Though the volume of Australian wine sold to Britain has more than doubled in the past decade, the price per liter has fallen from 4.36 Australian dollars in 1999 to 2.95 dollars, or $2.36, in the year that ended March 31.

“Australia can’t even bottle air and make money selling at that price,” Mr. Oliver said. “It’s not sustainable for Australia to be trying to produce the world’s cheapest wine; we’re totally unsuited to it.”… Thus, at the upper end of the market, Australia became identified by “one grape and one region,” Mr. Hayward said — a strategy doomed to fail when that variety inevitably fell from fashion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/business/global/23wine.html?_r=1

Rise in wine consumption in China and the opening of the market interests Portuguese producers

MACAUHUB, CHINA

22.06.09: The main Portuguese wine producers made a new “foray” into China in May which, according to the Portuguese agency for the promotion of overseas trade (Aicep), was very successful, due to public wealth and the greater openness of the Chinese

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

market.

Viniportugal's 3rd mission to China, which has also been in Macau, Hong Kong and Shanghai from 12th to 21st May, included 30 producers, promoting several wine-tasting sessions - attended by wine experts, journalists and the general public – as well as courses and seminars.

“This mission had a very positive outcome, improving on the results of the previous event,” in January 2008, namely because of the improved timing of the visit to the market and the “selection of suitable, prestigious venues, at competitive rates," according to the Aicep report, which supported the initiative.

In Macau (14 to 16 May) over 2000 people attended an open-air party at the MGM Macau hotel and around 300 people attended a Portuguese wine-tasting session at Bela Vista, the home of Portugal’s General Consul, who was present at the event.

“Some deals were closed at the tasting session and also many companies made important contacts for subsequent meetings (...). Wealth was even greater than in Hong Kong, essentially due to the higher profile of wine experts, which made up around half of the visitors," said Aicep. …

http://www.macauhub.com.mo/en/news.php?ID=7603

Spanish exports eclipse France

HARPERS, UK

22.06.09: Spain has overtaken France as the number two exporter of wines in volume terms, according to figures from the International Organization of Vine & Wine (OIV). The data shows that Italy still leads the export charts with 17.2 million litres sold abroad in 2008. Spain exported 16.9 million litres and France 13.6 million hectolitres - though the French still lead the world with the sales value of their wine exports. Wines from Spain said its exports had earned it €1,994m, an 8% increase on the 2007 figure. The data was provided by the Spanish Tax Agency, which also confirms that March has seen a small uplift for Spanish wine exports after a poor January and February. According to OIV, global consumption of wine fell by 2m hectolitres last year, with the USA overtaking Italy in terms of wine consumed.

http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/news-headlines/8130-spanish-exports-eclipse-france.html

En primeur: Bordeaux 2008 puts cat among the vintages

FINANCIAL TIMES, UK

20.06.09: Well before a single sample was poured at this year’s Bordeaux en primeur tastings, the omens for the campaign were far from promising.

It was not just the global economic crisis, sterling’s continued weakness against the euro, or the paucity of potential buyers that concerned UK merchants.

Turn-up: everyone was surprised at the high quality of the 2008 and even more

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update surprised at the high scores Robert Parker gave it

What worried them was how to sell what many predicted would be another over-priced and unexceptional vintage, like the 2007. Farr Vintners were so negative that they didn’t even go to taste the wines.

Yet those who did go and taste in March were astonished to discover that the 2008s were really rather good – not in the class of 2005, but certainly much better than anyone, including the Bordelais, had believed possible. They were certainly a marked improvement on the expensively limp 2007s. …

Right or wrong, the market backed Mr Parker. Overnight, wines such as Palmer and La Mission which had not really sold, suddenly started to move in decent quantities. “Lafite just went bang,” says Farr Vintner’s Stephen Browett. Armed with a 98-100 score, iT surged up to £3,600 a case on the secondary market before settling to £3,250.

Thereafter, high-scoring chateaux that came out after Mr Parker’s review inevitably priced their wines at less of a discount than the earlier releases.

Some, including Cheval Blanc, Leoville-las-Cases and Cos d’Estournel released at levels much closer to their 2007s, which did not appear to offer such good value.

Ducru Beaucaillou at £750 and Pontet-Canet at £595 dared to come out higher than in 2007.

Even so, the ever-improving and much-fancied Pontet-Canet has produced another exceptional wine and sold well.

Remarkably, by the end of May, the campaign was finished – usually it drags on until the end of June or into July. And although a number of merchants have hailed it a surprising success (given their low expectations), many are also wondering what kind of legacy it will leave.

One question mark is whether the Bordelais will ever again pay heed to the UK wine trade continually crying wolf over en primeur pricing.

Another is whether any leading chateau will again release its wines in advance of Mr Parker’s review.

And finally, there remains the question of whether Mr Parker will be proven right over the quality of the vintage.

For that, we will have to wait a little longer.

Subscription based

Majestic Wine to stay expansion course despite profits plunge

RETAILWEEK, UK

19.06.09: Majestic Wine chief executive Steve Lewis will press ahead with expanding to 250 branches from 150 over the next five to 10 years, despite a profits plunge.

Faltering corporate custom and a 20 per cent sales fall in Majestic’s northern France stores - two in Calais and one in Cherbourg - were blamed for a 56 per cent profit slump to £7.4m, on sales up 2.4 per cent to £201.8m in the year to March 30.

Lewis said: “From the middle of September we saw a really large decline in sales to companies, probably because they hadn’t got much to celebrate. And we are assuming that these sales

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update probably won’t come back.”

He added that while sales to businesses, particularly of champagne, had collapsed, “better” sparkling wines were “holding good” as high street shoppers continued to frequent the stores.

The internet has also provided Majestic Wine with a source of succour. Online sales jumped 16 per cent against the previous year and now account for 9.1 per cent of the total.…

http://www.winesciencenews.com/r/id/12453708482700

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.

Britain's biggest wine company

JANCIS ROBINSON, UK

20.06.09: This year Britain’s biggest wine company is 40 years old. It is privately owned and still very much guided by one married couple. Tony Laithwaite, whom I have never seen at professional wine tastings and events, might be called the invisible man of the British wine trade – except that in the last few years, possibly prompted by the Sunday Times Rich List, the trade has at last begun to recognise his existence with various lifetime achievement awards.

... The company, which employs about 1,000 people globally, has always been unusually innovative. The first in the world to employ flying winemakers, well trained young Australians hired to turn cheap French grapes into modern wine, Direct Wines is now capitalising on the vast numbers of highly trained and motivated oenology graduates churned out annually by Adelaide university by offering them a contract winery in McLaren Vale to play in, thereby getting their hands on small lots of serious Australian wine. They have a similar outfit in Castillon on the banks of the Dordogne.

But Tony Laithwaite is probably best known to British wine drinkers via the Sunday Times Wine Club, which the Laithwaites have operated since Barbara negotiated the deal with them in 1973. Indeed Sunday Times editor Harry Evans’ patronage of this young upstart was probably the single biggest leg up the company ever experienced – along with the establishment of a lifetime’s friendship with wine writer Hugh Johnson, who is the Club’s president. Today, Direct Wines is behind a good 90% of any wine mail order offer in the UK press and mailings from the likes of British Airways, the National Trust and several banks. If another outfit seems to be presenting some direct competition, they tend to buy it, as they did between 2002 and 2005 with Virgin Wines, Warehouse Wines of Preston, and even the venerable Averys of Bristol.

Their mailing lists are therefore unparalleled and today their chief income stream is from their principal UK mail order company, known as Laithwaites Wine since a 21st-century corporate decision to bring Tony out of the shadows. Thanks to Tony, their tone and sales pitch has always relied on folksy, direct and extremely effective writing – so effective that even I can easily find myself swayed into a state of excited curiosity about what they describe as their exclusive special finds. Only partly because they are seen as outsiders, they have come in for

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update more than their fair share of flak over the years from wine writers complaining that their policy of avoiding direct price comparisons is simply a ploy to allow them to overprice sometimes quite ordinary wine. But there seems to be a new energy in the wine buying department now under Dan Snook ex-Averys. They have also regained from Sainsbury’s (‘we should never have lost her’) buyer Abigail Hirshfeld.

Over tea in a smart London hotel (a meeting that had taken literally months to arrange), I asked Barbara what she thought their greatest mistake had been. ‘We probably relaxed a bit too much over the last four to six years', she admitted. ‘We always prided ourselves on being light on our feet but I think we slowed down. I wouldn’t say we were leapfrogged but we weren’t as innovative as we should have been.’

For someone at the helm of such a successful company virtually without direct competitors, Barbara Laithwaite is surprisingly edgy. ‘We do have competition', she insisted. ‘We’re copied all the time by companies like Majestic – the supermarkets less so.’ She is gloomy about prospects at home. ‘The whole UK wine business is going to change. The government is making it so hard to trade well here. In March 2011 duty will go up to £20.83 a case.’ Which means £1.74 will go straight to the Exchequer for every bottle sold, no matter what its price.

It is partly this that has driven Direct Wines abroad, virtually unnoticed by the rest of the UK wine trade.They have long had a similar operation in Australia but three years ago – great timing – they bought Lionstone in Illinois, a virtual copycat company they had known for over 20 years, to get a foothold in the vast and expanding US wine market. And since last September they have had a tie-up with the Wall Street Journal, which Barbara described as ‘the thing we’re most proud of’. They have apparently sold £20 million worth of wine to the Journal’s readers in the first nine months after hard-fought negotiations. As if to prove that Murdoch ownership is not crucial to their expansion plans, this weekend they launch a similar deal with Die Welt in Germany, owned by Axel Springer, and are finalising a similar deal in Hong Kong. All of this is run from their base in a large warehouse in Theale, Berkshire, where Direct Wines has planted a vineyard which produces a fizz. ‘We don’t own any buildings - at least I don’t think we do', Barbara told me. With a girlfriend, she also now has her own personal vineyard, which has helped revive her interest in the family business (all three Laithwaite sons, pictured here, are now connected with it in some way). ‘I’ve never had a profound interest in wine but I’m actually more interested than I used to be. We have two hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the next village. We studied at Plumpton and we do most of the hand work between us. Winter pruning in old ski clothes sort of thing. It really makes you feel alive, responding to the seasons. Ours is much healthier than the Theale vineyard even though it’s only a few miles away.’

The Laithwaites have had their own health problems, but their financial health is not in doubt.

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a200906165.html

Spanish mixup caused Albariño confusion

JANCIS ROBINSON, UK

22.06.09: There have been some significant new developments in the saga of the Australian 'Albariño' that isn't.

Firstly, New Zealand's leading vine nursery has now done a DNA analysis on its Albariño material and has announced with some relief that its cuttings really are the Galician white wine grape and not, as in the case of the vines distributed as Albariño in

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Australia, the Savagnin of Jura (pictured here by specialist wine photographer Mick Rock of Cephas). But secondly, as highlighted in members' forum after some excellent sleuthing by Spanish wine writer Victor de la Serna, the mix-up started in Spain, not Australia and has considerable potential global consequences. Australian viticultural consultant Richard Smart has forwarded the following communications from Spain, lest there be any doubt. Here's what Felix Cabello Sáenz de Santa María, head of the largest vine variety collection in Spain just outside Madrid, wrote recently about the Albariño/Savagnin confusion:

'This mistake has the origin in our collection, since many years ago Savagnin Blanc and Albariño were confused in some Spanish areas and a wrong sample collected in Orense in 1951 was taken to our collection with the name of Albariño but it was Savagnin. The two true samples known as Albariño were taken to our collection in 1975 from the Fefiñanes winery in Cambados (Pontevedra), and from Misión Bilógica de Galicia (CSIC) in 1977. So all samples sent from our collection between 1955 and 1984 were Savagnin Blanc. This is the origin of the wrong samples of Albariño in the collections of Jerez de la Frontera (Andalucia, Spain) and Vassal (near Montpellier, France). This has been published by Santiago et al in 2007 in the Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research where these two varieties and Caiño Blanco were studied by ampelography and molecular analysis coming to the conclusion that they are three different varieties. 'It is very probable that Australian Albariño was taken from the French collection and the mistake spread later. Some legends tell that Albariño came from Germany to Galicia through the pilgrim's route to Santiago de Compostela. This is not true. What we have seen is that Savagnin Blanc has been grown in Galicia, León and Asturias for hundreds of years. We have even found wild vines (River Cares) more than 100 years old that are descendants of Savagnin Blanc.' And here is what Carmen Martínez Rodríguez of the Misión Biológica de Galicia (CSIC) in Pontevedra, Galicia, the native region of Albariño, writes:

… Although in antiquity they were quite important, for the moment these wine denominations are practically unknown in Spain, but they still preserve small treasures from the point of view of the grapevine biodiversity and culture.'

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/a20090621.html

Tim Atkin says Sancerre isn't the only wine from the Loire region

THE GUARDIAN, UK

21.06.09: Sancerre is often a default choice when faced with a long wine list. But the Loire region will repay careful study, says Tim Atkin

Sommeliers hate people who drink Sancerre. Ask anyone who earns a living pulling corks in restaurants about the Loire Valley's most famous white - or rather the sort of customers who order it - and nostril-flaring derision inevitably follows. Sancerre, you see, is the default choice of punters who know little (or even less) about wine but aren't prepared to ask for advice. It's the I-know-what-I-like wine par excellence.

There are plenty of reasons to dislike Sancerre, starting with its mixed quality and ending with its increasingly steep, and often unjustified, price tag. But when it's good, it's an expression of Sauvignon Blanc at its steely, minerally best, a white wine that makes most New Zealand examples look one dimensional. The other problem with Sancerre is that its fame overshadows the Loire's other wines. People might have heard of Muscadet, Vouvray and Pouilly-Fumé, but what of the other 80-plus appellations? What about Quincy, Savennières, Bonnezeaux and Bourgueil?

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The Loire is one of France's largest and most diverse wine regions, but is woefully under- appreciated here, especially when you compare it with Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne, the Rhône and Alsace. No area can match its range of dry, sweet and sparkling wines, made using grapes such as Melon de Bourgogne, Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Gris, Gamay, Chardonnay, Pineau d'Aunis, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and, best of all, Chenin Blanc. You could construct a five-course meal from aperitif to dessert, and choose a world-class Loire Valley wine for every one of them.

Making sense of the Loire isn't easy, given the length of the river and the fact that grapes are grown in six separate regions - the Pays Nantais (Muscadet country), Anjou, Saumur, Touraine, the Centre Loire and the Auvergne. There aren't any up-to-date books on the region, but two excellent, insider websites, both written by Brits, are jimsloire.blogspot.com and richardkelley.co.uk. …

http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/s2Rg6_NWRpHqCN7UW24NA7A/view.m?id=109308 &tid=34&chk_my-text=t,2;c,2&cat=Food-Drink

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.

Wine, veg and little meat 'a recipe for long life'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

24.06.09: Researchers found that eating large amounts of fish and seafood or the low levels of dairy traditionally associated with the diet did little or nothing to lengthen life span.

However, drinking a glass of wine or two a day as well as large amounts of fruit, vegetables and olive oil while keeping red meat consumption to a minimum did add up to a recipe for a longer life. The scientists behind the study claim that it is the first to identify which individual parts of the diet might contribute the most to longevity. Previous research has found that sticking to the diet can protect the brain against developing Alzheimer's and other memory problems, cut the chances of developing heart disease and even reduce the risk of being diagnosed with cancer. The latest study, which followed 23,000 people, found that those who adhered most closely to a typical Mediterranean diet were 14 per cent more likely to still be alive at the end of eight years. Prof Dimitrios Trichopoulos, from the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study, said: "The analysis suggests that the dominant components of the Mediterranean diet... are moderate consumption of alcohol, mostly in the form of wine during meals, as it traditional in the Mediterranean countries, low consumption of meat and meat products, and high consumption of vegetables, fruits and nuts, olive oil and legume."

Drinking wine had the most benefit on life span the findings suggest, followed by reducing meat consumption and then eating high numbers of fruit, vegetables and nuts. There was also "clear" benefits in combining key components of the diet, such as lots of

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update vegetables and olive oil, the researchers found. However, the findings, published online by the British Medical Journal, do not mean that eating fish carries few health benefits. Previous studies have suggested that the omega three "good" fatty acids found in fatty fish like tuna and Salmon can help protect the mind against decline and even cut the risk that men will develop prostate cancer. The study gave patients a score for how closely their diet resembled that of a typical Mediterranean diet, which contains lots of fish, vegetables, fruits and cereals, as well as low levels of dairy, meat and saturated fats, and just small amounts of alcohol. Earlier this year scientists found that older people who ate a Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease over five years.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5611459/Wine-veg-and-little-meat-a- recipe-for-long-life.html

Why apples, avocados and a glass of red wine could ease your arthritis

DAILY MAIL, UK

22.06.09: Arthritis is the term used for nearly 200 painful conditions of the joints and bones. It affects about 7million people in the UK and all types have similar symptoms of swelling, inflammation of joints, stiffness and restriction of movement. … Red wine is good, take care with the chillies

The foods below have a natural anti-inflammatory action that's particularly beneficial for those with arthritis - however, some (such as chilli peppers) may trigger an idiosyncratic reaction in some sufferers. Apples: Contain anti-inflammatory antioxidants. Red Delicious apples contain the most. The antioxidants are five times more concentrated in the apple's skin than the flesh.

… Red wine: A good source of antioxidant polyphenols which reduce inflammation. …

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1194401/Why-apples-avocados-glass-red-wine- ease-arthritis.html

Wines from Greece Publicity Monitor

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

A new age dawns for the wines of Greece

DETROIT NEWS, USA

25.06.09: New technology. Organic farming. Hip new boutique wineries. Cool indigenous grapes.

Have you tried any wines from Greece lately? Wine has been a part of Greek culture for 4,000 years, and it's not all just about Retsina, the age-old pine resin-flavored white wines still served in Detroit's Greektown restaurants. Now there's a spate of New World-style wines made from native grapes and from classic European varietals.

Philip Arvantis, president of Wine Dimensions in Mount Clemens, a wine and food importing and distribution company, sells a portfolio of 150 Greek wines to local wine shops and restaurants. His mother was born on the Greek island of Samos and his father on an island now owned by

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

Turkey. His Greek pride runs deep.

"I aspired to be in the Greek wine business early on because I thought there was potential," he said this week.

The stumbling blocks to the new Greek wines, he said, are largely the labels and the names of the varietals, which are unknown to most consumers and difficult to pronounce.

According to Arvantis, the key white-wine grapes today are the citrusy-minerally Assyrtiko from the island of Satnorini and the floral Moschofilero from the Peloponnese.

The main reds are Xinomavro from Northern Greece, which is compared to a rich, full-bodied Italian Nebbiolo, and Agiorgitiko, sometimes called Saint George and likened to Merlot.

Metro Detroiters can taste through a series of Greek wines at the 16th annual OPA! Fest Friday through Sunday at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Troy, which includes a roster of food, Greek music and dancing, a performance by Greece's hot guitarist Pavlo and more.

Arvantis makes frequent trips back to Greece and says his next project is to explore the ancient native varietals.

To learn more about Greek wines, check out the books by Nico Manessis or go to www.nestorimports.com for "Greece in a glass" and a guide to the grapes.

3 Greek wines

These wines are $15 and less. For more information on availability, contact Philip Arvantis at (734) 216-1828

Greek Wine Cellars Assyrtiko, Santorini: Assyrtiko is the grape variety. The island of Santorini is the origin. It's reminiscent of the hybrid grape Seyval, only more refined. It has crisp lemony acidity balanced with minerality. A perfect summertime sipper with grilled seafood. It's available at Papa Joe's and Hiller's.

Domaine Skouras Zoe 2006: A blend of Saint George (Agiorgitiko) and Moschofilero, it's a regional rose of the Peloponnese. The style is bone-dry, with intense raspberry and plum fruit, good weight and lots of personality. Serve it very cold. It 's on the list at Mediterrano in Ann Arbor and Pi Restaurant in Southfield.

Calliga Rubis: A well-mannered, medium-bodied dry red made from Agiorgitiko on the Ionian island of Cephalonia. Think Cru Beaujolais for weight and style. It has lovely stone fruit flavored with brown spices. It's served at Ernie's King's Mill in Clinton Township. …

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090625/OPINION03/906250320/1031

Blogosphere Monitor

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

Some summer wine picks - and Forbes.com

DR VINO, USA

19.06.09: Shiraz and Chardonnay account for half of the vineyard acres planted in

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Australia. For a quick taste of how the other half drinks, check out a piece that I wrote for Forbes.com. And if you’re feeling summery, surf on over to the James Beard blog for five of my summer wine picks. But to reward all of you site readers here with some wine picks, I organized and led a fun tasting of seven summery wines last week at a residence on the Upper East Side. I’ll paste the list of wines below for your perusing, from lightest to fullest, with some reactions from the folks in attendance. Incidentally, as I was talking about rosé being the ultimate lunch wine, especially if it was lunch outside under an umbrella, one woman had a funny quip: Who actually has lunches like that? Ah, perhaps we need an impossible wine-place pairing: the office!

Nino Franco, Rustico, Prosecco. $16. very popular

Broadbent selections, Vinho Verde, 2008, $10. sort of popular

Binner, Gewurztraminer, 2005. $25. I liked it a lot, they didn’t (probably too rich for a warm evening)

Bernard Baudry, rosé, Chinon, 2008. $17 popular

Marcel Lapierre, Morgon, 2007. $24. A delicious wine, unanimously loved

Rossignol-Trapet, Bourgogne rouge, 2006. $23 very popular

Les Hérétiques, vin de pays de l’Hérault, 2007. $8 very popular

http://www.drvino.com/2009/06/19/some-summer-wine-picks-and-forbescom/

Pine nuts, the whale, the anchor, Vinexpo - sipped and spit

DR VINO, USA

22.06.09: Losing your senses appears to be all the rage. First, it was Zicam, with it’s new FDA warning against possible anosmia (loss of smell). Now: pine nuts! According to Britain’s Daily Mail, increasing numbers of people have been left with a “foul, metallic taste” in their mouth after eating the nuts and that taste may linger for two weeks. Their columnist describes his experience with “pine mouth:” “Though I regained my taste after eight days, the only thing I could drink during that time was water, and the only food that was bearable was salad leaves smothered in strong balsamic vinegar. Drinking wine was like swallowing liquid metal.” Talk about an impossible food-wine pairing!

SIPPED: a whale tale

In a fascinating post that provides a look into the business of selling wine, Lyle Fass, formerly in high-end wine retail, posts to his blog about the death of “the whale,” namely, the big customer who orders $10,000 worth of wine with a single phone call. … Vinexpo, the big wine trade show kicks off today in Bordeaux. AFP reports on a study from Vinexpo that forecasts worldwide wine sales rising to 390 billion euros in 2012 from the current 330 billion euros, citing increased demand from China and Russia. Global wine consumption softened last year.

http://www.drvino.com/2009/06/22/pine-nuts-whale-wine-sales-anchor-wine-reviews/

Giveaway: Au Revoir to All That by Michael Steinberger

DR VINO, USA

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

23.06.09: At the G8 summit in the UK in 2005, reporters overheard Jacques Chirac murmur about the British hosts to some fellow world leaders, “One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad.”

The irony of this comment was not lost on Mike Steinberger. In his new book, after noting that London is now, actually, a great food city, he turns the tables on Chirac, saying, “Where once the mere mention of food by a French leader would have elicited thoughts of Gallic refinement and achievement, its invocation now served to underscore the depths of France’s decline. They’ve even lost their edge in the kitchen.”

Mike is probably best known to wine geeks as the wine columnist for Slate.com. But in Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine, and the End of France, available on Amazon today, he broadens his focus to include food, specifically, haute cuisine in France. Unlike much food writing, which is prone to sometimes excessive praise, Mike takes up the task of analyzing the decline of French food through the lens of a love lost. Imbued with nostalgia and occasional bafflement at the new French ability to turn gold into lead, Mike wolfs down raw milk camembert and praline mille feuilles, talks with leading chefs and restaurateurs, probes the inner workings of the Michelin Guide, cross examines bureaucrats, journeys to Spain, has a glass of water with the head of McDonald’s Europe, meets a struggling vintner who sold his house in order to keep his winery, and contemplates the lack of ethnic diversity in French restaurants with a Pakistani-born chef.

It’s a meaty tale that provokes thought and stimulates the palate: wine and food lovers will want to savor it this summer.

Thanks to Bloomsbury, the publisher, we have three signed copies of the book to give away to readers of this site. To qualify for the drawing, hit the comments below and tell us where you had your best (or at least a great) meal, restaurant and city. If you’re not feeling in an haute cuisine spirit, tell us about your favorite street food experience. Enter by Thursday to qualify; randomly selected winners will be announced here on Friday morning.

UPDATE: Slate has just posted an excerpt about “How the Michelin guide crippled France’s restaurants.” http://www.drvino.com/2009/06/23/giveaway-au-revoir-to-all-that-by-michael-steinberger/

The U.S. Open of Wine?

FERMENTATION, USA

19.06.09: This week the U.S. Open, America's most important golf tournament, will have the attention of sports writers, Tiger-watchers and golf lovers the world over. It's a big tournament and it always has been. Despite the existence of the Fed Ex cup, which is suppose to produce something like the final results for best golfer of the year, I think it's safe to say that winning the U.S. Open produces the greatest prestige for a golfer. Folks will be glued to their TV this weekend watching the U.S. Open.

So, where is the competition that would produce America's #1 wine?

There are many wine competitions across the country that judge single varieties, wines of a particular region, that associate themselves with state fairs, and those that have specific sorts of wine people doing the judging. But in my 20 years of working in the wine industry, there has never been any wine competition anywhere that was acknowledged as the most prestigious. In a way, I think this circumstance is odd. Given that a competitive tasting

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update between French and American wines back in the 1970s put American wine on the map, you'd think this alone would have provided the impetus to create something like a national competition that would be like the U.S. Open, America's most prestigious judging. But it didn't. It helped lead to a proliferation of competitions, none of which became the most important.

Wine Competitions are somewhat controversial within the industry. There are many philosophies as to how they ought to be run and what their results mean. For one, many of the most famous artisan wineries don't submit their wines for judging for the simple reason that they have nothing to gain and everything to lose be permitting the possibility that other much less expensive and lesser appreciated wines will wind up besting them. If I make a Syrah that consistently sells out on release and I get $60 for it, why would I even consider putting it in a competition where a $30 Syrah might best it? There is also the inherent difficulty for the judges. Judging 200+ chardonnays in a sitting is a very difficult thing to do. At some point, many judges simply start reacting to the most expansive, biggest, palate smacking wines that come in front of them. Is that positive? Still, I think that if it could be created, a national championship of wine would be a fun thing. I'm not sure it would be a good thing for the American wine consumer or the American wine industry, but it would be exciting if it could be organized and appreciated as a sort of national championship.

On the other hand, it wouldn't make for great TV.

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2009/06/the-us-open-of-wine.html

The Three-Tier System and Consumer Access To Wine

FERMENTATION, USA

23.06.09: The three-tier system of having a “distributor” in between the producer of wine and the wine retailer was put into place after prohibition to prevent the abuses associated with “tied houses” prior to prohibition. Unfortunately this system has merely served to duplicate the corruption that it was created to fix.

Prior to prohibition, suppliers wielded so much power they could control retailers by threatening not to supply them. Retailers became “tied” to particular alcohol producers. The "tied" retailers were forced to sell a single manufacturer’s product. Producers also forced retailers to promote their brands without regard to public safety. These circumstances exasperated alcohol abuse problems and were often cited by Prohibition’s advocates as one of the key problems with alcohol in America.

To assure this measure of control and this kind of abject corruption would not happen after repeal of prohibition, most states mandated the “second tier” to sit between the producers of alcohol and the retailers of alcohol. They created the state-mandated monopoly known as the “wholesaler tier”.

Today, almost 75 years after the Repeal of Prohibition, every state has only a very small number of wholesalers that control the flow of alcohol. They determine which brands will be sold in wine stores and restaurants. The obscene power once wielded by producers of alcohol over 70 years ago today is in the hands of alcohol wholesalers. Because most states mandate that alcohol flow from the winery to distributor to retailers, distributors find themselves in the enviable position having a monopoly on how wine is distributed in each state. This, for obvious reasons, has made them enormously powerful and wealthy. As the numbers of wholesalers in America has dwindled, usually as a result of buyouts and mergers, that enormous power has concentrated in a handful of distributors that operate in multiple

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update states. Additionally, because there are such a small number of alcohol wholesalers in each state that must, by law, be used by producers to get their wines to retailers and restaurants, the wholesalers are under no pressure to provide high quality service, as they would be if they were subjected to competitive market forces.

… Yet, just as more wholesalers are needed to handle the demand and the growing number of producers, their number has been reduces to usually no more than three or four distributors in each state handling all distribution. In some cases, such as Texas, two wholesalers (Glazers and Republic) control 99% of the market. An ‘hourglass” scenario has been created whereby the wholesalers occupy the squeezed middle of the glass. This position of enormous control has generated massive profits and has made them so powerful they are now able to completely control not just the distribution of wine, but the laws that are created to govern the distribution of wine. Since 2000, Wholesalers, their political action groups and their associations have spent nearly $60,000,000 in campaign contributions on the state level. In addition, millions of dollars more have been spent on lobbyists on the state and federal level.

In 2006, for example, in Texas, alcohol distributors contributed more than $3,750,000 to political candidates and politicians. The only economic interests that outspent alcohol distributors in 2006 were Attorneys and Law firms, Oil & Gas, and Home Builders. Alcohol wholesalers outspent all unions combined in Texas, securities and banking interests, and insurance interests. Alcohol wholesalers in Texas outspent the combined contributions of gambling interests and casinos, retailer interests, all food and non-alcoholic beverage interests, tobacco interests, and tourism interests.

It is difficult to correlate campaign contributions with favorable treatment in the halls of government. However, it should be noted that in numerous states, legislation that can only be called favorable to alcohol wholesalers is regularly introduced and passed. …

On alcohol wholesalers’ requests, a number of state legislatures passed felony laws aimed at vintners and retailers who were shipping directly to the consumer and who were filling the growing demand for wines that wholesalers were incapable or unwilling to distribute. The all-out attack on direct sales of wine by the wholesalers came with dire warnings that if it were allowed to continue minors would eventually start ordering alcohol over the Internet—even though that meant paying the additional cost of shipping and waiting at the door for the delivery in order to hide the purchase from their parents. The Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association, a national association of alcohol wholesalers headed by one- time pro-tobacco activist Juanita Duggan, led the campaign to prevent consumers from obtaining the wines that wholesalers could not or would not supply. The wholesalers were met by stiff consumer and winery-led opposition. Wineries and consumers argued that wholesalers were merely fighting to preserve enormous profits made from being at the center of a monopoly-based system that could no longer serve a market that had evolved considerably since the end of Prohibition in 1933. Eventually wineries led by the newly formed Coalition for Free Trade, and consumers led by an advocacy organization called Free The Grapes followed a litigation strategy that focused on the using the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, states besides California began to sprout their own wine industries. Oregon, Washington, New York, Virginia, Michigan and many other states found themselves with burgeoning wine industries. The states, wanting to cultivate these new industries that added value to agricultural pursuits, attracted tourism, and brought prestige to the state, enacted exceptions to the three tier system that allowed its wineries to sell directly to consumers rather than forcing them to always sell to wholesalers. By

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update doing this, the new wineries were able to produce greater revenues for themselves by selling their wine at full retail price, rather than reducing the retail price by half when sold to a wholesaler, who then tacked on their cut when they sold to retailers, who in turn tacked on their cut when selling directly to the consumer.

However, this “direct-to-consumer” exception in the law was rarely extended to out-of-state wineries

Legal challenges to this blatant discrimination against out of state wineries started popping up around the country. In court battles across the country the argument was made that a state may not allow its own wineries to ship to its state’s residents, yet prohibit out-of- state wineries from doing the same. It was a matter of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution and its demand that states not hamper interstate commerce, trumping the states’ ability to regulate the distribution of alcohol based on the second paragraph of the 21st Amendment. The issue finally made its way to the Supreme Court, which in May 2005 rendered a 5-4 decision favoring the wineries and free traders in it Granholm v. Heald decision. There was an immediate assumption that states across the country would loosen their laws to allow consumers to buy wine from out-of-state wineries. Many reports heralded a new era in consumer access to fine wine.

While a number of states did change their laws, the era of free trade in wine was not quite at hand. If wholesalers found the courts a difficult venue to try to protect their economic interests, legislatures proved a more fertile ground for them. From 2005 through 2007 states legislatures began re-writing their wine shipping laws. In the course of doing so many of the laws contained wholesaler-requested restrictions that kept direct shipment of wine limited. Some laws allowed direct shipment, but only if the winery produced very small amounts of wine. These “production cap” restrictions were aimed at California, Washington and Oregon, where most wineries resided. The production caps were usually set just high enough to include the largest of a state’s wineries (often no more than 5,000 cases annually). …

In the case of the retailers’ battle against the wholesalers, a new dynamic has emerged. Unlike the wineries’ battles that usually had the support of wineries across the country, retailers often take a provincial position, with the hope of keeping out-of-state retailers from shipping into their own home state and thereby protecting themselves from competition. Also, many retailers are not willing to fight on behalf of free trade in wine for fear they will be retaliated against by their state’s wholesalers who supply them with products. Ironically, the situation is identical to that which existed with Tied House retailers prior to Prohibition, but with the pressure now being put on by the wholesalers rather than by producers. The power that exists in the hands of a very few (no more than 10) alcohol wholesalers operating in markets across the country cannot be underestimated. In nearly every state few wholesalers control the entire apparatus of alcohol distribution. Legislatures continue to enact laws that favor wholesalers to the detriment of retailers, wineries and consumers. In nearly every state wholesalers are in the top ten industries for campaign contributions. Between 2000 and 2006, America’s alcohol wholesalers delivered $60 million dollars in campaign donations to state political campaigns, dwarfing that contributed by either retailers or wineries. What’s most clear is that wholesalers are using their power to maintain a system of alcohol distribution created to address a society, culture and market that existed three-quarters of a century ago. This United States no longer exists. Yet the system it created is still in place, to the detriment of wineries, retailers and particularly consumers.

http://fermentation.typepad.com/fermentation/2009/06/the-threetier-system-and- consumer-access-to-wine.html

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update

The Wrong Grape Can Make Sparkling Wines Seem Flat

THE POUR, THE NEW YORK TIMES, USA

19.06.09: If you haven’t guessed by now I love Champagne and sparkling wines. I love drinking them and I love thinking about them. But I don’t necessarily love all sparkling wines.

For example, I like prosecco an awful lot. I like sparkling Vouvray, made of the chenin blanc grape, too. But I confess I don’t much like sekt, German sparkling wine, even the versions made from riesling – or to put it another way, I’ve yet to have one I’ve really enjoyed. Ditto for cava, the Spanish sparkling wine.

I’ve never really thought that much about why this is. But the wine writer Tom Stevenson has a fascinating column in the new issue, No. 24, of The World of Fine Wine that suggests I perhaps should have given the subject more thought.

In Stevenson’s view, only certain grapes are well suited to the second fermentation that occurs in the bottle in the classic method for producing Champagne. After this fermentation is complete, the dead yeast cells break down. The delicate aromas created through this process of autolysis merge beautifully with the classic sparkling wine grapes, chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. But, Stevenson says, they don’t work so well with certain other grapes, like those that go into cava and prosecco.

The prosecco producers know this and hence generally use the much cheaper method of tank fermentation in which autolysis plays less of a role. Cavas, though, are made with a bottle fermentation and perhaps don’t react so well to spending time on the lees, or dead yeast cells.

Stevenson suggests the same is true of chenin blanc, but I tend to like sparkling Vouvray. I like crémant d’Alsace even more, and those grapes – generally pinot noir, pinot gris, pinot blanc and chardonnay – fit Stevenson’s idea of grapes that respond well to autolysis. The most interesting part of the column, though is Stevenson’s suggestion that producers of sparkling wine ought to look at other grapes that react well to autolysis, like melon de Bourgogne, the grape of Muscadet, for instance. Brilliant! Nobody makes sparkling Muscadet, but I can immediately imagine it. Good Muscadet spends time on the lees and develops a yeasty quality closely related to Champagne. Stevenson also offers up gamay, the grape of Beaujolais. This one is less obvious to me, although Stevenson cites several examples of Champagnes of yore that were made with gamay as part of the blend. Apparently this used to be legal, or at least tolerated. … http://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/the-wrong-grape-can-make-sparkling-wines- seem-flat/

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.

France's first bonded warehouse ready to open

DECANTER, UK

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18.06.09: The first-ever French bonded warehouse will be launched in Bordeaux next week. Bordeaux City Bond will enable overseas buyers to store their wine tax-free for an unlimited amount of time in a secure, controlled environment. It has been made possible by a change in the law which is due to announced at Vinexpo next Monday by Jerome Fournel, the director of the French customs service. The current laws state that no wine can be stored for longer than two years (with one year's grace period) in a commercial warehouse in France, but this is due to be scrapped, allowing storage for unlimited time under certain conditions. Bordeaux City Bond will be a private independent company, but has investors from key sections of the wine industry. The main investors are the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce which has 41%, and Vinexpo which owns 10%. The other 49% is shared between 12 negociant companies including Maison Sichel and Yvon Mau, and four supply chain companies. The company will be ready for business from June 22, headed up by Philippe Dunoguier and Jean Claude Lasserre, the former head of customs in Bordeaux. 'This is not just for storage of Bordeaux wines,' Dunoguier told decanter.com, 'but for Bordeaux investors in particular it will provide an excellent guarantee of provenance which is increasingly important when trading wine through auction houses.'

Customers of Bordeaux City Bond can be private individuals from outside of Europe, or wine merchants from anywhere in the world, Europe included.

http://www.decanter.com/news/news.php?id=284790

Bordeaux to host major new wine culture centre

DECANTER, UK

23.06.09: Bordeaux plans to open a major venue for wine culture in April 2012, Mayor Alain Juppé has announced. Despite chronic financial setbacks faced by similar projects such as London's Vinopolis and Napa Valley-based Copia, the Bordelais are confident that they have a different approach. 'We are setting out from the beginning to make this an economically viable project,' Sylvie Cazes, president of the Union des Grands Crus, told decanter.com. Cazes, who works with Mayor Juppé on wine development ventures, pointed out that Copia and Vinopolis were privately funded, while the Bordeaux project will be a public- private partnership. Stakeholders will include the city of Bordeaux, the Bordeaux Wine Bureau (CIVB), the tourist office, the regional government and possibly the European Union. …

BA may start charging for peanuts and wine

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, UK

23.06.09: Willie Walsh, BA's chief executive, said he was considering following rival airlines that charge for items once included in the ticket. However, Mr Walsh told the staff newsletter BA News: "We cannot risk permanent damage by making shorter-term changes to our product that may generate limited revenues and increased negativity over the long-term." But, he said: "There will be changes." Mr Walsh said BA , which suffered a £401m pre-tax loss last year, is fighting for survival. He has given unions a June 30 deadline to agree to pay cuts. BA added yesterday it would press ahead with the launch of a twice-daily service from London City Airport to New York JFK on September 29, despite the recession.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/5608596/BA-may-start-

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charging-for-peanuts-and-wine.html

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.

Join the bio bunch: Bertie Eden's vineyard is reaping the rewards of biodynamic wine-making

THE INDEPENDENT, UK

21.06.09: The garden of Eden is a beautiful place. "There is great history here," says Robert "Bertie" Eden of his adopted home in the South of France, looking out over rolling hills bright with shades of green and yellow. In this wide landscape, framed by distant black mountains, only one village rises up from the fields on a mound, still medieval with its tightly clustered sandstone homes and single, square church tower. But the history is also in the fields. Look closer and they are filled with rows of what look like black, gnarled hands, twisting up from the soil. These are the vines.

"This is the oldest wine region in the world," says Eden, beaming. "They made wine for the Roman Empire."

You would expect such reverence for tradition from an English toff, son of a Lord and great- nephew of Anthony Eden, the former prime minister; but the tanned, hearty Bertie Eden, his blonde hair swept back from a balding head, is also a rebel. His presence on this hillside testifies to that. He was destined for a life of politics and power, but chose instead to follow a passion for wine. Now he dares to make his own, in the ultra-conservative Languedoc of all places, in a way that is challenging his entire industry.

"Getting on the tractor, strapping on the mask and zipping up the overalls ready to spray the vines with chemicals made me think," he says of the moment he realised it was time to change. "It was like being a sewage pipe, spewing effluent into a river. I thought, 'This is revolting. We are going to drink this stuff. What are we doing?'"

So now Eden makes his wine according to biodynamics, a step beyond organics to a philosophy that sees the soil, the plants, ' the insects that feed on them, the animals that live there, the people that pick, press and ferment the grapes and the juice in the tank itself as part of a living system, influenced by the weather, the gravitational pull of the Moon, even the movements of the stars.

"When all these relationships are in balance," he says, "the soil is richer, the biodiversity in the vineyard thrives and the wine is better." Really? He quotes a blind-tasting by Fortune magazine, in which biodynamic wines were found to have "better expressions of terroir, the way in which a wine can represent its specific place of origin in its aroma, flavour and texture".

Then he thrusts a glass of wine into my hand. This is the moment I have been waiting for. The wines from the vineyards he keeps around the village of La Liviniere, under the name Château Maris, have won high acclaim. I'm not an expert – I think one respected judge may have knocked too much back before describing a glass of Eden's as offering "blueberry with brown spices, white pepper, bitter chocolate and chalk dust" – but I am about

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Global Wine Trends 26/06/2009 Weekly Update to be blown away.

Tasting wine made here, from grapes grown in these fields, is an extraordinary sensual experience (and one you can have for yourself, if you order from the Wine Club that Bertie Eden and the Independent on Sunday are forming together – see box below). He has opened two bottles, marked only with numbers, containing wine made in 2007 with Syrah grapes "from that vineyard over there, on the hillside". Inhaling over the deep bowl glass here in context is not like sniffing the bouquet at the dinner table at home: the scent is all- enveloping, almost as rich as the taste. …

"I investigated, and discovered a total philosophy," says Eden, now 45. In practical terms, they use the manure; they plough the land with a horse; they treat the vines with "herbal teas" such as camomile instead of chemicals; and at harvest time they pick the grapes by hand. At night, after a full moon. The theory is that the gravitational pull is reduced, so less sap is lost with the harvest. Does it really, honestly, work?

"I don't know," says Eden, disarmingly. "But we have noticed that downward lunar cycles often coincide with periods of low pressure, meteorologically, so it is a good time. What is even more important, though, is the discipline: you are working within a calendar that acknowledges what is going on around you." In 20 years' time, the chemically farmed fields around them will be exhausted. "Ours will be in better condition that they were when we started."

Biodynamics is a rising force in the wine world, but Eden will lay down an even bigger challenge this year by building a state-of-the-art winery with no carbon footprint at all, producing more energy than it uses. Built on a hill outside the village, with hemp in the walls and floor and a living roof, it will maintain its own constant temperature with no need for air-conditioning, and the wine will be moved by gravity. Solar panels will provide power, and reed beds will recycle water. …

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/join-the-bio-bunch-bertie-edens- vineyard-is-reaping-the-rewards-of-biodynamic-winemaking-1707688.html

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