communications without intelligence is noise Global Wine Trends Weekly Update created: 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 Critical Publics | EDOAO Page 2 of 31 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 Critical Publics | EDOAO Page 3 of 31 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 Critical Publics | EDOAO Page 4 of 31 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