January, 31, 2012 CHINA: Wine Australia urges Chinese caution

(Just-Drinks) - Wine Australia's general manager for market development, James Gosper, has told just-drinks that the country's wineries are right to be optimistic about China, but should approach the market cautiously. China was the fifth largest export destination for Australian wines in volume ...

January, 31, 2012 Breakthrough in NZ wine production

(NZHerald) - Scientists have found that wild yeasts vary from region to region, and can have a unique influence if used in the wine-making process.Climate, soil and geography have long been recognised playing an important role in shaping the character of a region's wines and whose interplay is at th...

January, 31, 2012 Chardonnay marks 100th birthday of growth in U.S.

(Reuters) - Chardonnay, the world's most popular white wine, dates back centuries, but it owes much of its history in the United States to a winemaker who planted the grape in California 100 years ago. Ernest Wente, of the family-owned Wente Vineyards east of San Francisco, brought cuttings from ...

January, 31, 2012 France: Chapoutier pours scorn on natural winemakers

(Decanter) - Renowned Rhone producer Michel Chapoutier has added to the natural wine debate by denouncing natural winemakers as out-of-touch hippies making defective wines.Interviewed in the current issue of Decanter, Chapoutier tells John Livingstone-Learmonth the practice of natural winemaking –...

January, 31, 2012 US: State cuts affecting Texas wine industry

(WOAI) - When you think of fine wines, your first thought might not be Texas, but you would be wrong. The Texas wine industry is growing at an amazing rate, and a lot of that growth is in the Hill Country just north of San Antonio. While it's growing, the industry's future growth is in jeopardy b...

January, 31, 2012 AUS: Wine industry unfazed by smoke threat

(ABC) - The Western Australian wine industry says it is not too concerned about smoke taint from fires over recent days in the south-west. Some grape crops are nearing the harvesting stage slightly earlier than usual because of warm weather accelerating the ripening process. It is a high risk ...

January, 30, 2012 US: CA: Nano-brewers on the rise in the North Bay

(Petaluma360) - Beer is downsizing. Following the arc of small-scale artisan salumi, cheese, bread, olive oil and garagiste winemakers, now micro-batched, regionally-sourced, hand-crafted beer is the hottest thing in brewing. And the North Bay has a growing stake in the trend.Somewhere between home-...

January, 30, 2012 Banker Toasts Wine Award, Pours Money Into South African Farm

(Bloomberg) -- Banker Michael Jordaan is off duty and about to enjoy the fruits of his second job: wine farming. Jordaan, 43 -- head of FirstRand Ltd.’s retail banking unit, First National Bank -- arrives for dinner at La Cucina Di Ciro, a popular Italian restaurant in Johannesburg’s leafy Pa...