March, 22, 2011 What businesses can learn from Chilean wine

Yield management involves the strategic control of inventory to sell it to the right customer at the right time for the right price. Book your flight to New York two days before you’re due to fly and you’ll get the idea of purchasing at the top end. Rather than considering late booking as a nega...

March, 22, 2011 Hong Kong Wine Auction Expected to Raise $10 million

HONG KONG — A sale of fine wines in Hong Kong in April will fetch up to a record $10 million as Asia enjoys a boom in wine collecting, auctioneer Sotheby's said Tuesday. The sale of almost 11,000 bottles of French wine on April 2 and 3 from a single, anonymous collector, will be the highest-val...

March, 21, 2011 The Most Expensive Wine in Australia

Australia’s most expensive wine — a recently released Shiraz with a perfect score from an influential wine publication — costs a hefty 700 Australian dollars to 800 Australian dollars (US$700 to US$800) a bottle. But nobody seems deterred by it. All 400 cases of the wine, called the Laird, ...

March, 21, 2011 Fortune Brands buys Skinnygirl spirits brand

(Reuters) - Fortune Brands Inc (FO.N) said on Monday that it bought the Skinnygirl spirits brand created by reality TV star Bethenny Frankel and plans to expand its distribution as it sees demand for low-calorie cocktails. Fortune's Beam Global Spirits & Wine unit bought the brand for undisclosed...

March, 20, 2011 US: More Silk, Less Slurp, Alcohol as Vintners Class Up Pinot Noir

I’ve had it with prune-colored California pinots that taste like over-oaked top-heavy syrahs. I give them a sniff, two sips just to be fair, then a groan and a thumbs-down score. I’m not merely disappointed. I think they’re a wine crime. Why? Because when pinot is made to caress the tong...

March, 20, 2011 Wine sensory gardens an experience for the nose

FULTON, Calif. — Imagine a garden where melon, peach, apple, lemon, pear and gardenias bloom. Then imagine holding all that in a glass. That’s the theory behind wine sensory gardens, featuring plants commonly smelled and tasted in wine. Take a stroll through the neatly laid out cabernet-me...

March, 20, 2011 US: Texas wine industry says it would be staggered by loss of public subsidy

Wine producers tell Staff Writer Jessica Meyers that the Legislature is wrong to propose elimination of a $4.3 million fund that's been used to train winemakers, research grape production, establish vineyards and market Texas grape varieties grown specifically for wine. "This is succeeding, says Ric...

March, 19, 2011 The battles of a Californian wine producer

LIKE most Australian and US farmers, Mike Wackman, a fifth generation producer from Elk Grove, California, faces a constant challenge to remain profitable and stay ahead of rising input costs and falling profit margins. But a highly successful vertical integration strategy, mostly in wine product...