June, 19, 2010 UK Government spends £17,500 on wine

More than £17,500 has been spent topping up the government wine cellar since the election, it has emerged.It brings the total value of fine wine stored for VIP functions to £864,000, a Commons answer by Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham revealed.Labour's Tom Watson said the Tory-Lib Dem coa...

June, 18, 2010 The growing gulf in the world of fine wine

The Atlantic Ocean has always represented a gulf in the fine wine market, but the gulf has deepened and widened considerably of late. Now that Hong Kong has become such an important centre for fine-wine auctions, not least because American auctioneer Acker Merrall & Condit has been targeting Hong Ko...

June, 18, 2010 EUR: EU drops plan to recognise organic wine

The European Commission has dropped plans to create EU rules and standards for organic wine. Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said yesterday that members of the EU standing committee on organic foodstuffs have failed to agree on a definition of organic winemaking, following months of discussio...

June, 17, 2010 NZ wine industry announces 2010 vintage results

New Zealand Winegrowers has released its 2010 vintage results. According to the industry body, NZ’s 2010 harvest totalled 266,000 tonnes, 19,000t smaller than the 2009 crop and in line with NZ Winegrowers’ pre-harvest forecast.The pre-harvest forecast suggested a grape intake of between 265,000...

June, 17, 2010 Wine Tasting Room Success Strategies

Napa Valley,CA - Many wineries have recently looked to tasting rooms and other direct sales to replace waning restaurant and retail business, but some have depended on direct sales all along. With that in mind, we interviewed the principals from three wine companies that are very successful at direc...

June, 16, 2010 Hong Kong to overtake US as top auction destination

Hong Kong is on course to become the world's leading wine auction centre this year, outstripping the US as the Asian passion for fine wine intensifies.According to figures published by the South China Morning Post, sales could top US$100m in 2010 after the territory accumulated wine sales of more th...

June, 16, 2010 Vineyard Owners Get Hints

The Napa Valley Grapegrowers sponsor many seminars about viticulture aimed at interested parties from field workers to vineyard managers. And once every two years, they host a program specifically for vineyard owners.This year, the seminar was held at Trinchero Napa Valley’s new facility north of ...

June, 16, 2010 Fall in Spanish wine production

SPANISH production of wine and grape juice decreased 3.2% to 40.2 million hectolitres, according to data analysed in March by the Spanish Wine Market Observatory (OeMv). Figures from November 2009 showed a reduction of 13% to 36 million hectolitres.The two largest producing communities, Castilla-La ...