April, 17, 2010 Wine investments usually turn sour

You may have heard about the recent study that shows that collecting wine can be more profitable than buying stocks. It's a fun notion, I agree. But it's also nonsense.Before you start turning your basement into a gigantic wine cellar, ask yourself a question: How many millionaires do you know who m...

April, 17, 2010 Modest California wine shipment increases seen in 2009

California vintners shipped 467.7 million gallons (196.7 million cases) of California wine to the U.S. wine market in 2009, up a modest 0.2 percent compared to the previous year’s volume. The estimated retail value of these sales was $17.9 billion, down 3 percent from 2008 as consumers traded down...

April, 17, 2010 New tax on cheap wine puts Ontario vintners in a sour mood

These are the days of wine and taxes, at least in Ontario, and the resulting struggle is ripening into a battle over economic policy, greenbelts and even environmentalism. The province has set up a huge greenbelt around Toronto, and now, through a selective tax increase on low-cost blended wines ma...

April, 17, 2010 Champagne bubble bursts as French turn to fizzy wine, crémant

The champagne bubble has finally burst as the French turn instead to the cheaper sparkling wine, crémant. As France and the world nurses its economic hangover, makers of crémant – fizzy wine that is made using exactly the same methods as champagne – are in the pink. "We are in a position to ta...

April, 16, 2010 Severe Freezes Damage Iowa Grapevines

Iowa - The winter of 2009-10 started early in Iowa. On Oct. 10, temperatures dropped well below freezing to as low as 22°F. The freeze was a harbinger of more winter problems that would follow in December and January. On Dec. 10, temperatures were recorded between minus-6° and minus-11°F, and on ...

April, 16, 2010 Mosel Valley, gem of German wine country, poised to get maimed by progress

If the wine world held a beauty contest, the 2,000-year-old vineyards of the curvy Mosel Valley would be an easy winner. The steep slopes that produce some of the best rieslings on the planet are an ever-changing delight to the eyes as well as the palate, and represent one of those rare times when t...

April, 15, 2010 Recession has major impact on global wine industry

The picture painted by the International Organization of Vine and Wine’s (OIV) latest statistical compendium was rather bleak for 2009.With global consumption pursuing its downward trend, global commerce in wine also suffered from the recession and global wine production remained at a level unchan...

April, 15, 2010 Winemakers combat counterfeits

US wineries are using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to combat counterfeit in the winemaking industry.According to Payne Security, a company that develops anti-counterfeiting measures for the wine industry, RFID tags are placed inside wine bottle labels and can also carbon date win...