January, 19, 2015 2014 Champagne sales hit second highest total on record

(Decanter) - Around 308m bottles of Champagne were sold around the world in 2014, according to provisional figures, while the new head of regional body Comite Champagne expects exports to overtake domestic sales this year. The Comite Champagne  - formerly known as the CIVC - also estimated ...

January, 19, 2015 Napa Valley: Shafer Vineyards sues Angwin vintner over wine name

(NVR) - A longtime Napa Valley vintner has filed a lawsuit against an Angwin-based winery over the use of the name “Hillside Select,” according to a complaint filed in Napa County Superior Court in December. Shafer Vineyards’ signature wine is a cabernet sauvignon, Hillside Sel...

January, 19, 2015 Grape rotting fruit fly raises alarm in German vineyards

(Decanter) - German winemakers have become the latest in Europe to raise concerns over an Asian fruit fly that causes grapes to rot in the vineyards. The fly, known as Drosophila Suzukii, was the ‘biggest threat’ to vineyards in Germany’s key winegrowing regions during the 2014...

January, 19, 2015 Under the Radar California Wineries

(Wine-Searcher) - California has always been about the excitement of the new, and not just in wine. We've got new technologies! New laws! New religions! It's easy to forget the appeal of the untrendy: longtime businesses that deliver good quality. This is really true for restaurants. It's much h...

January, 18, 2015 Avid wine drinkers toast some great apps

(SFExaminer) - How we ever navigated the world without our smart phones is a mystery to anyone under the age of 20, such as my teenage daughter who can’t imagine how I survived high school without Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp. Horrified was the look on her face when I told her that when I ...

January, 18, 2015 Generational change drives wine industry innovation

(ABC) - There's a generational change coming to the wine industry, as the Millennials come of drinking age. "It's a really really good business, because you can be quite creative," Tanja Baumann says. The 26 year-old German winemaker is part of an important younger demographic that is changin...

January, 18, 2015 Lebanese wine is booming - is it time you tried it?

(Telegraph) - My first visit to Château Musar, five years ago, was peculiar to say the least. We were met at the winery in Ghazir, 15 miles north of Beirut, by Serge Hochar, then 70, who led us into a barrel cellar heavily swagged with thick ropes of cobwebs. He said these were good for th...

January, 18, 2015 90% of U.S. Consumers Can Buy Wine Direct

(Wines&Vines) - With Massachusetts, the nation’s seventh largest market for wine, open for direct shipping, 90% of the American population located in 42 states can with some limitations receive direct shipments of wine from bonded wineries. ShipCompliant estimates that outside wineries...