January, 04, 2015 US: Washington dairy farmers, wine grape growers breaking records

(TNT) - Washington blueberries, wine grapes, eggs and milk are booming. The state’s billion-dollar crops — apples, milk and wheat — were worth $4.5 billion in 2013, according to data recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And at least six of the state&rsquo...

January, 04, 2015 A taste for scandal in Italy's Tuscany wine region

(USAToday) - Tuscany, home to many of Italy's best-known wines, may be in danger of tarnishing its reputation with a series of wine-related scandals. The picturesque region in central Italy is just a victim of its own success, according to Fabrizio Bindocci, a Tuscan winemaker and president of t...

January, 04, 2015 Italian Vineyard Terms Explained

(Snooth) - Italy is a land of vines -- after all, the Greeks did indeed call it “Enotria” (the land of wine) -- so it’s not surprising that Italians have so many terms for their vineyards. Part of the key to solving the puzzle that can be Italian wine labels is learning how Italia...

January, 03, 2015 Alcohol archaeology: I recreate beverages with heritage

(NewScientist) - How did you start making ancient drinks? One of the first we made was the Midas beverage, based on residues in bronze vessels recovered from the Midas tomb in Turkey, which dates from 700 BC. These pointed to an unusual drink combining wine, barley beer and mead. There were al...

January, 03, 2015 British sparkling wine industry is fizzing as sales set to hit £100m

(Shropshirestar) - Sparkling Champagne-style wine now makes up 66 per cent of the UK’s wine production and its is being exported to more than 13 countries. Among the vineyards producing sparkling wine is Halfpenny Green Vineyards at Upper Whittimere Farm, Bobbington, near Bridgnorth. Le...

January, 03, 2015 Wine: EU funds flow east

(JR) - ‘Making good wine is just the beginning. Selling it is what’s difficult.’ So says Silvana Ballotta of Business Strategies in Florence and she should know. A common, and to my mind justified, complaint of wine producers outside Europe is that their EU counterparts have lo...

January, 03, 2015 Phylloxera: the parasite that changed wine forever

(IT) - In June 1863 Prof JO Westwood, a leading entomologist and biologist at Oxford University, took delivery of a vine leaf taken from a greenhouse in Hammersmith. It was covered with a small insect and its eggs. Westwood identified it as an aphid, Phylloxera Vastatrix. He was not aware of its im...

January, 02, 2015 Is a Great Wine Palate God Given, Learned or Bought?

(WSJ) - WHEN ONE WINE lover wants to compliment another, the words “great palate” are often bestowed. An oenophile with such a palate is perceptive, discerning and often possessed of an extensive if not expensive wine cellar—or so it seems. (I’ve read one wine lover’s ...