October, 31, 2013 Yellow Tail celebrates one billion bottles

(TDB) - Casella Wines, the makers of Australia’s Yellow Tail wine, has announced that the company has bottled its one billionth bottle of the brand. Casella was presented with a commemorative bottle to mark the occasion by Amcor Glass. Amcor has supplied Casella with the bottles for Yellow...

October, 31, 2013 Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie auction barrel of their estate wine for 10,000 euros

(Telegraph) -  A barrel of organic wine produced by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's estate in the south of France has been sold for over €10,000 at auction, with the money going to support an agricultural project in Africa. Winegrowers in the village of Correns, 50 miles inland from Saint...

October, 31, 2013 Tough harvest hits Hospices de Beaune 2013 auction

(Decanter) - This year's Hospices de Beaune auction will be the smallest for three decades, following a Burgundy 2013 harvest dogged by poor weather earlier in the year. Just 443 barrels, including 333 of red and 110 of white, will go under the hammer at the 153rd annual sale on 17 November, mak...

October, 30, 2013 Wine Fundamentals Part 4: FEW

(Parade) - Grandma’s musty closet. The mist that rises off sea foam after a wave crashes onto the beach. Unripe pineapple rind that has been dunked into sweetened iced tea. The wet soil on top of a freshly picked button mushroom. What are we talking about? Well, wine, of course! These descri...

October, 30, 2013 Is World Wine Production at a 40-year Low?

(Wines&Vines) - A report from the Australian research arm of investment banking giant Morgan Stanley is creating buzz in the wine community with its announcement that in 2012 global wine production “fell to its lowest levels in more than 40 years.” But some North American wine indus...

October, 30, 2013 Tasting Wine Spectator's Top 10 Wines of 2012

(WS) - The Top 10 Tasting is always a globetrotting affair—the top wines of 2012 hailed from Italy, Argentina, California, Oregon, Australia and France—but this time there was a twist. The top four wines of 2012 came from different regions but shared one distinction: the Rhône con...

October, 30, 2013 France: Toxic smoke damages Leoville Las Cases 2013 harvest

(Decanter) - Bordeaux's Chateau Léoville Las Cases has had to write-off a portion of its 2013 harvest after vines were unwittingly polluted by smoke from a neighbouring estate. Smoke tainted around six hectares of vines on the 100-ha estate of St Julien-based Léoville Las Cases (pi...

October, 30, 2013 High-tech helps tradition to make Hungary's Tokaj wine

(Reuters) - The Hungarian tradition of plucking shriveled grapes, sometimes one-by-one, to make pricey, sweet white wine dates back centuries, but growers hope new technology will help them harvest the fruit at its rotten best. Tokaji Aszu wine, which retails in Britain for at least 20 pounds ($...