October, 23, 2013 French bust 'vintage wine scam'

(BBC) - French police say they have broken up a scam in which fake bottles of a top French wine were sold. They say the fraudsters netted up to 2m euros ($2.75m; £1.7m) from the scheme. Bottles of poor-quality wine were allegedly relabelled as Romanee-Conti, a Burgundy that is one of th...

October, 23, 2013 Texas beer accused of promoting ‘rape culture’

(TDB) - A Texas beer company has been criticised for using the tagline, “goes down easy” to advertise one of its beers –“Dallas Blonde”. The Deep Ellum Brewing Company in Dallas was celebrating the beer’s first anniversary with a new wave of marketing featur...

October, 23, 2013 TWE chair says bad US wine would've destroyed the brand

(TheAustralian) - TREASURY Wine Estates chairman Paul Rayner has admitted the company could have avoided the $154.3 million provision it booked against its US business if it had better reporting systems in place. “It’s unacceptable that we incurred this loss,” he said of the wr...

October, 23, 2013 Chinese court freezes Castel asset in China

(TDB) - A Chinese Court has decided to freeze the assets of Castel and seal its 13 registered trademarks in China following continued infringements. According to winechina.com , the Wenzhou Intermediate Court issued a report in which it showed that 100% share interest of the French company in...

October, 22, 2013 Burning Question: Do People Really Taste Wine Differently?

(WSJ) - Taste is mostly genetic. But appreciating a fine bottle of wine can be learned. One expert, Gary K. Beauchamp, director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which studies smell and taste and how they affect human health, offers his view of what goes on when we sip. T...

October, 22, 2013 BC Wine Industry Doesn't Expect Changes Because of EU Trade Deal

(AM1150) - Canada and the European Union signed a trade deal this month and for the wine industry it means there will be no more tariffs on European wine and spirits entering Canada. But according to Miles Prodan, Executive Director of the BC Wine Institute it won't mean significant changes fo...

October, 22, 2013 Arrests Made in $2.7m Romanée-Conti Fraud Ring

(AFP) - A father and son team have been arrested on suspicion of producing and selling fake bottles of  Roman é e-Conti  worth as much as two million euros ($2.7m) The two Italians were arrested on October 16 in connection with a large counterfeiting operation involving one ...

October, 22, 2013 White varietals hit hardest by Chilean frost

(Decanter) - Chile's white grape varietals, and particularly those in the region of Casablanca, look to have been hit hardest by the country's worst bout of frost in several decades, according to early assessments. Chile declared a state of emergency in its agriculture industry at the end of S...