Archive for October, 2010
• Wanna buy a vineyard in Australia? Penfolds Grange is up for sale
Clarendon Vineyard and Winery is up for sale for more than A$10m. The Australian vineyard, at the northern end of McLaren Vale, has supplied fruit for some of Australia’s most lauded wines, including Penfolds Grange and Eileen Hardy Shiraz. Also the source of the Clarendon Hills and Hickinbotham brands, it was featured by Robert Parker [...]
• Virginia Tech wins $3.8 mil from USDA to stimulate eastern wine industry
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $3.8 million to researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech to lead a multistate effort to further improve grape and wine quality in the eastern United States. According to Tony Wolf, professor of viticulture and project director, the five-year project seeks [...]
• Hong Kong ditching Bordeaux for Burgundy?
Hong Kong has long been a red Bordeaux town. Restaurant lists and catalogs from recent auctions have been dominated by wines from the region, home to famous labels such as Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Petrus. But interest is finally broadening beyond Bordeaux, albeit slowly, and no other kind of wine is catching on faster [...]
• Thailand's hysteria & archaic tax codes keep it in alcohol mess
Hysteria and archaic tax codes are keeping the country from getting much benefit out of the lucrative and inevitable adult beverage industry. Thailand’s alcohol beverage regime is both a failed taxation system and a failed health policy. To move on to the next level of national maturity in this area a transparent and total revamp [...]
• Lafite adds Chinese symbol on 2008 & price rises 20%
Demand for Chateau Lafite Rothschild 2008 shot up overnight yesterday, following the announcement that its bottles will be etched with the Chinese figure eight. UK merchants are reporting selling out of the wine following the news, broken yesterday by Decanter.com, that the bottles will carry the symbol when the wine is bottled next year. On [...]
• Heineken's Sales Lifted by Femsa Buy
Heineken NV said Wednesday its third-quarter sales rose 13%, boosted by the acquisition of Mexico-based Femsa Cerveza, even as volumes fell 1% due to a sharp drop in Europe. The Dutch brewer said third-quarter sales increased 13% to €4.62 billion ($6.4 billion) from €4.07 billion in the same period a year earlier. Heineken, which brews [...]
• Phusion Projects hits back at criticism of Four Loko
Phusion Projects has hit back at criticism of its Four Loko brand after nine Central Washington University students were hospitalised this month after consuming the beverage. … However, Phusion Projects hit back at the claims, stating that, while it is “unacceptable” that its beverages were “abused” by underage drinkers, “so too is placing blame for [...]
• Virginia: One of oldest wineries, Kluge Estate, in financial trouble
The future of one of central Virginia’s oldest and most well-known wineries is in financial jeopardy. Kluge Estate CEO William Moses says the banks want to dismantle the 11-year-old winery and sell off the property due.
• The When & How to Decanting Wine
A READER writes: “I would like to learn more about the nuances of decanting. Which wines to decant, when not to, how to pour, how long to let it sit, the difference between decanting and just removing the cork for some period of time, the chemistry of the effect of oxygen on the wine and [...]
• Interesting history of Mendocino Grape Growers Co-op Winery
… INTERESTING HISTORY. What of the history of Mendocino Grape Growers, Inc? Why did these grape growers organize? When did they organize? And what is the story behind the story that they did organize? With repeal of the 18th amendment, the prohibition amendment, several groups considered building a co-op winery, but nothing came to a [...]
• Ever fantasized about having a vineyard in the Napa Valley?
Ever think about how cool it would be to have vineyards in the Napa Valley? Maybe a little farmhouse on a knoll overlooking a few acres of cabernet? You could don your wide-brimmed hat and Carhartt jacket and walk the vine rows with your yellow lab on a crisp fall morning, brushing dew off of [...]
• Cocktails with the world's greatest barman at the Ritz in Paris
“What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in Paris than by learning the secret of the perfect cocktail from one of the world’s greatest barmen? So I jump in a cab to that most exclusive of addresses, the Ritz, and almost get lost in its labyrinth of gilded corridors before arriving at the mythical [...]
• Social media gains traction with wineries
When it comes to social media and Niagara’s wine industry, Krystina Roman is something of a self-described Twitter tyrant. For the past few years, the 24-year-old whose family owns Rosewood Estates Winery & Meadery in Beamsville, has been preaching the gospel of Twitter and Facebook to anyone in Niagara’s wine industry who would listen. She’s [...]
• NY: Wine Shop Serves Gummi Bears in Mezcal. Yum.
Ever wonder what vending machine candy pairs best with an artisanal Scotch? Bottlerocket wine and spirits shop is offering at least five free trick-or-treat-style bites and booze Saturday. That artisanal Scotch, the Compass Box Whiskey, will go with Cracker Jacks in order to enhance its caramel notes. Apple cinnamon donuts will be matched with Wolffer [...]
• Cool American Artisanal Vodkas
Boozenews Editor’s note: Also check our the interview with distiller, Melkon Khosrovian of Greenbar Collective who make delicious, organic TRU vodka. Distillers from Minnesota to Florida are making artisanal vodkas with homegrown ingredients like organic corn and maple sap. Here are four worth inviting into the liquor cabinet. Enterprising American distillers are taking a spirit [...]
