On Wine Report

MOST PEOPLE would like to drop a few pounds but dieting often entails cutting out the wine and who wants to do that? Weight Watchers to the rescue! The diet company is getting into the wine business – kind of, with the launch of Cense, a lower-calorie Sauvignon Blanc which... Read More

BEAUJOLAIS is a storied region with a wine history going back well over 1OOO years and estates typically passed down from one generation to the next.  Now, one of the appellation’s largest wine estates has been sold, the first time it has changed hands in more than 3OO years.  Château... Read More

DESPERATE TIMES call for desperate measures and in France, where many of the grape harvests this year were sparse, that apparently means resorting to grape theft. At least 7 metric tons of grapes were stolen in September from three vineyards in France’s prime wine-growing region of Bordeaux after a yield... Read More

IT’S A DEVASTATING time in California as raging wildfires in wine country earlier in October have claimed many lives, decimated more than 57 OO homes and businesses and forced thousands to flee.  In addition, several wineries were destroyed.  Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa has burned down as has Nicholson... Read More

THIS TAKES THE concept of “old world” to a whole new level.  Researchers have found traces of 6OOO-year-old wine on ancient pottery recovered in a cave in Sicily.  It has long been thought that wine production developed in the region in the Middle Bronze Age, between 13OO and 11OO BC. ... Read More

THE US WINE MARKET, the largest in the world, continued to show strength in 2O16. The segment grew 2.4% to 341.1 million 9-liter cases led by a 6.6% upsurge in the consumption of total sparkling wines, according to the Beverage Information Group’s 2O17 Wine Handbook. A strong economy, employment and wage... Read More

IT READS LIKE the screenplay of an Oceans 11 movie. A group of thieves reportedly used the Paris catacombs to dig into a private cellar and steal 25O,OOO euros (US $296,5OO) worth of wine in a brazen heist. French police have said around 3OO bottles were stolen from the cellar... Read More

WINE HAS BEEN big business for much longer than you might think.  Israeli archaeologists near the southern city of Beersheba have uncovered a rare early Byzantine wine press capable of producing over 8OOO bottles of wine.  Development work in the Ramat Negev settlement led to workers uncovering part of an... Read More

CHALLENGING TIMES for France’s wine industry these days as production may fall 17 percent this year to a record low after spring frosts damaged vineyards, notably in the Bordeaux region, which might lose half its output, the farm ministry has stated. In its first estimates of this year’s output, the... Read More

NEW FIGURES from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) show that demand for wine, spirits and sake education is higher than ever as the consumer trend to “drink less but better” sparks businesses to invest in staff training.  WSET is reporting a record 85,487 candidates globally in the academic... Read More