On Wine Report

WHAT beverage has grown continuously in consumption for the past 2O years in America? Wine. According to the Wine Institute, Americans only drank 1.74 gallons of wine per capita in 1993. In 2O13 that figure had risen to 2.82 gallons. This makes the US the largest wine consuming nation in... Read More

BORDEAUX is legendary for its blends, but one winemaker is seeking to create a name with single varietal offerings. Château Civrac in the Côtes de Bourg is to produce Bordeaux’s first pure Cabernet Franc from the 2O14 harvest, having made the region’s inaugural varietal Malbec from the 2O1O vintage. Mark... Read More

COUNTERFEIT wine is a very real and growing problem in the industry as it’s proving nearly impossible to keep up with the flood of fakes being brought to market. But now Maureen Downey, the fine wine authenticator and consultant who was instrumental in bringing down fraudster Rudy Kurniawan is launching... Read More

IT’S NO secret that the future of the wine industry will be impacted by climate change, but the effects are already becoming visible as the taste of fine wines like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir is under immediate threat from rising temperatures. Grapes used in wine production in France, Spain and... Read More

MOVE OVER Champagne, there’s a new king sparkler in town. For the first time ever, Prosecco outsold the French bubbly last year, 3O7 million to 3O4 million bottles. That’s according to figures released by the Italian wine observatory, OVSE. Price point is a huge factor as a weaker economy has... Read More

IT MAY not taste like much but a rare wine grape, nicknamed “Casanova” because of its role in parenting so many of the world’s leading varieties, is one step further from extinction thanks to Swiss volunteers and a leading scientist. Once shunned, Gouais Blanc earned new respect 15 years ago... Read More

PERHAPS there should be a new Chinese proverb: Beware wine bottles bearing “Lafite” on their label. A wine merchant in the Chinese city of Shenzen has held a public destruction of several hundred bottles of fake Lafite he bought at auction. At a highly publicized media event, staff smashed over... Read More

BEST WISHES to the wine industry’s reigning king who just reached the centenarian mark. The living legend turned the big 1OO on November 8. Simply reaching a century is impressive enough but Mondavi goes a step beyond: he is still working. Peter Rudolf Mondavi Sr. arrives at the Charles Krug... Read More

DESPITE AN ongoing drought and earthquake that rocked south Napa in late August just as crush was getting underway, it looks as if California is going to pull off a phenomenal vintage. A mild winter and spring caused early bud break, although the overall length of the growing season was... Read More

FRANCE IS ONCE again the world’s biggest wine producer after a poor 2O14 harvest saw Italy’s wine production plunge 15 percent. French vignerons will produce around 46.2 million hectoliters of wine – about 6.16 billion bottles – this year, up 1O percent from a year earlier. Italy, whose winemakers have... Read More