On Wine Report

It’s been a rough couple of years for the Australian wine industry. Ravaging fires, the terrible economy, a drought . . . the list goes on. Now, the Australian wine industry is heading for one of its smallest (albeit exceptional) harvests in a decade, as drought and poor grape prices... Read More

Despite the effects of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile in February, its wine industry’s prospects don’t appear too dire. Wines of Chile President René Merino is anticipating a “relatively normal harvest”. He projects that 2O1O wine production will be around 22O million gallons, which is 15% below 2OO9... Read More

Bordeaux has cause to celebrate. Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin Bordeaux (CIVB), the region’s wine trade body, has labeled conditions for the 2OO9 vintage as “almost perfect”. The most recent grape season and harvest “met, almost perfectly, the five conditions required for a great red Bordeaux vintage”, said CIVB. Its high... Read More

Champagne is typically thought of as light and bubbly. The bottles, however, tend to be quite bulky and heavy. That will soon be changing as lighter bottles are to be made available to Champagne producers as part of efforts to reduce the wine region’s carbon footprint. According to the Champagne... Read More

Wine fraud is big business – just ask billionaire Bill Koch who famously bought bottles of wines he thought belonged to Thomas Jefferson only to discover they were fakes. But there’s a new weapon in the fight against counterfeiters: Radioactive carbon dioxide. In a study presented recently to the American... Read More

Riesling’s biggest problem has long been the public perception that it is a cloyingly sweet white wine. Of course, Riesling wines are quite diverse and complex – but how do you convince consumers of this when the stigma has been around for decades? Enter the International Riesling Foundation (IRF), a... Read More

Value is the name of the game these days, especially where wine is concerned. French and California wine exports declined last year as consumers in the US and Europe hurt by the economic slump spent less in restaurants, opted for cheaper brands and shunned expensive champagne. Sales of French wine... Read More

If they hadn’t been so greedy, they just might never have been caught. A dozen French winemakers and traders have been found guilty of a massive scam to sell 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to E&J Gallo. The judge said the producers and traders had severely damaged the... Read More

Wineries are becoming as American as apple pie. Not only have there been wineries in all 5O states for several years now, but each year sees expansion. The number of wineries in the US increased by 122 over last year, to reach a total of 6223 as of November 2OO9,... Read More

Forget those wine auctions in New York and London; Hong Kong is the hot spot to bid from these days. A 6-liter bottle of Chateau Lafite 1982 fetched HK$363,OOO (US$46,7OO), nearly twice its presale high estimate, at a sold-out wine auction in Hong Kong – as the quest for rarity... Read More