PROSECCO DOC BANS CHEMICAL SPRAY
PROSECCO IS STAYING ahead of the growing issue of pesticide use in vineyards. Grape growers for the Prosecco DOC are set to be prohibited from using three chemical sprays, including one that was only recently judged safe by the European Union’s watchdog. Stefano Zanette, President of the Prosecco DOC council,... Read More
THE AMAZING DRIP-FREE BOTTLE
IF YOU’VE EVER poured a bottle of wine you’ve likely experienced the dreaded bottle drip: wine (almost always red) dripping from the bottle neck onto a tablecloth as you pour it. Leave it to a scientist to come up with a solution! Daniel Perlman, a researcher at Brandeis University in... Read More
CHAMPAGNE SALES POP
BUBBLY HAD ANOTHER sparkling year in 2O16. Sales of Champagne last year hit their second-highest level in value terms, although currency fluctuations related to Brexit hampered the year for the segment’s biggest market. Figures from the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne show sales of Champagne last year totaled $5.O6... Read More
STINKBUGS LOVE THEIR WINE
HOW MANY stressed-out stinkbugs does it take to spoil a batch of wine? While one might logically assume that one stinkbug would be one too many, it’s actually more than three per grape cluster, new research says. Stinkbugs are a pest among vintners because of the bugs’ taste for wine... Read More
A TRUE CHAMPAGNE HOUSE
SOME PEOPLE fantasize of living in a house filled with bottles of Champagne. For Eldar Ilchibayev, a builder from western Russia’s Ural Mountains, the dream was to build a house entirely out of bottles and he has now completed his mission. Ilchibayev recently finished construction of a house made from... Read More
THE MOËT & CHANDON CHAMPAGNE VENDING MACHINE
A VENDING MACHINE that dispenses bubbly? That’s a dream come true! Of course, you have to go to Vegas for this experience (naturally!). The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Vegas opened a Moët & Chandon vending machine in its 23rd floor Sky Lobby. The adults-only machine dispenses splits – mini-bottles of... Read More
COLLECTING? PUT THOSE PENNIES INTO WINE
MOVE OVER CARS, wine’s back! When it comes to collectibles, the best place to invest in 2O16 was (literally) in liquid assets. For the first time in at least five years, wine surpassed classic cars as the best-performing collectible asset class, according to The Wealth Report, an annual publication by... Read More
ROYAL BUBBLY
IN CASE YOU’VE BEEN living under a rock . . . British bubbly is a big deal. It’s so big that even the Queen of England has latched onto the craze by producing 3OOO bottles of sparkling wine from vines grown on her estate. Don’t get out your credit card... Read More
CAMERON HUGHES WINE SOLD
PERHAPS IT WAS SIMPLY a case of too much growth too fast. Cameron Hughes Wines was sold in January by a bankruptcy court receiver to Vintage Wine Estates. Hughes was quickly successful more than a decade ago when he began offering low priced wines from prestigious regions packaged under his... Read More
SINGIN’ THE BLUE WINE BLUES
IT’S GENERATED QUITE a buzz with the Millennial set and been highly visible throughout all social media outlets but Spanish authorities have told the makers of Gik “blue wine” that they can no longer label it as wine. Gik has sold close to 1OO,OOO bottles in 25 countries, but a... Read More