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Archive for January, 2011
Every year, the CIVL (The Conseil Interprofessionel des Vins du Languedoc) organizes the Languedoc Ambassador Wine Tour, a trade and media tasting designed to promote the great diversity and superb quality of AOC wines found in the Languedoc wine region. This year is no exception, with fantastic wines announced today as the official CIVL Ambassador Wines of 2011.
It’s fantastic exposure for an oft-overlooked region.
Filed under: Critics/Competitions, Events, Industry Issues, Languedoc-Roussillon, Opinions and Commentary, Uncategorized, Wine Prices, Wine Ratings, Wine Retail
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Public ownership of wineries is a relatively recent phenomenon–and one whose time is coming to an inglorious end. Recent press reports are that three huge multinational alcohol beverage corporations are shedding all or parts of their wine operations. Brown-Forman, Constellation Brands and Foster’s Group all seem to be at least somewhat disillusioned with the wine sector.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Brown-Forman is selling the bulk of its California operations, including Fetzer (and presumably Bonterra). It will retain its crown jewel, Sonoma-Cutrer, whose wines sell at higher prices. The Journal report notes that B-F wine revenues dropped 15% from the previous year.
It appears that many of the experiments with corporate ownership may be coming to a close; while focusing on Foster’s, Tim Ferguson over at Forbes summarized the reasons for this last month, with asset intensiveness and large inventories being the key items. The inherent conflict between the long-term nature of investments in vineyards and the short-term outlook that seems to govern share prices these days should make it clear that wine production is a business difficult to square with public stock trading.
Filed under: Industry Issues, Opinions and Commentary
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Have you ever wondered how our primitive ancestors discovered wine? Meaning, how they discovered fermentation (and the giddy delights that follow) and learned to control it? We did. Back in 2002, we commissioned an article on the subject from Dr. Lee Rogers Berger, Â currently Leader of the Palaeothropology Research Group at the University of the Witwatersand in South Africa.
I re-read the article after seeing a story in The New York Times last week about an archeological dig in Armenia; among its many discoveries were artifacts of what was claimed to be the oldest winemaking operation yet unearthed.
Filed under: Winemaking
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