Pop your cork, the right way
Georgia and Suzanne – ooooh yeah.
This is wine porn, Jim – but the business end, as opposed to out of focus beads of sweat dripping from chilled own-label Lambrusco.
Wine troopers they are, though if I bumped into them in a bar such as the one they frequent in the video, I’d likely put my head down, order a beer and leg it.
Here’s to you, Wine Ladies, and all who find your videos unnecessarily erotic.
Meow.
Anyone want Chris de Burgh’s wine collection?
It’s true, he’s getting rid of it. Chris de “I’m not in the red – it’s that lady in the dress” Burgh is selling off his old vintages because he can’t face opening them [which is good for him, since, as he remind us, he is "not, thankfully, short of the cash."]
I believe this could well be my favorite Decanter interview of all time. Cellar. Stellar. Watch the video.
p.s. There’s more from this interview, to be unleashed a little nearer to Christmas…
Wine troopers
With wine sometimes snubbed as a snob’s game – more often that not as a results of certain trade insiders being guilty of taking themselves a little too seriously sometimes – when half-cut Jonny Public decides to pick up the video camera to capture himself and his comrades coping with the demands of drinking wine in real life in glorious HD, the results, more often than not, are quite frankly hilarious.
We’ve all been there, I hope. And if you haven’t then you’re probably keeping too good company and should live a little.
I heartily encourage more people to do this. The fun is in the chase, after all.
I’ve decided to make this a regular feature. Wine troopers, I salute you.
You may have spotted this week’s initial winner a little earlier on Twitter. This has been monumentally surpassed.
Get a load of this.
Video: Douro diary part 1 with Paul Symington
Here’s a sneak peak of the first of three videos from a recent trip to the Douro Valley in Portugal, due to go up on Decanter.com early next week.
The 2010 harvest was in full swing at the time this was taken.
Here’s Symington Family Estates chairman [and our host for the trip] Paul Symington explaining the effect that the very late rainfall has had on the grapes this year. Apparently it’s been the driest growing season he’s ever seen in the Douro.
This video was taken amongst the vines of the gorgeous Graham’s Port property, Quinta dos Malvedos.
New Zealand Wine Company predicts loss
The New Zealand Wine Company says projected underlying net earnings for the June 2009 year will be down significantly compared to a year earlier, although sales volumes are on target.
The fall in earnings resulted from aggressive price competition in the British market, the strength of the New Zealand dollar against the pound, and with decisions taken by the company to clear excess bulk wine stocks at a loss, the company said on Wednesday.
New Zealand Wine Company chairman Alton Jamieson said tough decisions taken during the past six months were necessary.
The decisions were made in a trading environment where the global financial crisis compounded on difficulties created by a wine surplus generated from a significantly higher 2008 Marlborough grape harvest.
"While there is still a lot of uncertainty in the wine industry, directors are comfortable that the company’s cash-based underlying earnings can bounce back in 2010 when Marlborough sauvignon blanc supply and demand comes back into balance," Jamieson said.
The 2009 grape crush was completed, with the company harvesting 2,478 tonnes of grapes from its company-owned and leased vineyards and contract growers.
That was in line with the 2009 budgeted intake and represented a 24% or 765 tonne decrease over last year’s record crush of 3,243 tonnes.
CEO Rob White said the company was close to matching its 2009 harvest intake with the level of global sales demand projected for its wines.
Imported rosé sales up 42% in US
U.S. retail sales of imported rosé wines leapt 42 percent in the 52 week period ending April 4, compared with a less-than-5-percent increases in total sales of table wines during the same period, according to Nielsen Co. data cited by the Provence Wine Council.
The French wine council, known in France as Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins de Provence or CIVP, said Monday the steep rise in rosé consumption is consistent with an earlier study by International Wine & Spirit Record predicting that consumption of the popular pinkish wines worldwide will jump from 565 million bottles to 620 million by 2012.
Not surprisingly, the CIVP expects the growing thirst for imported rosé wines in the U.S. market will bode well for France, particularly its Provence wine region. The French produce 28 percent of worldwide rosé wines by volume, making it the leader in the category, according to the wine counsel, which represents 700 Provence wineries and 55 local trading companies. Provence produces 38 percent of France’s rosés, the group reported.
Separately, Nielsen figures revealed that 2008 U.S. sales of rosé table wines priced at $6 per bottle or more jumped 24.9 percent by price and 22.4 percent by volume, despite a weakening economy.
Producers fight against rose blending
Wine producers from France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland held firm on Tuesday against European Union plans to allow rose wine to be made by mixing red and white wines.
Their stand in Brussels came a month ahead of an expected EU vote – by experts on either June 19 or June 26 – to allow the mixing practice, which the vintners claimed will usher in the "industrialisation" of the wine industry.
Winegrowers fear such a move could lead to thousands of job losses and endanger their traditional rose, made by the more time-consuming method of leaving crushed red wine grapes to soak with their juice.
"We are heading towards a clone product, one that is denatured and which will confuse consumers," said Fernando Prieto Riuz, president of Spain’s wine regulatory board.
Claude Bocquet-Thonney, head of the Swiss winemakers association said: "Will the next step be to add artificial colouring?"
The practice of mixing reds and whites is already done by New World wine-makers in countries such as Australia and South Africa.
In an attempt to resolve the row, the European Commission had proposed a compromise whereby wines created by the old method would be marked "traditional rose".
EU governments approved the plans in 2007 and European experts gave them a another green light in January. A new vote by experts is needed now that the World Trade Organisation has given tacit support to the idea.
France is leading the charge for a veto, and while it has the backing of the Greek and Italian governments, it would also need the backing of Germany and Spain to stand any chance of blocking the move.
