Wine jobs go
GLOBAL wine group Constellation Brands has announced plans to slash its Australian workforce and rationalise its production facilities following the acquisition of Vincor earlier this year.
The $1.4 billion deal to buy Canadian-based Vincor, which was completed last month, handed Constellation's Australian subsidiary Hardy Wine Co control of two more West Australian wineries - Goundrey Wines and Amberley Estate.
Read more...

Making winning wine
While commercial vineyards in the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding areas are creating fine vintages, home winemakers are following suit.
More than 70 entries in the Santa Barbara County Fair's contest for homemade wines will be on display during the fair, which opens today at the Santa Maria Fairpark, 937 S. Thornburg.
Taking "Best of Show" this year were Gary and Diane Smith of Arroyo Grande, with a 2004 Syrah made with grapes from Barnwood Vineyards, situated on the eastern border of Santa Barbara County in the Sierra Madre mountain range.
Read more...

Food + Wine = $3.21 million
Attendees at last month's Food & Wine Classic apparently consumed more than just food and wine at the Grand Tasting Tent - they spent some $3.21 million on accommodations and other expenses.
Based on information from 13 retail businesses, admittedly a statistically invalid sample, the Food & Wine Classic generated $3.21 million in economic activity from June 12-18, according to a report the city Finance Department issued Tuesday. Food & Wine ran June 16-18, but the week-long period takes into account the early arrival of participants, explained Paul Menter, city finance director.
Read more...

U.S. Wine Harvest Could Get Squashed by Warming, Study Says
Wine production in the United States could take a drastic hit if global warming continues unabated, a new study says.
Read more...

Russia asks Moldova for
wine proposals
Russia's top sanitary official on Tuesday called on Moldova and Georgia to come up with practical proposals to enable Russia to remove its blockade of their wines, a day after a Moldovan official came to Moscow for talks.
Gennady Onishchenko, the country's chief epidemiologist, said that while Georgia and Moldova had been negotiating with Russia to have the wine ban lifted, the talks had so far been "in the emotional realm," Interfax reported.
Onishchenko said he recently received a letter from Moldova's prime minister that "contained nothing except cries of indignation and talk of friendship."
Read more...

Emu Wine Company Launches in the U.S.; 140 Year Old Australian Negociant Offers Frankland River Shiraz & Tasmania Riesling
GONZALES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 11, 2006--For more than 140 years the Emu Wine Company has been encouraging wine lovers in the United Kingdom, Europe and Canada to expand their wine horizons and enjoy the fine wines Australia has to offer. This summer, Emu Wine Company will release its first offerings to the United States, a Frankland River Shiraz and a Tasmania Riesling.
Read more...

The "Puzzle wine"? New and sophisticated technologies may soon permit the price by piece creation of wines in laboratories, manipulated to meet market demands
Adapting wine to satisfy market demands? The idea at first may seem to be little more than a fantasy but may actually soon become reality.

At least this is what appears to be the latest indication from the frontiers of the scientific innovations in the world of winemaking, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon schools by the likes of Dr. Ulrich Fischer, a member of the group of wine technologies experts in the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (Oiv), and the head of the viticulture and enology department research center Dlr Rheinpflaz in Germany.
Read more...