Tag Archives: wine imports

Winebits 408: Diageo sale, wine imports, French wine

diageo sale ? Treasury gets Diageo wine: Get ready for more Big Wine news in the wake of Diageo selling its handful of wine brands to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates. The $351 million deal gives Treasury four million cases worth of wine in the U.S., which may move it into the top five of U.S. producers. The key is what Treasury will do with the brands, which include Sterling: Will it keep all of them, or sell some it sees as too cheap for its new focus on wine costing more than $10? Also, the purchase was as much about getting Diageo’s infrastructure in the U.S., including its bottling lines. Finally, there is this great quote from Treasury boss Michael Clark: “We remain committed to our strategic road map of transitioning our business from an order-taking agricultural company to a brand-led and capital-light marketing organization.” If anyone can explain what that means, I’ll send you a copy of the cheap wine book.

? It’s all about Italy: We can argue about what wine consumers want, but we can’t argue with the numbers. Hence, Italy’s continued success in selling wine in the U.S., accounting for one-third of all imported wine in dollar terms the first six months of this year. The big losers? Australia, still, as well as Chile and Argentina. Americans want pinot grigio and Prosecco, and Italy is happy to give it to us at mostly cheap prices. The Aussies, on the other hand have little that anyone wants, as sales fell seven percent in dollars and six percent in volume. How the mighty have fallen.

? The French are drinking again: Decanter reports that a government survey found a six percent increase in “occasional wine drinkers,” who accounted for half of the respondents. This is important news in a country where wine consumption has declined steadily for decades. This group included younger drinkers and women, who say they were more likely to have one or two glasses of wine a week. To put this in perspective, that one or two glasses of wine a week is more than bottle a month, which means an occasional wine drinker in France drinks more than the average adult in the U.S.

Winebits 165: U.S. wine market, Far Niente lawsuit, Andrew Lloyd Webber

? "Most lucrative in the world": Wonder why so many foreign producers want into the U.S. market (and send so much crummy wine over here in the process)? That's because we're "by far the most lucrative wine market in the world," reports Wines & Vines in its coverage of the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium. Said one analyst: "They all know how well New Zealand has done here with sauvignon blanc and how well Argentina has done with malbec. They will try to succeed, and they will keep coming relentlessly. That ?s the downside of having the most lucrative wine market in the world." What's even more interesting about this is that the weak dollar doesn't seem to be an obstacle; imagine how much more intense foreign efforts would be if foreign wine was less expensive here.

? Far Niente heir sues winery: Or, from the Department of Things Can Always Get Worse, Despite the Recession, Jeremy Nickel, son of Far Niente founder Gil Nickel, has filed a lawsuit against three members of the board of directors of his family ?s wine companies. The Wine Spectator reports that Jeremy says the board members misused company funds and gave themselves substantial raises at the expense of company shareholders. He wants at least $50 million in damages. Far Niente, of course, is a big-time Napa winery, and its holdings include Nickel & Nickel Vineyards, Far Niente Vineyards and Dolce Wines. The lawsuit doesn't name Jeremy Nickel's step-mother and cousin, who the company's co-owners, but the two said they support the current board. Sounds like lots of family fun, doesn't it?

? Wine collection goes for more than a song: Sorry — couldn't resist. Part of musical impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber ?s wine collection sold for $5.6 million in a Hong Kong auction. There were almost 9,000 bottles of French wine in the sale, including a case of 1982 Chateau Petrus, perhaps the trophiest of all tropy wines. It sold for $77,564, or about $6,500 a bottle. The sale exceeded expectations, and yes, that was because the Chinese still, apparently, have no limit on what they'll spend for rare French wine.

Winebits 164: Argentine wine, Gruet, corks and screwcaps

? Argentina ahead of Chile: Argentina exported more wine to the U.S. in 2010 than arch-rival Chile, which may have been the first time that has ever happened. Argentina ranks fourth, behind Italy, France and Australia, as a supplier of wine to the U.S. market. The two countries have been fighting for several years to see which would be the biggest exporter to the U.S. market, and it has turned into a point of national wine pride.

? Gruet says it didn’t do anything wrong: The story is more than a bit confusing, but the gist is this: When Laurent Gruet, whose family owns New Mexico’s Gruet Winey, bid for Texas’ bankrupt Cap*Rock Winery last year, Laurent wasn’t acting for the winery. Hence, neither he nor the winery is responsible for damages in a lawsuit relating to the failed bid. And, for good measure, the company that owns Gruet, which is controlled by the Gruet family, says Laurent “lacked the requisite mental capacity ? to bid for Cap*Rock.

? Everything you ever wanted to know about corks: The article in Practical Winery & Vineyard is quite technical, complete with diagrams of molecules, but the language isn’t too difficult and it’s easily the best piece I’ve ever seen on the difference between corks, screwcaps, and artificial corks. Plus, authors Carlos Macku, Ph.D., and Kyle Reed, Ph.D., from the department of technical services at Cork Supply in Benicia, Calif., threw in some some academic humor: “Wine packaging (probably one of the most challenging of all food barriers) has certainly evolved from the days when the product was transported, stored, and sold in Egyptian amphorae or medieval wooden barrels.”