Winebits 791: Premiumization, Sherry-Lehmann, Prosecco

This week’s wine news: Chile’s Concha y Toro wants to go upscale, plus legendary wine retailer Sherry-Lehmann has more problems and Prosecco sales climb

• Posh wine? The Financial Times looks at Chile’s Concha y Toro, best known for this $7 wine, and its plans to sell wine costing as much as 10 times more. The story is an intriguing look at how premiumization works from a producer perspective, as well as how the English write about wine. How about the terms posh and upmarket, as well as a football reference?

• More Sherry-Lehmann woes: The New York Post, continuing its relentless reporting of the famed New York retailer, says that Con Edison, the city’s electric company, gave “gave staff a ‘thirty minute warning’ to gather their personal belongings before the power was shut off over unpaid bills” late last month. The power wasn’t turned off after part of the bill was paid, the paper says, but many employees have not been paid since the end of February. This is the latest in the struggles at the 88-year-old wine shop, one of the best in the world. Among the other problems: a $2.7 million state tax bill that hans’t been paid.

• Popping Prosecco: Much of the wine business may be ailing, but Prosecco — the Italian sparkling wine — isn’t, and that includes the U.S. Shanken News Daily reports that shipments to the U.S. grew six percent last year, making this country the largest Prosecco market in the world – even bigger than its native Italy. Not surprisingly, the biggest brand in the U.S. is E&J Gallo’s La Marca, It grew 11 percent, selling some 3 million cases. That’s more than one-quarter of all U.S. Prosecco sales.