Australia’s 2008 wine grape harvest is expected to fall well below average and could cause an exodus of growers, an industry expert says.
Past vintages have averaged about 1.9 million tonnes, but because of the drought the 2008 vintage was unlikely to reach 1.3 million tonnes, Wine Grape Growers Australia executive director Mark McKenzie says.
He said [...]

Winegrowers in Oregon have welcomed changes to the region’s 30-year-old wine laws which they say will help them to better compete in national and international markets.
Under the new rules, approved by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission on Oct 19, 18 of the 72 grape varieties grown in the state will be allowed to be blended [...]

NEW YORK, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ — According to a new report by Rabobank, the United States is the only major wine market showing significant growth in purchases of higher-value wines, which makes it an ideal export target for other wine producing countries.
The report, “The future of the California wine industry: A ‘perfect storm’ of imports [...]

FIRST they conquered our tastebuds with their spicy curries, now India is attempting to do the same with wine.
While more than a third of all Indians live on less than £1 a day, a new craze for wine is sweeping through the style bars and restaurants of Mumbai and Bangalore.
Australian wine company Howling Wolves has [...]

The halcyon days of tax-free Internet shopping may be about to end.
A powerful alliance of politicians, including key U.S. senators and the National Governors Association, is arguing that out-of-state retailers must be required to charge sales taxes on purchases. At the moment, for instance, companies like Seattle-based Amazon.com are not required to collect sales taxes [...]

WINE drinkers face price increases of $2 a bottle on table wines and rises of up to $8 on top-of-the-range wines as the fall in grape production hits home.
With frost and drought affecting the grape harvest severely for the 2007 vintage, prices are predicted to rise for most types of wine from the end of [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of vintners from some of the world’s most famous wine-growing areas want U.S. officials to help stop rivals from diluting their brand.
Representatives from 13 wine-growing regions in the United States, Europe, and Australia will meet with lawmakers and trade officials this week in a campaign to heighten consumers and lawmakers’ [...]

California’s wine industry has notched double-digit growth in revenue, exports, payroll and taxes paid to state and national coffers since the industry was last surveyed four years ago, according to a report released Thursday by the advocacy organization Wine Institute and the California Association of Winegrape Growers.
Substantial growth came [...]

SOUTH Australia’s Peter Lehmann Wines has been crowned winemaker of the year at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London.
The Barossa Valley based winery won the award for the second time, following its victory in 2003.
“To be made the overall winemaker of the year for the second time since 2003 is unbelievable,” Peter Lehmann [...]

Climate change to hit Australian wines
Monday Oct 23 16:56 AEST
Global warming will force changes to Australia’s A$4.8 billion wine export industry, threatening the very existence of some varieties as temperatures rise, a scientist said on Monday.
With Australia in the grip of its worst recorded drought and heading into a searing summer, the country’s biggest science [...]

Source:  Statesman Journal
Cold. Damp. Not good.
Those poor little grapes are still hanging out there, and they’ve already endured more than a week of cool, moist weather in mid- September.
Even Eastern Washington’s wine country got some ill-placed rain. Though I hope by the time you read these words that those same grapes will have bathed for [...]

Source: CBS News
Global Warming Spawns Wine In U.K.
LONDON, Sept. 25, 2006
(CBS) Somewhere glaciers may be melting. Somewhere storms may be blowing and waters may be rising. But in England, global warming is having a very different effect.
Grapes are growing in Britain, and though “the English wine country” is not a phrase you’ve likely heard before, CBS [...]

Source: Bismarck Tribune
North Dakota not too cold for wine grapes
BUFFALO (AP) - Steve Hogen says most people think North Dakota is too cold for wine production. He used to think the same thing.
“When we were asked if we had thought about growing grapes, our initial reaction was, ‘You’ve got to be nuts, this is [...]

Source: The Vancouver Sun
Richmond’s first farm-based winery, complete with a tasting room and store, is scheduled to open Saturday, adding a new wrinkle to the city’s agricultural offerings.
Sanduz Estate Wines, owned by Dave and Neeta Sandhu and located at 12791 Blundell Road, is in the heart of one of B.C.’s richest agricultural zones.
The Sandhus say [...]