How to collect wine

Research shows most Americans drink wine within a few days of purchase, but there are those who collect bottles of wine with an eye toward even better enjoyment in the future. For wine is much like you or me: It ages.

Good wines start out with a youthful energy that can almost be overpowering. Flavors are often bold, without nuance. You might taste a lot of tannin -- an astringent, bitter sensation (like swigging a mouthful of strong black tea). But tannins are necessary because they provide the "bones" on which the wine can grow to a nuanced maturity when it will be at the peak of flavor, aroma, substance. This is when you realize that wine is worth every dollar you spent on it. Unfortunately, wines grow old and, just like us, they eventually die. Old wines are capable of winning respect even past their prime because there's often a special quality to them. It never hurts to open an old bottle and taste to see if, miracle of miracles, it's still good. Just keep a younger bottle handy in case the oldster is DOA.

Watching and tasting a wine go through its life cycle is one of the joys of wine collecting. I recommend you get a notepad or book to write down your notes as you taste a wine through the years.1. Have the proper storage -- a cool, dark place away from light, heat or sun. A kitchen is not the place for storage. If you're thinking basement, make sure the space isn't too wet (the paper labels can rot off). Living in an apartment? No problem. I use the bottom shelves of my linen closet. If you're really serious about collecting, consider buying a wine refrigerator or setting up a wine "room" with its own climate control system.

2. Collect only what you want to drink. There's no use keeping wines you don't like simply because they may have a certain reputation. And when it comes to buying, be adventurous: Try wines you've never had before. If you like 'em, buy 'em.

3. Consider different collecting strategies. Some people just want first-growth Bordeaux. Others may want a vertical of one winery, meaning they have wine from consecutive years. Some may even collect based on label art -- all flowers, all animals, whatever.

4. Drink your wine when it's ready. Too many people let bottles sit and sit and sit until they die of old age. Some wines can age for decades, wines like expensive reds from Bordeaux and California, Sauternes and even some Burgundian whites. What wines don't age? Cheap wines, wines meant to be drunk fresh and young. Consult a wine guide or your merchant about aging -- and remember aging is also affected by your storage conditions. If you don't have an ideal space, take my linen closet, factor in fewer storage years.

5. If you are buying wines, especially expensive wines on the auction market, make sure you verify the prior ownership and storage conditions if you can. If you buy a bottle at the church auction -- a bottle kept in Aunt Minnie's sideboard for 40 years -- you may be disappointed (especially if it's a straw-wrapped bottle of $4 Chianti!).

6. Keep a perspective on how much you're buying and how much you drink. Some collectors have so much wine that they never get around to drinking all their wines in peak condition. You know some pricey wines are going to rot right now on some collector's shelf. That's a shame.

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Wine company in receivership

Another Marlborough wine company is in receivership and one unsecured creditor has predicted it will be only a month before his company suffers the same fate. Otuwhero Estate Wines, based in the Awatere Valley, was put into the management of Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold, of Christchurch, on Monday.

Mr Jarrold said he was still assessing options for the company. Otuwhero operations director Michael Davison, of Clifford Bay near Blenheim, would not comment. Wade Thompson, of WJ Contracting, said Otuwhero owed him $100,000 for work on the vineyard.

His company has managed the 200-hectare Otuwhero vineyard under contract for six years, he said. That included paying staff wages and contracting pruners for the 170ha planted in sauvignon blanc. Mr Thompson said he cancelled the management contract after payments for the pruning work turned to a trickle and then stopped completely about two months ago.

He pulled out the pruners half-way through work on the vineyard until the payments were made, but no money had been forthcoming. He also had not been paid for several months, he said. He could not pay Thornhill Horticultural Contracting, which he had hired to do the pruning, and it was likely his own company, WJ Contracting, would end up going out of business, he said.

Thornhill South Island manager Ian Hunter said he was upset the Otuwhero directors would walk away leaving them having to work to recoup debts. But that was the way of business when companies failed, he said.

Mr Thompson and Thornhill Contracting had kept a good relationship throughout, he said.

Mr Thompson said Otuwhero's operations director, Mr Davison, was managing the vineyard under the receivers, who were tendering for a new contractor to finish the pruning.

"What makes me so angry now, one of the directors has gone and employed other staff to get the pruning finished, yet they are not paying for the last lot of pruning that was done," Mr Thompson said.

He did not hold much hope for getting any money from the receivership, he said.

"They've got us over a barrel.

"We're unsecured creditors. We're the last ones to get anything out of it."

Gravitas, Awatere Vineyard Estates and Cape Campbell Wines have this year all been put under management with unsecured debts totalling almost $1.9 million.

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Don't let fall put white wine on the shelf

One of the many, many old wives tales about wine is that for some reason white wines take a back seat to reds when fall arrives. Maybe it has something to do with that “no white pants after Labour Day” mantra people way more fashionable than me mumble to themselves this time of year.

While a slight chill in the air and the rustic aromas of leaves dying may suggest a red wine vibe, I’m going on record saying that every day is a good day to drink white. The weight of an oaky chardonnay certainly works with all four seasons, but let me also push the versatility of German riesling.

Soft, slightly sweet (in a juicy apple fruit sense) and undeniably gulpable the Schmitt Söhne 2009 Relax Riesling ($11.95 - $13.13) is a, well, relaxing wine perfect for fall. Try matching it with a Thai or spicy Szechuan dish.

Prices reflect the range across the country. Some products may not be available in all provinces. Peter Rockwell is the everyman’s wine writer, working in the liquor industry for more than 25 years and traveling the globe looking for something to fill his glass and put into words.

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Wine & Dine Wisconsin offers fine weekend for foodies

It's back, it's better and it's ready to feed your appetite for fine food and drink. Presented by Southwest Airlines, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's second annual Wine & Dine Wisconsin is bigger (130,000 square feet - 40% larger); longer (hours have been extended to 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday) and features a new Critic's Choice area, where some of the restaurants on dining critic Carol Deptolla's Top 30 list will offer samples.

Featured Critic's Choice restaurants include Lake Park Bistro, Dream Dance Steak, Bacchus, Sanford, Eddie Martini's, Maxie's Southern Comfort and Umami Moto. The Critic's Choice area is separately ticketed, and tickets must be purchased online.

Visitors can sample food and drink from more than 100 exhibitors. Other features: more than 40 prominent chefs and libations experts on four stages; the Stella Artois beer garden; and a second "Cheese Island."

Also new this year are 11 culinary and beverage seminars, which are ticketed separately at $5 each.

Featured chefs include Carlos DeLeon of Harbor House, the new Bartolotta restaurant on the lakefront; Joe Muench of Maxie's Southern Comfort; Alamelu Vairavan, host of MPTV's "Healthful Indian Flavors," Thi Cao of Café Calatrava; Jason Gorman of Dream Dance Steak; Tom Schultz of Smyth at the Iron Horse; Robert Ash of the Pfister Hotel; and Richard Palm and Ulrich Kobersteinof the American Club.

Tickets are $49 at the door. You can save $10 if you buy advance tickets, available through Wednesday. A weekend pass for both days is $59 in advance, and $69 at the door. Tickets to Wine & Dine Wisconsin, Critic's Choice and the seminars are limited. A portion of proceeds from Wine & Dine Wisconsin benefit Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

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BORED TO DEATH Wine Tasting Event

Who is Jonathan Ames? Well, he’s an alcoholic, a writer, and self proclaimed private detective. I’m speaking of course of the character played by Jason Schwartzman in the HBO series BORED TO DEATH. Not to be confused with the writer of the series, Jonathan Ames. For those of you that watch the show, you’ll know that Jonathan has a passion for white wine. So, I found it fitting that HBO hosted a wine detective event to kick off the premiere of Bored to Death season 2.

The challenge: to correctly guess the varietal of 8 glasses of white wine. Now, I know way more about the show than I do about white wine so I put my detective skills to use and actually didn’t do too bad. For example, if the clue was that it was a Spanish wine, I marked the option with the most Spanish sounding name – maybe I should become a private detective as well? For those of you not familiar with the show, Bored to Death is about a writer Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman), Ray Hueston (Zach Galifianakis) a comic book illustrator and Jonathan’s friend, and George Christopher (Ted Danson) who plays Jonathan’s editor and friend. It’s based off the graphic novel by Jonathan Ames called “The Alcoholic”. In Season 1 Jonathan suffers a bad breakup, is bored with writing and turns to white wine and detective work to amuse himself. Season 2 begins this Sunday September 26th at 10 PM on HBO.

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Raising a wine glass to independence

If small winery operations are the backbone of Oregon's $1.4 billion wine industry, small independent wine stores are at least part of the skeleton -- despite increasing consolidation among wine distributors and the might of retail powerhouses such as Fred Meyer and Costco.

The first of these independent shops appeared in 1989, about two decades after winegrowing first took root in the northern Willamette Valley, when Matthew Elsen and Bob Liner opened Liner & Elsen Wine Merchants in Portland.

While small wine shops may be going under elsewhere, they are a vital presence throughout Portland and its suburban markets, said Elsen, who with Liner has gone on to found Galaxy Wine Co., a distributor.

"We're in one of the most interesting and competitive markets in the country," he said. "Small wine shops and independent dealers are a critical part of that."

"Small wine stores are a huge part of our business," he said. "They are small businesses selling wine, and we're a small business making very small lots of very particular wines. It's a perfect relationship in many ways.

Here is a look at several small wine retailers in the southwest suburbs. Wine Xing When Eric Bean cashed out of the biotech industry in 2000, he and his wife, Linda, decided to pursue what had become a growing passion -- wine.Repeated trips to the top spots of the wine world only scratched the itch. Then, when they moved to Oregon in 2005, a light went on after they couldn't find anything quite like the wine shop they'd frequented in San Diego.

So they decided to jump into the business full time by opening Wine Xing (pronounced " wine crossing") in Wilsonville.

"The whole idea is to provide a nonthreatening environment for people to come and explore wine," Eric Bean said, "where people can ask dumb questions about wine and get a straightforward answer."

The Beans, like other small wine-shop owners, can't compete directly against big-box retailers, which rely on volume to trim their margins.

So to keep costs low, Wine Xing opened in a small industrial park near Argyle Square in north Wilsonville. By forgoing traditional retail space, the Beans shaved 40 percent in overhead costs.

A second strategy, one that other small shops follow, is stocking shelves with labels not found at bigger outlets.

"There are tens of thousands of wines out there, and the ones we seek out represent good value," Bean said. "We provide almost 800 wines from all over the world and I taste each one of them before we'll stock it."

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The Pinot posse

The Fête de Pinot Noir celebrated those dedicated, perhaps foolhardy souls who are bewitched by the siren song of what is often referred to as The Heartbreak Grape. These intrepid vintners, who toil in vineyards and cellars in various corners of the world, came together for a special tasting event to show their wares and share their experiences with the notoriously fickle grape.

If the Lifford Wine Agency had staged such an event five years ago, the morning panel discussion dubbed The World of Pinot Noir could just as easily been called Misery & Company. Instead of taking on the tone of a support group meeting, however, the atmosphere at this trade tasting was downright jovial. Producers in New Zealand, United States, South Africa, Canada, Australia as well as France, Germany and Italy have enjoyed measured success with Pinot of late. Not only is consumer acceptance on the rise, so is the quality of the wines being turned out.

Steve Green, owner of New Zealand’s Carrick Wines, largely credits the recent rash of good fortune to partnerships that have been forged by serious Pinot Noir producers. Winemakers are traveling more, working harvests in different regions to gain more insight and perspective.

There are also large-scale community-building events, such as the annual International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon, that unite the tribe of Pinot devotees.

“Pinot Noir is probably the only variety where worldwide relationships are built,” Green said. “There’s so much interaction between the various regions.

Green insists the collaboration isn’t being done to create one specific, accepted style for the grape variety. Rather, it’s about sharing resources and advice in a bid to help each other sort of how to produce the best possible regional expressions of Pinot Noir.

“We’re not looking to mirror what’s happening somewhere else,” he continued. “We’re not looking to make Burgundy Pinot Noir in Central Otago.”

Oregon winemaker Rob Stuart, of R. Stuart and Co. Winery, suggested light-heartedly that much of the bonding between producers comes not only because of a shared love of Pinot, but also a shared character flaw.

“We love to live in a world of chaos and try to make order out of it,” he said. Even rugged individualists and wide-eyed eccentrics, it seems, can appreciate that there’s strength in numbers.

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Winemakers optimistic even with threat of wet fall

People in Oregon’s wine industry are nervously eyeing the sky, and if it doesn’t dry out soon it could be a terrible year for wine. At Bethel Heights Winery, inside they’re bottling their 2008 grapes now. However, like every other Willamette Valley winery, the concern now is over the grapes growing outside.

“The Mother’s ripening her babies now,” said owner Ted Casteel. The trouble is Mother Nature is wreaking havoc in the nursery. A wet spring, and a blip of a summer, mean the “babies” are nowhere near where they should be. However, “it’s too early to do the gloom and doom dance," Casteel said. "I learned a long time ago, you can’t really tell until it’s over.

Casteel knows this year’s grape harvest could go one of two ways. If it stays cool and dry then the vintage could turn out to be fantastic and prices for a bottle would be as expected. But if it stays cold and wet, consumers would have to cellar the bottle for a few years before it’s ready to drink. The upside, however, is a bottle will likely cost less money than it normally would.

If it turns out to be a bad wine year, the owner of Illahee Vineyards – Lowell Ford – said wine buyers will need to be patient with the vintage and give the wine time to mature.

It’s something he said consumers aren’t always good at doing.

“Americans, they want to buy it and drink it right way,” Ford said. “If they can’t pour it when they get home that night – that isn’t the typical.”

If Oregon wine country is lucky, this year’s vintage could end up like 2008’s. Growers were in the same spot then, but the fall stayed dry and thus beautiful “babies” were born.

“08, probably, was the – in my opinion – was the best vintage ever,” Ford said.

If it turns out to be a bad wine year, consumers can expect to see less reserve wine as winemakers focus on making quality table wine over more expensive reserve bottles.

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Wine Makers Experiencing Harvest Delays

Typically this time of year local vineyards are filled with pickers harvesting their grapes. However, the harvest is delayed because of this year's odd weather. "I'd like a crystal ball though. It would be handy," said Mark Nichol, Sweet Cheeks Wine Maker. That would come in handy right about now for Oregon wine makers. The end of September usually marks the beginning of harvest, but local wineries haven't even started.

So why and when will these vineyards be filled with pickers? "That's the million dollar question right now is, who knows," said J.P. Valot, Assistant Wine Maker Silvan Ridge/Hinman Vineyards. Nobody knows because the weather has been unpredictable all year. A cooler spring followed by a summer that saw just a handful of sporadic heat spells means some grapes are hanging onto the vine a little longer in hopes for some sun.

"It's looks like there's a couple of great weather on the way and hopefully that'll get everything straightened out and we'll have some great grapes to pull," said Sasha Kadey, King Estate Winery. Wine makers say they need at least three or four weeks of the sun before harvesting. For now, many of vineyards are dropping fruit, so fewer clusters will need energy to grow. They're also opening up canopies to let air flow. "So it keeps us from running around crazy right now with the whole, the sky is falling mentality," Kadey said.

They admit though the vintages from 2010 will be missing some big flavors. "We're certainly not going to be getting any big style-type wines, aromatic elegant styles. I'm not concerned at this point in time," Nichol said. Valot says if you've been in the business as long as he has, "You get used to it, and then you learn from mistakes."They say often the most challenging years produce the best wines. Wine makers say there have been other years such as 1997, 1999 and 2007 when they saw identical weather patterns. They say those years turned out fine and another reason why they're not panicking yet.

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Aussies plan assault on our sauvignon blanc

Australia's winemakers are plotting an assault on New Zealand's lucrative UK export market with a new wine style they describe as a "sauvignon blanc killer".

Unable to match the fruity and grassy flavours of Marlborough sauvignon blanc, Australian growers are positioning "semillon blanc" for launch in the UK's biggest supermarket chain, Tesco, later this month.

Australia's winemakers, like their New Zealand peers, are struggling with production oversupply, but the Australians are also fighting an uphill battle to see off new world challengers and protect their traditionally dominant share in markets including Britain and the US.

Dan Jago, chief wine buyer for Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain and the biggest single buyer of Australian wine, says British shoppers are increasingly looking for lower alcohol, more refreshing wines, such as South African whites or sauvignon blancs from New Zealand.

"There's no doubt that the popularity of standard Australian chardonnay, shiraz and cabernets is down," Jago said.

"Ten years ago Australia had the new world market locked up tight - now consumers are saying, if it's Australian, South African, Chilean or Californian, it doesn't make a difference."

While the volume of wine exported by Australia has climbed in each of the past two years after dipping in 2007-08, the value of what is being sold has fallen in all three years as increased bulk shipments, a strong Australian dollar and a dent in consumer spending after the global financial crisis have combined to push down prices.

But potentially more damaging has been the industry's sluggish response to changing consumer palates in Europe and Britain. Now a strategy to take on our sauvignon blancs is emerging. Paul Schaafsma, European and UK director at New South Wales-based McGuigan Wines, says

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Chinese Pip Brits To Top Bordeaux Wine List

Changing tastes among China's growing middle class have helped the country become the leading importer of Bordeaux wines.Bordeaux sales to China have doubled every year for the last five years, according the Conseil Inter-professionel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB). The rapid and sustained growth saw sales hit £84m in the first half of 2010, catapulting China past Britain to become the largest export market. While it was no secret that some wealthier Chinese had developed a taste for the region's most expensive wines, the CIVB said consumption had been doubling as well.

This meant China also surpassed Germany as Bordeaux's number one importer by volume in the second quarter. Thomas Jullien, the CIVB's director of marketing in Asia, told Sky News: "China has a strong thirst for wine and Bordeaux is a point of reference in the wine world. "But to be honest I had expected it to reach a plateau earlier and I'm amazed at the growth figures."London-based wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd has also witnessed a fast-growing appetite for Bordeaux. The group - which cites the fact that its 15-year-old Hong Kong merchant is China's oldest as evidence of the market's relative immaturity - has seen trade triple in the last three years, now accounting for a third of total Bordeaux sales. Berry Bros. & Rudd sales and marketing director Simon Staples told Sky News it was still only glimpsing the "tip of the iceberg", with only a handful of customers on China's mainland.

"It's been a really slow burner; it wasn't until the last three years when we went into recession over here, that the fine wine market in Hong Kong really took off. "They were just going for the top, top, top wines, but now they're after education and there's interest, which makes it far more sustainable, so that's good."Mr Jullien said the CIVB had boosted its marketing in China, teaching the local population about wine and making a home for Bordeaux there.

"It's key to be able to make wine part of the culture and in China meals are very important. "China is enormous and all over the country you have a different cuisine, so what we do is we put the diversity of Chinese cooking in front of the whole diversity of Bordeaux wine - you have rose, sweet wine, dry white and tannic reds. "There's a red pork dish you have in Shanghai that goes with a tannic red wine perfectly; you get a little bit of fat, a greasy feeling in the mouth and the tannin in the wine wipes it out. It's an interesting combination. "To be honest, we're still just scratching the surface on this - it's fascinating."Mr Staples was also licking his lips at the prospect of wine's future in Asia - and his eye is already wandering to other items on the menu. "China's a very interesting market - but what's even more exciting and more sustainable is that India is just taking to wine and they're more likely to drink it more often."

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Foster's no. 1 target of buyout firms

Foster's Group, Australia's biggest brewer, is on the top of a $45.6 billion list of local companies compiled by broking house RBS Equities that are seen as targets especially for foreign buyout firms.The Melbourne-based company, which has a market capitalisation of $12 billion, last week knocked back a bid worth A$2.7 billion for its Treasury Wine Estates unit from an unidentified buyout firm.

Shares of the brewing giant climbed 9 to $6.21 yesterday and are up more than 20 per cent since chief executive Ian Johnston publicised plans in May to divide Foster's into separate listed beer and wine businesses.

According to analysts at Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit, the group may attract bids for its wine business worth A$3.5 billion ($3.3 billion)."Anyone considering buying an Australian wine asset today would be, in the highest of probabilities, buying that asset at the absolute bottom of the cycle," Merrill Lynch said.

"In four years ... asset prices would be higher than they would be today."

The list compiled by RBS Equities includes almost 30 companies. Many of these have become attractive takeover targets because of global shortages in food and energy.

"We believe acquisitions are more likely to occur in sectors delivering product that the world is structurally short (of)," according to RBS analyst Gregg Goodsell.

Corporate Australia was well-placed to grow over the next six to 18 months as the market entered a new mergers and acquisition cycle, he said.

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Wine of the Week: 2009 Domaine Faury Syrah

Wine importer Kermit Lynch has always specialized in ferreting out small producers making high-quality wines. One such estate is that of Philippe Faury and his son Lionel in the northern Rhone. Faury's basic Syrah is a vin de pays with the geographic designation Collines Rhodaniennes.

But it tastes like St. Joseph's younger brother and, with its notes of sour plum, rhubarb, spice and smoke, delivers a bona fide northern Rhone flavor. A great everyday Syrah from a highly respected producer of textbook Cote-Rotie, St. Joseph and Condrieu and a terrific value for the price. Pop open a bottle to enjoy with a plate of Serrano or other raw-cured ham, a pork roast with rosemary or some barbecued pork chops.

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Auction houses look to please Asian wine investors

There will also be sales in New York, London, Paris, Geneva and Chicago, but the Asian auctions will set the tone. "The wine market overall has remained pretty strong," said Sotheby's Jamie Ritchie. "The largest buying market is in Asia. That's not to say the market in Europe and North America and South America isn't strong, but Asian buyers remain the least price sensitive.

New York auction house Zachy's began the auction season during the weekend in Hong Kong with more than 900 lots on offer, including 1990 La Tache Domaine de la Romanee Conti, which sold for $50,262, and cases of 1989, '90 and '95 Chateau Petrus which fetched $40,837, $40,837 and $23,560 respectively.

On Friday and Saturday at Hong Kong's Island Shangri-La and the Grand Hyatt hotels, Acker Merrall & Condit, a bulwark of Burgundy and Bordeaux based in Manhattan, is expecting to auction a six-pack of magnums of 1971 Romanee Conti for about $185,000, three cases of 1982 Chateau Petrus, which each could sell for $72,000 and three cases of 1982 Chateau Lafite Rothschild for $51,500 each.

Christie's will be offering 300 lots in Hong Kong on Saturday from the collection of Korean energy company SK Networks, which includes more than 80 cases of Lafite-Rothschild with high-end estimates of $11,000 to $24,500 depending on the vintage.

"It is an auction that has been uniquely constructed for the Asian collectors," said Charles Curtis, Christie's New York wine director. "SK bought it mostly as an investment and the tastes being informed by the local favorites. Now they feel it's time to sell up."

San Francisco-based Spectrum Wine Auctions, which began operations in 2009, will hold a Hong Kong sale on September 25 that is to include a magnum of 1961 Petrus expected to fetch $14,000.

Hong Kong will also be the site for Sotheby's sale of a massive collection of Chateau Lafite dating back to 1869. Among the lots on offer is one bottle of 1869 with an estimate of $8,000, an 1870 expected to sell for $20,000 and five lots of the 1982 which could sell for $70,000 per lot.

"Lafite has an amazing longevity," Ritchie said of the 1869. When asked about the difference in estimates for the 1869 and the 1870, he replied, "Obviously like any vintage it has a reputation and it is the wine's reputation that gives the reasons for the pricing."

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Wine in Britain: Scots drink red, Cornish drink white

A study of the tens of thousands of bottles that Morrisons supermarkets sells every day has revealed that Britain's taste for wine has as many regional differences as their accents.

While the bestselling wines in Scotland are heavy reds such as Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chateauneuf du Pape, its stores in the South West sell more Pinot Grigio, a light Italian white, than anything else. Londoners and those in the South East favour slightly lighter reds, including Merlot and the Pinot Noir grape used in red Burgundies. Up in the North West, the distinctive white grape Chardonnay – used in everything from unsubtle new world wines to elegant white Burgundies – along with Malbec are the best selling varieties.

Allan Cheesman, a wine consultant who used to head up Sainsbury's wine department, said: "There always used to be huge differences in the stores. Scotland like high alcohol drinks, along with Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. They also have a sweeter tooth. There used to be this very strong, sweet sherry called Walnut Brown, which would fly off the shelves in Scotland but sit gathering dust in the south.

"I've always thought it was to do with the weather. It's cold and dark up there for much of the year, so you need a strong red to keep you going."

Cabernet Sauvignon, especially from the new world, can sometimes have as much as 16 per cent alcohol in them.

Pinot Grigio, a grape which tends to make an acidic white wine, rarely contains more than 12.5 per cent alcohol.

Its success in the south west is also weather-related, experts believe, with much of the region's wine sold in the summer months to holidaymakers looking for a lighter style.

While the regional varieties continue to tax supermarket buyers who supply wine for national chains, Mr Cheesman pointed out a revolution had occurred since the early 1980s.

"Back then, we used to say you could draw a line from the Wash down to the River Axe and no wine would ever be sold north of that. At least now different parts of the country are enjoying a wide range of different wines."

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Foster's rebuffs USD2.5 bn offer for wine

Foster's Group Ltd, Australia's largest brewer, has rejected a private equity offer worth up to $2.5 billion for its wine unit as too cheap and plans to continue with the split of its beer and wine businesses.

The bid for the world's second-largest wine business came as a surprise, boosting Foster's shares almost 6% to their highest since January 2008, on hopes it will attract better offers. Investors have been focusing on potential buyers for the more lucrative beer unit, which is seen as a cash cow with some of the highest profit margins in the brewing world.The ailing Treasury Wine Estates business, with vineyards from California's Napa Valley to the Hunter Valley near Sydney, had been seen as the unwanted child.

Sales of Foster's wine, including Beringer, Penfolds and Wolf Blass, have been hit by a deep US recession and a trend away from low-end, bulk wines in Australia. The strong Aussie dollar has also been a drag, slashing the value of US earnings.

"It seems like a nice little opening bid here, it is definitely going to speed up the process (of a sale)," said Arnhem Investment Management partner Theo Maas.

"But in terms of the value, it is lower than the book value. We are at the low point in the cycle and looking at very depressed earnings levels," he said, explaining the company's reluctance to accept the offer. The business is valued at A$3.1 billion on Foster's books, or about half the sum the company spent on wine acquisitions, following three huge writedowns.

Foster's has spent the last year overhauling the wine business, selling off unprofitable vineyards, changing U.S. distributors and focusing on higher-margin wines above $8 a bottle.

Analysts have valued the business at A$1.7 billion to A$3.5 billion.

Foster's shares spiked late last month after sources said brewing groups SABMiller and Asahi Breweries were looking at the company's beer operations, valued at more than $10 billion, but no firm bids have emerged.

FOCUSING ON COMPANY SPLIT

Foster's said the offer from the unnamed international private equity firm, worth A$2.3 billion-A$2.7 billion ($2.1 billion-$2.5 billion), was highly conditional and requested exclusivity, which it said reduced the value and certainty of the proposal.

"The Board considers the indicative proposed value range, referred to above, significantly undervalues Treasury Wine Estates and its future prospects," the company said. A deal for the wine unit would have been the largest buyout by a private equity firm in the Australian market since 2007.

The major international private equity firms with representation in Australia either declined to comment or did not return calls, including Blackstone, KR, Carlyle, TPG and CVC. Bain & Co in New York did not return calls seeking comment.

International private equity firms have shown renewed interest in cheap Australian assets this year, snapping up hospital owner Healthscope in July for A$2 billion. Foster's said it is continuing with its plans to split its beer and wine businesses in 2011 but left the door open to other offers.

"However, the Board will continue to consider any proposal that is in the best interests of shareholders," it said. Foster's spent over A$6 billion building its wine business, which ranks behind Constellation Brands Inc, with its acquisitions of California's Beringer Wine Estates in 2000 and Australia's Southcorp in 2006.

Earnings from the wine business rose 21 percent to A$221 million for the year to June 2010, but a massive A$1.29 billion writedown on the wine assets, the third for the unit, marred the group's bottom line.

Shares in Foster's were up 4.8% at A$6.36 at 0315 GMT, in a broader market down 0.6%. Foster's has hired Gresham Advisory Partners and Goldman Sachs to advise on the demerger.

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Wine and Temperature

For the past few years, so called “big, cocktail-style wines” have been the rage among the hoity-toity wine crowd. But things might be changing willy nilly, especially when it comes to California wines. Which means goodbye and good riddance to overpowering Cabernets boasting alcohol levels of 16% and hello to acidity and symmetry.

The reason for the change is California’s mild summer weather. Northern California, where all those exquisite vines are located – places like Napa and Sonoma – is experiencing dampness, cool morning fog, and afternoon temperatures 10 to 20 degrees below normal for this time of year. A few growers have been overheard wondering aloud if the strange weather pattern is somehow connected to global warming. What they’re really saying is that the cooler weather is inconvenient. It has advantages and disadvantages for the vines.

Here’s the deal as far as disadvantages are concerned:

Cooler temperatures delay the harvest by two or three weeks because the vines take longer to fully develop, so if the fall rains arrive a little early, the growers could be left out in the rain – literally. Adjacent to the risk of rain is the threat of disease posed by the inordinate fog and moisture. Growers prevent disease by spraying sulfur to restrain mildew, and by making sure canopies let in enough sunlight and air, which hinders wetness settling into the grape clusters. If that’s not enough to worry about, grapes such as petit sirah, cabernet sauvignon, and zinfandel ripen late. They need the sun’s warmth to coalesce their elements into nobler forms.Growers ensure their late ripening grapes attain proper maturity by thinning the grape clusters. They remove the unripe fruit. This removal process allows the leaves on the vines to distribute more sugar to the remaining grapes. Cool weather calls for more thinning than normal, which affects grape yields. Low yields affect profits and, since many growers have already reduced their prices by up to 25 percent because of the current economic crisis, lower yields are not very attractive.

Those are the primary disadvantages connected to the unusually cool weather in California. Now let’s take a gander at the advantages:

Early ripening grapes – chardonnay and pinot noir – love the cooler temperatures, which causes them to flourish. Growers have to adjust their harvest schedules by a few weeks, but they don’t mind. In fact, growers in Santa Cruz are eager to see just what kind of vintage they will get. They think it could be “the bomb.” Balance and complex flavor are expected, and that translates into outstanding, subtle wines, which is precisely the type of personality a superb chardonnay should display.

Even for the late ripening grapes there is an upside. Cooler weather translates into slower maturation of grapes on the vines. Slower maturation translates into lower sugar levels and lower alcohol levels. This means the harvest has great potential, if one prefers wines with a rich, resonant voice, under lilting control, rather than the exaggerated absurdity of brassy cocktail wines.

In other words, this season’s harvest could turn out to be a great vintage. The flavors could be velvety and less vehement, producing a vintage akin to that of 2005, also characterized by cool summer weather.

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Australia to use EU wine label system

Australia has signed an agreement with the European Union to stop labeling Australian wine with names such as burgundy, port and claret. In exchange, Australian wine makers will have protection for 112 of its "geographical indicators" such as Barossa and Coonawarra, the Wine and Brandy Corp., the government agency in charge of wine production, announced in a news release.

Australian producers have already stopped calling sparkling wines champagne, which is named for the Champagne region of France. The EU agreement, which went into effect Wednesday, gives some producers up to 10 years to change the names of their products. The agreement replaces one in force since 1994. Australia exported wine worth nearly $8.2 million (6.43 million euros) to the EU last year.

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Australian Winemakers Get A Kick From Champagne

A trade agreement between Australia and the European Union comes into force today, which requires wine producers to phase out the use of names such as Champagne and Port.

The agreement protects 11 European Geographic Indicators, and includes other names such as Moselle, Sherry and Burgundy, and prevents Australian producers from using them to describe Australian wine from September next year.

It also prevents Australian producers from using a range of European traditional wine-making expressions and techniques.

But Australian wineries will get better access to the European market.

European Union Ambassador to Australia, David Daly, says the agreement is important to protect Europe's cultural identity, and says the EU is also looking for an agreement on food through the Doha trade talks.

"Fetta is an obvious example. Fetta cheese is a cheese that comes from Greece and it's mind-boggling to a European to see something else marketed as Fetta when clearly it hasn't been made in Greece."

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