Wine Tasting - What You Should Know About Wine Tasting

As wine tasting is considered to be a very sophisticated practice there is a specific etiquette you have to follow. This etiquette should remain the same whether you are at a vineyard, a wine tasting private party, or in a restaurant.

When you have a wine tasting party you should only invite the amount of people that you can fit comfortably in the room you want to have your party. A crowd may be intimidating. You do not want any of your guests to feel like they are being rushed when they are pouring a glass or tasting the wine.

Always be sure to have bottled water on hand when you are having a wine tasting. This allows your guests to rinse their mouths out between tasting different wines. If you have just tasted a very heavy wine you must have water ready for the guests. If you do not then their next tasting may be tainted due to the heaviness lingering in their mouths. In addition, water is good because guests will get thirsty and they need to drink something other than the wine.

When you have a wine tasting it is important to provide foods for your guests. However, you also want to be sure to have food on hand that will not change the way the wine tastes in any way. The best snacks to have on hand include unflavored things like bread or unsalted crackers.

Decanting

Some people practice decanting before they serve wine at a wine tasting. This is very controversial to many different wine enthusiasts. Decanting is the process of letting wine breathe before you serve it.

Some people let their wine breathe for a few hours before they serve it. However, decanting is not just letting your wine breathe but it is when you pour your wine into a completely different container to allow the breathing. Some people even apply a special filter when decanting to remove bitter sediments that might have formed in the wine.

Younger bottles of wine benefit more to an aeration process than the older bottles. However, the sediment is more common with the older bottles. Many people say that airing out the bottle can relax the flavor of the wine, making them taste smoother. The wine might have better integration. However, all wines do not benefit from this method. Some wines are meant to drink immediately after popping the cork from the bottle.

The best way to tell if you need to let a bottle of wine air out or be decanted is to taste it first. As soon as you pull the cork off of the wine bottle you can tell by tasting if it needs to air out a little.

Blind Tasting

The best way to hold a wine tasting is by blindly serving the wine to your guests. This means that you do not want the guests to know what you are serving to them. You might want to serve the wine in a black wine glass. However, the guests should also not see the shape of the bottle of wine nor should they ever see the label on the bottle.

You never want a wine taster's judgment to be altered because they know specific details of a certain wine. Certain considerations that can alter a taster's judgment about wine include the price, reputation, color, and the geographic region the wine came from.

People have expectations about wine when they know these considerations. If a wine is very expensive or comes from a certain geographical region some people tend to have expectations of the different varietals. Eliminating expectations of the tasters allows a wine tasting to go smoother and the scores of the wines will be more accurate.

Vertical Tasting

When you have a vertical wine tasting you will have one varietal of wine from the same vintage. This means you might have the same wine from different years; 1999, 2000, 2001, etc. The most common purpose of tasting wines like this is to get a good idea of a certain wineries style and composition. You can also get an understanding how the different weather patterns affect grapes during certain years.

Horizontal Tasting

When a horizontal tasting occurs you will use the same wine from many different producers. This type of tasting will allow you to determine which wineries you think produce the better wine. This wine will be from the same year and the same type of wine but from different wineries.

Tasting Flights

When you hold a tasting flight you will have many glasses of wine out for the tasters to test. Next to each glass of wine you will have a card including the specifics of the wine; winery, geographical demographics, type, and more. Some flights include up to 50 glasses of wine to be tasted.

This gives a taster an idea what types of wines come from certain parts of the world and more. You can also get a good idea of the different tastes of the different types of wines when you taste wine through a flight.

Old World versus New World Tasting

Many people enjoy this type of wine tasting. The Old World according to wine enthusiasts is considered to be countries like France, Italy, Austria, Spain, etc. The New World is North America, South America, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.

The reason these countries are considered to be the New World is because they are new to the wine producing industry and late starters. However, these countries are significant in producing wines.

Many people like to feature the same types of wines from the old and new worlds to determine which they like better. Some people like to do a horizontal or vertical method with this also. There are many ways to mix it up so you can make your wine tasting successful.

Wine and Cheese Tasting

There are many different palate influences that cheese has when you drink a particular wine. When you taste specific wine combinations properly you will understand how well cheese and wine really do go together.

The best way to serve a Cabernet sauvignon is with blue cheese. All you need is just a little. You might serve the blue cheese with an unflavored French bread also. The blue cheese acts by coating the mouth and laying a foundation which will soften the wine and make it taste very good.

The best way to test this is by taking a taste of the wine first. Wait a minute. Then take a bite of the cheese and take another drink. You will see a big difference.

Wine and Chocolate Tasting

Chocolate and wine can go together if you do it right. Some people completely disagree but this is because they do not know how to pair up the two together. When you drink wine with chocolate it is important to be sure the wine is as sweet as the chocolate you are serving. If you have a wine that is not as sweet as the chocolate it will cause the wine to taste very sour.

If you want to serve lighter wines at a wine tasting with chocolate it is best to stick with chocolates that are lighter also. For instance, the white chocolates are the best with the lighter wines. A white zinfandel will go very well when you pair it with a chocolate that is bittersweet.

Priceless Tasting

Priceless wine tasting is not telling the guests how much the bottle of wine costs. If you have several bottles of wine you don't want to let anyone know the price of the wine. When guests know what the price of the wine is their judgment is tainted. Never reveal the price of the wine.

If you feel you must tell the guests the price of the wine, be sure you tell them after the tasting is over. This is because it is a natural perception that an expensive wine is superior to a wine that costs a low dollar amount of money. This may be true in some circumstances but it isn't always the case. You don't want assumptions to be made before the wine has been tasted or it will ruin the wine tasting.

Price point Tasting

The price point tasting method is very similar to the priceless tasting. However, you will use wines that are in the same price range when you serve the wines. The important factor is to establish a baseline for the dollar amount and stick to it.

Big 8 Tasting

A Big 8 tasting includes a wine tasting of the different varietals of the Big 8 wines in a tasting flight. The big 8 wines include red and white wines. The red wines included in the Big 8 are Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, and Merlot. The white wines included in the Big 8 are the Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot, and the Sauvignon Blanc.

This is a great way to have a wine tasting if your guests don't know the differences with the different varietals. They can work their way through the wines and find out for themselves what each of the wines taste like and the differences.

This is a fun way to learn about the wines. When you have newer wine tasters this might be the first type of wine tasting you want to have at home. This way, the next wine tasting you have your friends will know what to expect with the different blends of wine.

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Wine's trail of joy and gloom

Should winegrowers rip up their vines, or wait for the tide to turn? Greg Ninness asks the questions. This year's huge sauvignon blanc vintage is putting pressure on winemakers' profits – and widening a rift over how to restore the sector's financial health.

The industry is a house divided, with some arguing for increased production, while others want to see vines ripped out to limit supply. Whatever position they take on the issue, something most wine companies and vineyard owners will have in common is that their profits have been hammered by the international financial crisis, bumper vintages in 2008, 2009 and again this year, and the high New Zealand dollar.

Those effects are showing up in the accounts of both huge multinational wine companies and smaller niche players. Two months ago Pernod Ricard, this country's biggest wine company, released its accounts for the year to June 2010, and they weren't pretty reading.

Revenue declined 2.9 per cent to $337 million, while the cost of sales was up 11.6 per cent, reducing gross profit to $92.1m from $127.6m in 2009.

But that was more than wiped out by a $170m hit to its balance sheet as it wrote down the value of its Montana operations (since renamed Brancott), which helped push the company to a bottom line loss of $183.2m. The pain hasn't ended there.

Last December the company sold five Gisborne vineyards and 12 of its best known brands, including Lindauer, Corbans and Saints, incurring an $87.8m loss for this year's accounts.

By comparison with Pernod Ricard, NZAX-listed The New Zealand Wine Company (NZWC) is a market minnow (revenue for year to June 2010 $13m), but its accounts for the six months to December 2010 released at about the same time as Pernod-Ricard's, show it is facing similar pressures.

Revenue declined by 6.5 per cent compared with the same period in 2009, while higher costs and a substantial downward revaluation of assets pushed it to a loss of $1.1m for the half year.

In the directors' report accompanying those figures, NZWC chairman Alton Jamieson set out what he believes caused the company's trading difficulties and suggested a radical solution.

Large increases in the grape harvests in 2008 and 2009 had resulted in so much wine being produced, many wineries were forced to sell into the bulk wine market. That is wine destined for sale in casks under retailers' house brands. Such wine is nearly always sold at a much lower price. That in turn reduced the prices of wineries' own premium brands.

"The oversupply of wine has become a crisis business outcome for the New Zealand wine industry," Mr Jamieson said. "The sheer volume of bulk wine export sales has negatively impacted the net earnings and balance sheets of all New Zealand wine companies and grape growers," he wrote.

Looking ahead to this year's vintage, NZWC's directors endorsed a NZ Winegrowers report issued at the end of last year, which suggested a grape harvest of around 265,000 tonnes would "maintain progress with clearing the bulk wine surplus to match the demand for branded New Zealand wine".

But a harvest of 300,000 tonnes would lead to "a large ongoing bulk wine surplus that would take the industry backwards".

If the harvest came in at the upper end of those estimates, NZWC's directors recommended the industry look at funding options to start ripping out vines.

When the harvest was finally gathered, it exceeded even the worst-case expectations, coming in at 325,000 tonnes, with sauvignon blanc, the main export variety, up 29 per cent on last year.

The idea of pulling up vines to reduce supply and shore up prices is not new, but many oppose it.

It would be difficult to find someone with a more expansive view of this country's wine industry than Marlborough viticulturist Peter Yealands.

Originally a contract grape grower, his Yealands Estate is one of the largest vineyards in the country, with 700ha planted in sauvignon blanc, 100ha of pinot noir and 100ha of pinot gris.

In 2008, Mr Yealands made the switch from contract grower to winemaker, and now uses all of the grapes grown in his own vineyards plus some bought in, to produce wine in his own winery. This year he processed 14,500 tonnes and believes that could increase by another 2000 tonnes as his younger vines mature.

The move from contract grower to winemaker carried huge risks and Mr Yealands said that after his first vintage in 2008 he had nearly four million litres of wine in the winery and not one customer.

That situation did not last long and although his production doubled this year, all his wine is committed, he said.

Mr Yealands is now planning to expand and is looking at what he described as non-organic growth opportunities, suggesting acquisitions or partnerships.

He acknowledges prices have fallen, although he believes that has an upside. "Our average sale price has come down far too much, across the board," he said.

"Everyone's out for a bargain and nothing sells wine like a cheap price. But it's going into markets like Germany that have never been able to take it because it's been priced too high. So we've got this expansive growth for Marlborough sauvignon."

However, he said he was making money, in spite of the lower prices and the compounding effect of the high dollar. But he said many others will be doing it tough.

He said the average price paid to growers for sauvignon blanc grapes this year was around $1100 a tonne, but growers probably needed $1500 a tonne for sustainable production.

Many smaller wineries and vineyards were becoming uneconomic, he said. "There's a lot of consolidation going on in the industry. You need volume, so you can get economies of scale. Today you need to be a low-cost, high-quality producer."

Because there has been no significant new planting of sauvignon blanc vines in Marlborough since 2008, and export demand is continuing to grow, he believes by 2013, demand will once again start to outstrip supply.

"As supply plateaus and prices improve, people will start thinking about planting again, but it will take two to three years for that planting to come on. They could be the golden years," he says.

He also believes many small vineyards around 8ha might not survive long enough to see it. "A lot of them are becoming uneconomic and the trouble is, there's probably not a lot of appetite for the stronger ones to gobble them up. My hope is that the price will lift enough so that they have a bit more of a life, but ultimately, I don't think they have a great future," he said.

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High Country wineries form Boone Area Wine Trail

The mountains of northwestern North Carolina hope to become the Southeast's next hot destination for wine lovers. The Watauga Tourism Development Authority has helped develop the Boone Area Wine Trail to attract more visitors to the high country vineyards around Boone and Banner Elk. A former winemaking researcher at Appalachian State University, Richard Wolfe, says some high-level elevation locales are comparable with successful European viticulture climates.

The tourism authority's website includes an interactive map to steer visitors along a scenic route past the Grandfather Vineyard and Winery, the Banner Elk Winery and Inn and the 1861 Farmhouse Restaurant and Winery. The wineries are producing a variety of wines, including Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir.

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French wine consumption drops by three billion bottles

Researchers fear the culture of wine drinking is being lost in France, with younger generations less likely to savour a bottle over food and more prone to drink simply for pleasure. They are also less aware of its cultural significance to France. Just 16.5 per cent of the French population are now regular wine drinkers, according to research from the ESC Pau research centre and Toulouse 1 Capitole University/ Regular consumption over meals has been replaced by the French drinking wine occasionally rather than frequently, often on nights out. This has occurred within the last two generations, according to researchers Pascal Poutet and Thierry Lorey.

In a study in the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, the pair looked at successive generations and their approach to wine drinking, dividing the demographic into four groups.
The oldest was those over 65 years who had lived through the Second World War, followed by those between 40 and 65 who lived through a period of growth and worldwide development. Those 30 to 40 - “Generation X”, who grew up through the French crisis of the 1990s, were next, followed by those under 30 - the internet generation. “Each successive generation represents a general increase in libertarian attitudes and irreverence towards institutions”, says Dr Poutet.

While all agreed on the value and ’bon homie’ of drinking wine, it was the over 65s who most linked it with French heritage and were more likely to drink it daily and share the experience. The middle groups are much more occasional drinkers and drink more socially with friends rather than family, and social status is a factor in their wine consumption. But for the under-30s, wine consumption is very much the exception rather than the rule.

Dr Poutet said: “There is a dual gap between the three generations, older, middle-aged, younger - on the one hand, the consumption frequency gap (from a daily wine consumption to a festive one, and then exceptional), on the other, the pleasure gap (evolution from a genuine pleasure towards a more ostentatious pleasure, more difficult to perceive for the younger generation).”The younger generations may still take pride in French wine but have little awareness of its cultural place in French history, he said.

He explained: “The generational analysis of the representations of wine in France does seem to be appropriate to explain the deep changes that wine has undergone in the last 60 years. “It is precisely the progressive loss of the identity, sacred and imaginary representations of wine (nation, region, lesser importance of the transmission of the culture of wine by the father within the family, etc) over three generations that explains France’s global consumption attitudes, and especially the steep decline in the volumes of wine consumed.”

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Wineries leverage technology to reach consumers

The digital revolution is spreading across the wine world — whether the industry is ready or not. More than 450 wine-related applications are now available on the iPhone and other mobile devices — more than six times the number that existed only 18 months ago, according to a recent survey.

Last year, people on Facebook, Twitter and other social media had 14 million online conversations about wine, providing recommendations, reviewing vintages and suggesting the best wineries to visit, said Paul Mabray, chief strategy officer for VinTank, a Napa consulting firm.

Social media and mobile technology, which have garnered widespread coverage for playing a key role in the Arab uprisings, are now quietly usurping the wine industry’s traditional marketing powers and fueling a revolt among the hordes of casual wine drinkers.

“As an industry, we can no longer ignore digital,” Mabray said. “We now live in a Google economy.”Mabray and others are pushing wineries to develop strategies that incorporate the widening arsenal of digital tools such as social media, data management and company-wide integration of workflow technology.

Some wine executives, such as John Jordan at Jordan Vineyard & Winery in Healdsburg, are already more than two years into implementing their digital strategies. “It’s a constantly evolving, messy thing,” said Jordan, the winery’s chief executive officer. “But technology makes it possible for a company to really become customer centric.”

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Oregon wine grape crop growth comes late with cool spring weather

Winemakers around the state are coping with another late growing season as persistently cool spring weather delays the growth of the grape crop, The Oregonian reported.

Oregon's $1.4 billion wine industry has grown to more than 400 commercial wineries where managers try to balance the effects of weather that can range from cool and wet to hot and dry in short order.

At Seven of Hearts winery in Carlton, owner Byron Dooley said the cool early spring has set him back about two weeks from where he would like to be. If he's jittery, it's because the conditions are reminiscent of last year, when only an extended burst of sun at harvest in early October saved a wholesale washout.

"I always remind myself that it's not what happens in June but what happens in October that's most crucial," Dooley said. "But 2010 was the most white-knuckled vintage I've been through. I would love not to have to do that all again."

A late start to the growing season makes it difficult to ever fully catch up. And when it does heat up under summer sunshine, unseasonable heat spikes can flood grapes with too much sugar, resulting in flabby, unbalanced wines.

If the harvest is delayed too long, autumn rains can threaten a crop that needs a long hanging time on the vine to develop the right mix of acids and sugars. The timing is always tricky, but key to any successful harvest, winemakers say.

"In my mind, wines from later vintages are always better than wines from earlier vintages," said Sam Tannahill, Oregon Wine Board chairman and a partner in Rex Hill Vineyards and A to Z Wineworks in Newberg. "Later vintages, of course, require longer hang time, which then introduces rain into the equation."

A couple of days of sunshine that recently broke through the otherwise gray days of the waning spring sparked activity at many vineyards. "We're seeing two to three inches growth on warm days right now," said Harry Peterson-Nedry, founder and winemaker at Chehalem winery in Newberg. "It's pretty stunning to watch."

Winemakers and vineyard managers around the state say they are feeling more optimistic than they were a few weeks ago. "We were saying, we're really late," said Mark Wisnovsky, an owner of Valley View Winery in Jacksonville. "Now, we're just late."

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Bordeaux hoofs it into Asia

AT CHATEAU Latour in Pauillac, horses plough the vineyards just as they did in the 14th century, when vines were first grown on the estate. But this is a recent return to tradition at Latour, one of the five renowned ''Premier Grand Crus'' of Bordeaux, and it's based on sound commercial considerations rather than sentimentality.

Fine-wine prices have surged because of an explosion of interest from China and other Asian countries in recent years. Unable to increase production - land is limited and there can be only one harvest a year - Bordeaux's leading producers focus relentlessly on quality. The reintroduction of horses is part of that drive for quality - they plough with more precision than tractors and do far less damage to the soil and vines, some of which are 100 years old.

Prices plummeted in the wake of the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 but the setback was short-lived. Last year, top-end bordeaux outperformed not just equities, but gold and crude oil, too, according to Liv-ex, which tracks the prices of the top-five Bordeaux chateaus. Its Fine Wine 50 Index rose by 57 per cent last year, far outstripping gold (up 35 per cent), crude oil (20 per cent) and the FTSE 100 (11 per cent).

China last year overtook Britain and Germany to become the leading export market by value for Bordeaux wines. And the Chinese are not just buying bordeaux by the bottle and case but by the vineyard, too - earlier this year, Cofco, the huge Chinese state-owned conglomerate and owner of the Great Wall wine brand, bought a 20-hectare estate, Chateau de Viaud. It is unlikely to be the last such deal. Last month, a single bottle of 1961 Chateau Latour sold to a Chinese buyer for £135,000 ($A208,113) at auction in Hong Kong, more than three times the expected price.

Robert Parker, the world's most influential wine critic, has warned of a speculative bubble in bordeaux prices and that the region, which he has done much to promote, is in danger of pricing itself out of the European market as it chases wealthy Asian buyers. Not everyone agrees: ''There is no bordeaux bubble,'' says Sam Gleave of Bordeaux Index. ''People are drinking as much as ever.''

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Waltz Vineyards releases its first reserve wine, a Chardonnay

Waltz Vineyards has added an eighth wine to its lineup and its first reserve. Its new Chardonnay spent 10 months in French oak and gives the winery a sophisticated white that foodies will find appealing. It's going for $36/bottle.

The Manheim, Pa., winemaker also just released new vintages of its regular Chardonnay ($25/bottle) and its 2010 Sauvignon Blanc ($28/bottle). Both are delicious whites certainly worth trying if you stop by the winery for a tasting. The tasting notes call out the citrus and melon in the Sauvignon Blanc. What I liked was the dryness and crispness of the varietal that offer as much companionship alone on a summer day as it does on the dinner table. You'll likely also enjoy the fusion, a blend of Semillon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. More Sauvignon Blanc is on the way, as the winery planted more vines in 2010 and again this year.
Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon serve as the base right now for the four reds that it produces. Its Crow Woods Cabernet is available by bottle only, at $34/bottle.

Jeff Zwick, Waltz's vineyard manager, noted that Waltz continues to find its way into more regional restaurants, one good way for a new winery to get the word out. While it's adding a new wine or two a year, it's business plan seems a closer match to a winery such as Maryland's Black Ankle, where it might wind up landing on a dozen or so wines total, many of them dry. Compare that to any number of regional wineries that have gone a different route and lean more heavily on the semisweet, sweet and fruit wines. Many have wine lists that tops two dozen.

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Calif. wine grape growers suffer a sobering spring

Wild spring weather across California's wine country has been enough to drive a vintner to drink. From killer snow in the Sierra Nevada foothills to dry-season downpours along the coast to a hard freeze in temperate Paso Robles, 2011 is proving a challenging vintage.

"That's what makes this business so damned interesting," said Jim Fiolek, executive director of the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association. It also can keep winemakers up at night. Jason Haas, general manager of Tablas Creek Vineyard near Paso Robles, said winemaker Neil Collins has experienced many sleepless nights this spring. "These people who envy the winemaker's lifestyle should drive around here with Neil at 3 a.m. when he knows it's freezing and there's nothing he can do about it," Haas said.

Vintners have long joked that the weather is just like last year — different. But people expect to find constants in the nation's premiere grape-growing state. Rain is expected to taper in April and end by May, then not return until November. In those months, balmy temperatures awaken dormant vines from their winter slumber and buds start to break. This year there has been frost and record rain in June. Sustained temperatures over 70 didn't hit until this week in most wine regions.

Now just days before the official start of summer it looks like early spring across California wine country. Buds are just emerging and the fruit is forming far behind schedule. "This weather is causing all kinds of problems, but it's not the first time and not the last," Fiolek said. "Other products have a more ephemeral lifetime, but ours goes on and on and tells the story of the weather pattern."

While rain is good for some crops, late precipitation is not for California's $18.5 billion wine industry. Regulating water controls the intensity of grape flavors — and too much causes mildew. The most recent deluge Sunday and Monday across Napa and Sonoma forced crews back into some fields, where they hope that removing select leaves will fight mildew by increasing airflow. It's snow, not rain, that caused problems in mountainous El Dorado County, where leafing vineyards have been hit by the same spring snow storms that have some ski resorts dreaming of remaining open through July 4. "There's nothing we can do about it, and we don't even know the outcome yet," said Josh Bendick, winemaker at Holly's Hill in the Sierra-Nevada foothills, where 4 inches accumulated May 15 on 6-inch shoots of viognier, an early blooming white wine-grape.

At Tablas Creek this week, Haas checked vines on the rolling 105-acres, where organically grown grapes are used to produce the critically acclaimed Rhone blends. Two all-night freezes in early April, which followed a warm March, wiped out the winery's entire crop of grenache, grenache blanc, viognier and marssane. They're key ingredients in the company's wine blends and 35 percent of its acreage.
"Of the blocks that were out (leafing) we had 100 percent damage," said Haas, adding that only the neighbors with overhead sprinkling systems were spared. Grapes are resilient plants that produce the best-tasting fruit while stressed. They can recover and push new shoots after a freeze, as Tablas Creek and others now are seeing.

But vineyards are tediously pruned each winter to place canes for optimal bunch growth. Now the new shoots are sprouting randomly like unwanted facial hair — in places Haas wishes they weren't.
"It's just weird," Haas said. The cooler weather has left plant development a month behind schedule in some regions, saving some plants but creating the prospect of harvests in late October and early November, even early ripening pinot noir.

Now growers are hoping for a warm fall. "Pinot in November? That's just plain crazy," said winemaker Mike Waller at Calera Wine Company in Hollister. A late harvest could mean chaos at wineries that stagger production by planting both early varieties such as chardonnay and late-ripening varieties such as cabernets. This year Haas expects to harvest all 11 varieties nearly simultaneously, which will strain crews and equipment.

While quantities of some wines might be lower in 2011 — a 2001 freeze cut Tablas Creek production by half to 5,500 cases — quality shouldn't be affected anywhere in the state. "We deal with something every year," said Paul Goldberg of Bettinelli Vineyards in Napa, where last year's challenge was the European grapevine moth. "With good weather on the horizon we're hopeful this will be a good vintage."

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Vineyard sale boosts Brown-Forman 4Q earnings

Brown-Forman Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit spiked from the sale of its California-based Fetzer Vineyards, capping a year that showed strong growth for its flagship Jack Daniel's brand and el Jimador tequila.
The company, whose brands include Southern Comfort and Finlandia vodka, on Thursday reported a 26-cent-per-share gain from the sale of Fetzer to Chilean wine producer Vina Concha y Toro S.A. The $238 million deal closed in April.

Brown-Forman, based in Louisville, Ky., also reported strong yearlong sales for its super-premium brands. For the three months ended April 30, the company reported net income of $165.4 million, or $1.13 per share. That's up from $72.7 million, or 49 cents per share, from a year ago. Excluding gains from the Fetzer sale along with certain one-time tax benefits, the company said its earnings were 80 cents per share.

Revenue rose 8 percent to $791.3 million. Analysts expected earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $757 million. The earnings estimates exclude one-time items. For the full year, Brown-Forman reported net income of $571.6 million, or $3.90 per share. That compares with $449.2 million, or $3.02 per share, the year before. Revenue for the year rose 6 percent to $3.4 billion. Excluding the Fetzer sale and tax benefits, the company reported earnings per share of $3.57 for the year, up 18 percent. The company said it expects the Fetzer sale to reduce its earnings by 16 cents per share in the coming year. "I expect us, starting with this fiscal year, to start to recoup some of that lost profitability and then in future years to surpass it," Brown-Forman CEO Paul Varga said in a conference call with industry analysts.

Analysts expected earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $757 million. The earnings estimates exclude one-time items. For the full year, Brown-Forman reported net income of $571.6 million, or $3.90 per share. That compares with $449.2 million, or $3.02 per share, the year before. Revenue for the year rose 6 percent to $3.4 billion. Excluding the Fetzer sale and tax benefits, the company reported earnings per share of $3.57 for the year, up 18 percent. The company said it expects the Fetzer sale to reduce its earnings by 16 cents per share in the coming year. "I expect us, starting with this fiscal year, to start to recoup some of that lost profitability and then in future years to surpass it," Brown-Forman CEO Paul Varga said in a conference call with industry analysts.

Brown-Forman said it hopes to build on sales momentum from the last half of the just-ended fiscal year.
The company said it expects strong international growth in the coming year and a better performance in the U.S., where the recession made consumers less inclined to venture out to drink at bars and restaurants. Leading international markets included Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Turkey, Germany and France, Brown-Forman said.

Brown-Forman Chief Financial Officer Don Berg predicted a "slightly improved pricing environment" in the coming year but said the company also will absorb higher costs, including for grain. "We will continue to seek opportunities to increase prices when and where appropriate," he said. The company also is looking to recent brand and packaging introductions to fuel continued growth. Such brand extensions as Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey, Chambord Vodka and Southern Comfort Lime contributed to sales growth, it said.

The company rolled out new packaging for Southern Comfort, Herradura and Chambord in the past year and recently announced packaging changes for Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and Finlandia.
The company predicted it will earn between $3.45 and $3.85 per share in the coming year. The company said it expects underlying operating income growth in the mid- to high-single digits in the next year.
Brown-Forman said its Jack Daniel's brands had an 8 percent gain in revenue for the year, on a constant currency basis.

"The broad-based performance of the Jack Daniel's trademark drove the company, most notably in the second half of the year," Varga said. The company's el Jimador products posted a 9 percent gain. Its super-premium brands, which include Chambord, Herradura, Sonoma-Cutrer and Woodford Reserve, had a 13 percent upswing in revenue for the year.

Meanwhile, the company's Finlandia products had a 2 percent revenue drop for the year, while Southern Comfort had a 3 percent drop. Canadian Mist revenue fell 8 percent, while revenue for Korbel Champagne were flat. The company's Class B shares rose $1.40, or 2 percent, to close Thursday at $71.75.

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Qantas launches 'members only' epiQure wine and food club

In an attempt to woo well-heeled travellers, and certainly keep them away from the newly-competitive Virgin Australia, Qantas is launching a $99-per year wine and food club as an add-on to its existing Frequent Flyer program.

Upon joining, members will receive a "welcome gift" from Qantas worth $130 (seems a fairly safe bet that it will be quaffable), and access to the epiQure website. The membership is also available for 13,000 points. Qantas promises the community will allow members to "discover the Qantas cellar’s diverse collection of wine, dine with globally renowned chefs and be part of a community with a shared appreciation of the finer things in life."Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and Neil Perry will host the first epiQure showcase event at Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney and Melbourne in July.

Members will earn three points per dollar on purchases of wine and event tickets, and 2,000 bonus points after members buy their first case of wine through Qantas. Delivery of wine is also free to the end of 2012.
There's also the ability to earn four points per dollar at 250 Qantas Frequent Flyer partner restaurants.
Qantas says the epiQure website (which is currently password protected) is designed to "form the centre of a passionate community bringing together wine and food lovers, winemakers, producers, chefs, and industry experts to share knowledge and experiences.""Members will get the first serve of up-and-coming chefs at the top of their game, get the inside scoop on new restaurants and have access to celebrity recipes."

If any other organisation were attempting a paywalled community website, they'd face an uphill battle in getting a critical mass of people enlisted and interacting with each other, but Qantas does already have a memberbase of 7.8 million travellers to mine. Qantas says it has recently launched a “Sommeliers in the Sky” training program for staff to educate cabin crew and lounge staff about the wines they serve.

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Stars of Early American Winemaking: Where Are They Now?

Welcome to Vintage America, our column on the history — and future — of American wine. Every week Talia Baiocchi, author of the Decanted column on Eater NY, will take a look at winemaking from Virginia to Texas to California, to uncover the people, events, and trends that have made America one of the most dynamic countries in the world of wine.

The story of American winegrowing began just one century after Columbus, when French Huguenot settlers arrived in present day Florida. As myth would have it, when Captain John Hawkins arrived in Florida in 1565 — just a year after the settlers — he found them near starvation, unable to grow food, but relatively successful cultivating wine from abundant wild grapes.

This abundance of vine growth is noted by settlers and early pioneers as a symbol of the promise of America as a sort of Eden, where wine and other products would bring those who settled there everlasting prosperity.

But as the story unfolds, America's wild vine, like Eden's forbidden fruit, wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The native varieties — which hugged trees and grew rampant along the coastline, threatening the sea like a verdant tsunami — would prove largely unsuitable for quality wine.

But America's early settlers persisted. Scuppernong — a grape of the muscadine family (or Vitis rotundifolia) native to the Southern United States and likely responsible for the wine the Huguenots first cultivated—eventually gained notoriety and favor in the states.

But America's fighting chance at serious viticulture came courtesy of its native American hybrids. Most were crossbreeds of failed vinifera plantings and native labrusca vines. The first, Alexander, which was discovered in 1740 just outside Philadelphia, was — as almost all the early American hybrids were — a chance breeding. These early discoveries predated any knowledge of plant hybridization and many of the men and women to stumble across these floral love children were convinced they'd simply found a vinifera variety that had managed to adapt.

Catawba--another accidental hybrid which was originally thought to be Hungarian Tokay--went on to become one of the most important western varieties and the base for some of America's most renowned early wines, not least among them: Nicholas Longworth's Ohio sparkling wines.

Stories of America's accidental hybrids and the rare success of native grapes like Scuppernong built the foundation of modern American winemaking before anyone knew about plant breeding or grafting. Most of them faded into obscurity with Prohibition, some resurfaced after as unlikely foundations for modern winemaking out West, and others continue to be relevant in America's lesser-known winegrowing regions. Below is an abbreviated field guide to some of America's most important early grapes and a look at where they are now.

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