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6. Smashing Prices on English Sparkly The financial press has in the last year or so been awash with bad news. Unfortunately, amongst the stories on sub-primes and monolines (whatever they might be) there have recently been stories about wine. Fosters, Australia’s second largest wine producer, announced profits were down 88% in August; Constellation wines (the giant organisation behind many household names and the largest producer of wine by volume in the world) is selling off brands, but cannot find buyers. |
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5. Organic wine producers need thicker skins in UK It’s common knowledge that the UK consumer is clamouring for organic food; Sainsbury’s, for example, recently announced a joint venture with a British organic apple producer to dramatically increase production simply to keep up with the surge in demand. You may be surprised to discover though that this trend in organic food consumption has been eclipsed by the increase in organic wine consumption. |
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4. A glass of any old red a day may not keep the doctor away At this time of the year, something miraculous happens around the vineyards of Kent (and everywhere else growing grapes in the northern hemisphere for that matter); pruning has stopped, the sap begins to rise, and seemingly dead vines will start to show signs of new life in the form of green shoots. |
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The French say of the English that we have an obsession with drinking old wine. The UK’s consumption of Bordeaux and Burgundy (wines which are traditionally bought young, but reach their peak after many years cellaring) is the largest by value in the world. With UK sales of Bordeaux in 2006 up 40% on 2005 (according to the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux), our desire for the wine from these regions shows no signs of abating. |
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2. Green, green grapes of home Cutting down on your wine consumption as a New Year’s resolution has a lot to recommend it. Chances are that an overindulgent Christmas has taken its toll on the waistline, and that a Festive Season’s-worth of drinks with friends and family has legitimised a devil-may-care attitude to your finances, meaning you could do with tightening your belt in other respects too. |
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1. Sauce for the Goose... but not necessarily for the Gander If the traditional Christmas Dinner were searching the small ads for potential wine partners, hoping to find the one, this demanding paramour, might have to resign itself to a lifetime of love affairs rather than finding a soul mate. |
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