• THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY AND… WINE : ISRAEL (2)

    par | Fév 22, 2014

    From ALEX HARPER / THE DRINKS BUSINESS, January the 30th, 2014

    MOSHE ROZENResent via LinkedIn by MOSHE ROZEN — Sommelier at Mul Yam in Tel Aviv (left)

    Israel is a country which conjures images of arid sun-baked hills, hot rustic wines, kosher restrictions and an industry which, boasting a winemaking history reaching back to biblical times, might well be forgiven for a certain stubborn traditionalism.  Nothing, I discovered, could be further from the truth. Let’s go and visit a few wineries

    Ella Valley Winery — The whites had a signature minerality and nervy acidity to them reflecting the cool climate. Of the reds, the 2007 Merlot stood out for the smoky red fruit, dried wild herbs and subtle meaty richness. In their youth the wines are very firm and unforgiving and the icon wines, though impressive tended to over extraction which masked their perfume. (suite…)

  • AMERICA VS. EUROPE: THE ORGANIC DIVIDE

    par | Fév 18, 2014

    By BLAKE GRAY — Posted Wednesday 05-Feb-2014

    An exploration of the debate over organic wine between the U.S. and the European Union.
    The thing you could notice at     Millésime Bio, the huge organic wine trade show in Montpellier, France, is that organic wine is booming in Europe. But nobody there talks about being organic.  Both production and consumption of organic wine are skyrocketing in Europe, while across the Atlantic Ocean, organic wine is a niche product.  The difference is all in the definition.

    There remains a trans-Atlantic divide when it comes to "organic" wine
    © AFP | There remains a trans-Atlantic divide when it comes to « organic » wine

    In 2012, the European Union decided to allow the use of « organic wine » as a term for the first time, and decided that organic wine could include sulfites.
    This was the exact opposite of a 2011 decision in the U.S., where the National Organic Standards Board denied a petition to allow sulfites in « organic wine. » (suite…)

  • THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY AND… WINE : ISRAEL (1)

    par | Fév 16, 2014

    From ALEX HARPER / THE DRINKS BUSINESS, January 2014

    Israel is a country which conjures images of arid sun-baked hills, hot rustic wines, kosher restrictions and an industry which, boasting a winemaking history reaching back to biblical times, might well be forgiven for a certain stubborn traditionalism.

     

    Nothing, I discovered, could be further from the truth.

    The Islamic occupation which started in the seventh century effectively saw an end to viticulture and winemaking in Israel until the nineteenth century when Baron Edmund de Rothschild appeared on the scene armed with cuttings from Château Lafite.  The modern winemaking revolution however, only began in the 1980’s and thus, unshackled by appellation rules and family tradition, a vanguard has emerged driving the industry forward towards the realisation of premium wine production.

    Ella Valley

    Ella Valley, part of the plains of the Judean Hills (suite…)

  • CHINESE OVERTAKE FRENCH AS WORLD’S TOP RED WINE DRINKERS

    par | Jan 30, 2014

    From WINE SEARCHER – AFP | 29-Jan-2014

    China tops world league of red wine drinkers dethroning France as the world’s largest consumer, according to a market survey issued by Vinexpo.  155 milion cases (12 bottles, 9 litres) i-e 1.86 billion bottles of red wine were consumed in China in 2013 – an increase of 136 % compared with 2008.  France’s total was 150 million cases, followed by Italy (141 million), the US (134 million) and Germany (112 million).  These figures show the ever-growing thirst in China for red wine, due to its perceived health benefits and to the highly symbolic importance of the color red.

    (suite…)

  • THE WORLD’S MOST-PLANTED VARIETIES: WINNERS AND LOSERS

    par | Jan 8, 2014

    By | WINE SEARCHER | Posted Tuesday, 07-Jan-2014

    A new database of grape plantings documents a rapidly changing wine world.
    Airen, grenache and rkatsiteli were the world’s most widely planted grape varieties 20 years ago, but mighty cabernet sauvignon and merlot have since knocked them from their top slots.
    That’s just one of the findings released by the University of Adelaide, Australia, which has published what they’re calling the     first database of the world’s wine grapes and regions. Compiled over the past year using statistics from more than 500 regions in 44 countries, with information on 1,271 varieties, the database covers 99% of global wine production, its authors claim.

    Former front-runner airen « was a pretty forgettable grape in Spain that went out of popularity, » Professor Kym Anderson told Wine-Searcher. «  People just ripped it out, especially when there were subsidies for vine pull, and replaced them, mostly with reds. »  While airen remains the most-planted grape variety in Spain, covering nearly a quarter of the country’s vineyards in 2010, its share has fallen by 8% — nearly 140,000 hectares — in the last decade. (suite…)