Calwineries

The World Wine Trade Group (WWTG) recently agreed to some universal elements on wine labels. One of the WWTG’s goals is to ease regulatory burdens associated with imports.

As long as member countries of the WWTG, (United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, and Canada), include the required information on their labels, (product description, net content, country of origin, and alcohol percentage), no major redesigns will be necessary. The European Union has also approved these guidelines.

There are many great wine websites on the internet. In the first part of Friday Wine Links, I reviewed five wine sites. This version reviews three established sites, Wine Label, The Wine Diva and The Wine Botique.

In an unexpected turn of events, Kentucky state regulators dropped out of a federal lawsuit, allowing direct to consumer shipping from “small-farm wineries.” These wineries are now able to ship wine direct to customers who place online or phone orders.

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The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition took place in early January at the Cloverdale Citrus Fairgrounds. Over 1,500 wineries from 20 states submitted some 3,800 wines for judgment. This made it the largest American wine competition in the world.

Wine Marketing powerhouse Inertia Beverage Group announced that their Rethink Wine Trade system is now available in California, as well as Washington State, the District of Columbia and New York.

AC Nielsen recently reported that in 2006, sales of wines bottled with screwcaps increased by 24.6% in the United States.

Paige Poulos, Founder of the Alliance for Innovative Wine Packaging (AIWP), released the news at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium in Sacramento. Because natural cork is widely believed to be susceptible to TCA taint, screwcaps are increasingly being used by wine producers. Wines bottled with screwcaps made up 4% of all sales of 750mL bottles of wine in 2006.

The world’s largest bottle of wine arrived in New York two thursdays ago. At 6-foot-5 and 1,300 pounds, this behemoth bottle of wine is not for the faint of heart. Australian Kim Bullock is expecting a hefty price tag; she already turned down a $100,000 offer.

Every so often, a winery will introduce a fun, interesting idea to engage their customers and allow them to participate with their wine. While most wineries are separating themselves from their customer base, Fantesca Winery is doing the opposite.

News that the wine blogosphere is growing is probably not surprising to anyone reading this post. But compared to the rest of the internet, it’s moving at a snails pace. On the surface, this may seem like bad thing, but nothing could be further from the truth.