Aussie wine grape woes continue

If you're paying top dollar for Australian wines, you may want to consider patronizing a different wine merchant.

The ongoing economic woes are continuing Down Under. According to Mark McKenzie of the organization Wine Grape Growers Australia:

"Really it's more around the fact that that lower volume coupled with the worst price position for wine grape growers in terms of the wine grape prices they're receiving in real terms which are the worst in living memory, that is what's causing the financial crisis in the wine grape sector at the moment."

In an effort to stabilize grape supply, nearly 20,000 acres of vines have been uprooted in the Murray Valley and Riverland areas. In the past two years, an oversupply and a dip in prices has wreaked havoc with the industry.

Australia has an estimated 95 million cases of unsold wine.

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Ontario tax may impact NY grapegrowers

Any New York wine grape growers who have been selling their produce to neighboring Ontario winemakers might find that revenue source endangered.

“The Ontario provincial government has set up a huge greenbelt around Toronto, and now, through a selective tax increase on low-cost blended wines made partly from foreign wines, is trying to encourage people to sip pricier products made entirely from local grapes,” reports the Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper.

“The goal: to boost the fortunes of grape growers while ensuring the future of agricultural land -- to keep it from sprouting subdivisions.

“But the big wineries aren’t convinced. They say the tax will lead consumers to buy even cheaper, totally foreign wines instead of their blended varieties, damaging their business and undermining farmland preservation.”

The issue has caused such a rift that Canadian companies selling blended wines have withdrawn from the Wine Council of Ontario, an industry group that backs the tax move, and created a rival trade organization.

The new tax amounts to about 62 cents on an $8 bottle. It goes into effect on July 1, and the $12 million expected to be raised annually is being aimed at promoting locally-sourced, upscale wines. The view of the government and boutique wineries is that to prosper, vintners should specialize in brands with a better pedigree, those labelled Vintners Quality Alliance, the appellation for premium domestic wines using 100% Canadian content.

You can read the complete Globe & Mail story here.

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Bill aims to halt direct alcohol shipping

• From the Wine Spectator website:

The battle over whether consumers can order wine directly from wineries is moving to the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

Members of Congress yesterday [April 15] introduced a bill, HR 5034, that could end direct shipping of wine and other forms of alcohol in the United States, or at least put major roadblocks in front of lawsuits by consumers and wineries trying to reduce restrictions on direct shipping.

Wine Spectator obtained a copy of a draft of the bill on Wednesday [April 14], which was crafted by the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA). It would strengthen state governments' control of alcohol sales, allowing them to protect the three-tier system of distribution while putting a much greater burden on people challenging it. ...

"The whole idea [behind the bill] is to make it prohibitively difficult for wineries and consumers to challenge discriminatory and irrational laws that have little or nothing to do with the protection of the public," said Kirkland & Ellis attorney Tracy Genesen, who has been the lead attorney on many direct-shipping lawsuits that have resulted in state alcohol laws being overturned.

[Go here for the full story.]

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VT winery fills GOP's 'office supplies' order

Forget the strip club party expenses that have made the news after a Republican National Committee expenditure filing with the Federal Election Commission. How about nearly $1,000 for "office supplies" from a Vermont winery?

The name of Boyden Valley Winery, located in Cambridge in rural northern Vermont, showed up in the expenditures column to the tune of $982. It was for 60 bottles of its Swedish-style Glogg, a spiced red wine, and was listed as "office supplies."

Boyden Valley Winery, which operates on a crossroads in the small town of Cambridge in rural northern Vermont and specializes in ice wines, turned up on a Republican party filing of expenditures with the Federal Election Commission.

"I'm a little annoyed that I'm tied to such an article," Boyden said in a Tuesday interview with the wire service. "We've worked really hard to ... have a wholesome image."

The winery is located in a restored 1875 carriage barn on the Boyden family farm. It encompasses 8,000 grapevines and 100 acres of maple trees tended by the family for four generations in the Lamoille River Valley.

Boyden Valley Winery is open year-round and welcomes visitors. Presumably, even Republicans.

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Inventor of wine box dead at 92

• From the Melbourne, Australia, Herald-Sun:

Winemaker and businessman John Angove remembers telling his father it was crazy to think anyone would buy wine sold in a plastic bag held inside a cardboard box.

Fortunately for consumers and perhaps the wine industry at large, Thomas Angove (right) didn't listen to his then-15-year-old son and pressed ahead with his idea to make wine cheaper.

The result was the early versions of the wine cask, a packaging concept that revolutionized wine marketing and has since spilled over into other sectors.

But Thomas Angove, 92, who passed away at his home ... on March 30 ... was much more than just the 1960s inventor of the wine cask. He will also be remembered as the man who introduced significant wine grape varieties to the Riverland and as a leading figure in the Australian brandy industry for much of his life.

[Go here for the full story.]

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Highway threatens Germany's Mosel wine region

• From the New York Times wine blog

An ungainly highway project will put a four-lane, mile-long bridge right through some of the finest and most historic vineyards of the Mosel (or Moselle) wine region in Germany.

By all rights nature’s annual season of rebirth ought to inspire feelings of optimism and excitement. This year, however, thoughts of spring and the Mosel are bringing sadness instead, because of an ungainly highway project that would put a four-lane, mile-long bridge right through some of the finest and most historic vineyards of the Mosel.

It’s not just a proposal, either. Work on the highway has already begun, and several protests over the last couple of years have not deterred the supporters of the project, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. Another protest, led by the British wine writer Hugh Johnson, is planned for Berlin on April 11.

[Go here for the complete story.]

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Another lawsuit over 'fake' rare wines

Last winter, I posted an item on billionaire wine collector William Koch's ire over what he claims are fake wines.

Koch (right) this week filed another lawsuit as part of his four-year-long crusade, claiming the auction house Christie’s International in New York ignored evidence of fakery in the 1980s when it marketed several bottles supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

Christie’s denies the charges, calling them "incorrect."

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