Archive for the ‘Wine Legal Battles’ Category

Jun 21, 2006

The Old World May Embrace a New Wine World

What a fascinating exercise the European wine producers and European Union is embarking upon. Europe appears to be in the early phases of a complete overhaul of their wine industry, from growing to producing to marketing. Yesterday the European Union’s European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development , Mariann Fischer Boel, made a statement  that served as an introduction to the coming debate and staked out a rather progressive position on what needs to be done to make European wine…

Jun 15, 2006

GMO Wines & Vines

There is an interesting AP story making the rounds today about an effort to combat various wine grapevines…using genetic modification. They ask the right question in the story: will the wine industry and consumers happily adopt the idea of vineyards planted with genetically modified vines, let alone the wines made from them? The effort is taking place in Missouri at a place called "Center for Grapevine Biotechnology", where it turns out they are also part of the global cooperative project…

Jun 2, 2006

Drugs, Guns, Smokes and Wine

The Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association (WSWA) has spruced up and augmented its team of people who will fight to keep wine lovers having access only to wines wholesalers get a cut of and fight to put wineries at the mercy of wholesalers. Among the new additions to the national association that represents wine wholesalers is Dawson Hobbs, who has been hired as Vice President of State Affairs. According to WSWA Hobbs will "educate state officials about issues surrounding the…

Jun 2, 2006

E-mail of the Week.

Boy do we get letters!! Most of the comments that come into FERMENTATION are just that…comments in the comment section. Sometimes, however, we get e-mail that speak to issues covered n this blog. And I got a doosy yesterday in response to our post about the new Wine Shipping & Sales rules signed into law yesterday in Arizona. I can’t figure why the anonymous e-mailer was 1) anonymous and 2) didn’t just post it in the comments section. So, with…

Jun 1, 2006

Removing All CA Vineyards…Twice Over.

The crisis in the European wine world has less to do with quality and more to do with quantity. Let’s face it, wonderful wines are made across the continent. Yet, the Europeans, led by the French, are getting their hats handed to them by imports of relatively high quality, low priced wine from the New World. Something has to be done and it appears that the European Union is on the job. The Financial Times reports that among the European-wide…