Branded!
POSTED ON 19/04/2014Do you know your top 10 wine brands? Do you care? Not even wine is immune from the tyranny of the list, the beloved trivial pursuit of popular culture. Calculating factors such as share of the market, growth, brand awareness, relevance and heritage, The Drinks Business, a trade publication, recently turned up a list of the world’s top 10 most powerful wine brands. And the winner is? The California wine giant Gallo, followed, in descending order, by Concha y Toro, Hardy’s, Robert Mondavi, Yellow Tail, Sutter Home, Lindemans, Beringer, Jacob’s Creek and Blossom Hill.
Day of Malbec
POSTED ON 12/04/2014Thursday is World Malbec Day and while I’m not a fan of treating grapes like saints by giving them their own day of the year, I feel an exception is well deserved in the case of the malbec grape. Known as Etranger, or stranger, in 18th century Bordeaux, this varietal interloper from Cahors in South West France found its way into Bordeaux as the black wine of Cahors, in order to bring muscle and colour to skinner clarets. As a half-sibling of merlot, malbec remains a minor variety in Bordeaux and was still known as cot or auxerrois in its heartland of Cahors until recently.
A Game of One Half - Southern Hemisphere Values
POSTED ON 05/04/2014Given that the World Cup will be kicking off almost before we know it, the cannier wine retailers have placed their orders for South American vino early so that those of us without a head for caipirinha can enjoy a bit of South American sunshine in the glass. It was a game of two halves with Sainsbury’s getting the ball rolling with its all-encompassing southern hemisphere tasting while Marks & Spencer focused more specifically on the wines of South America.
The New Spain
POSTED ON 01/04/2014Until now, I had taken it for granted that the world’s biggest wine producer was France. Or Italy. One or the other anyway. The two European wine giants have been neck and neck for so long in the numbers game that it never occurred to me for one moment that there might be a third giant on the horizon. Well, there is, its name is Spain, and it’s no longer on the horizon. The Spanish Ministry for Agriculture has announced that last year Spain produced 51 million hectoliters of wine. That’s 7.7 billion bottles to you and me.
