NEWSWORTHY
1945 Romanee-Conti French wine auctioned for record-smashing $558,000
A bottle of 1945 Romanee-Conti wine fetched a record-smashing $558,000 at an auction held at Sotheby's in New York Saturday, which saw two bottles break the previous record. The final price, including taxes and commissions, was 17 times the auction house's $32,000 upper estimate for ...
Mercian, Japan's oldest winemaker, readies for onslaught of European grapes following trade deal
With the removal of tariffs on European wines as soon as next year, Mercian Corp. is betting on Japanese grapes to weather the onslaught. Mercian, the country's biggest and oldest vintner, is nearly doubling its vineyards on expectations that its niche grapes — grown in ...
Even an occasional glass of wine or beer increases the risk of health problems and dying, according to a major study on drinking in 195 nations that attributes 2.8 million premature deaths worldwide each year to booze. "There is no safe level of alcohol," said ...
Australia's only Japanese winemaker serves no wine before its time
"Wine is just a drink. If it's not delicious, it's not worth talking about," explains Japanese winemaker Atsuko Radcliffe matter-of-factly. Speaking from her cellar door in the Upper Hunter Valley, roughly 250 kilometers northwest of Sydney, Radcliffe talks about wine in a casual and approachable ...
French wine lovers protest as lauded young Japanese vintners threatened with deportation
French wine lovers have risen up in revolt after a Japanese couple who make "outstanding" wine in southern France were threatened with deportation. More than 42,000 have already signed a petition protesting the "crazy, moronic and shameful decision," with wine and restaurant critics now joining ...
Last of the Henri Jayer Burgundy wine trove fetches €30 mlllion
The last batch of late legendary winemaker Henri Jayer's Burgundies — which include some of the world's most expensive wines — was sold for a mouth-watering €30 million ($35 million) in Geneva on Sunday, well in excess of the estimated price. In all, 1,064 bottles ...
A bottle of Jura wine dating back to 1774 sold Saturday for a record €103,700 ($120,800) at auction in eastern France, while two others of the same vintage also touched new highs. "I didn't think that these bottles would sell for so much. The last ...
Former Japanese chip plant gets new life as cutting-edge winery
A former semiconductor plant in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan's main wine-producing region, has made a fresh start as a winery, with the company's owner driven to explore a new industry by fierce competition from Asian tech rivals. The MGVs winery, which opened last April, uses liquefied ...
Japan's wineries adapting to tighter grape geographic-origin rules
Some wineries are moving to change their product names containing geographical terms ahead of a tightening of place-of-origin rules aimed at preventing consumer misunderstanding. Among them is Takeda Winery in Kaminoyama, Yamagata Prefecture. Its mainstay products include the Zao Star series. The brand name derives ...
Australia takes Canada to WTO over 'arbitrary' wine import restrictions
Australia said Wednesday it was taking legal action against Canada at the World Trade Organization over "arbitrary and disadvantageous" restrictions against imported wine, expanding on a similar U.S. complaint. Canberra said the measures by several provinces hurt trade with Australia's fourth-largest export market for wine, ...
A bubble it is not. The organic movement is only slowly taking root in France's Champagne region, although its proponents believe that environmentally friendly techniques can help the sparkling wine express even finer subtleties. Organic farming has experienced a boom in recent years, including in ...
Wine of the times: Beaujolais Nouveau released in Japan amid declining demand
The Beaujolais Nouveau 2017 vintage went on sale in Japan on Thursday, but with people's tastes maturing, the traditional celebration of the French wine's seasonal release is on the decline. As imports of the wine from the Beaujolais region are expected to fall for the ...
