The Australian vintage is better than expected both in quantity and quality, according to the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia. The WFA’s 2008 survey reveals a total of 1.83 million tonnes – double some of the early predictions. Federation chief executive, Stephen Strachan, said: “The figure of 1.83 million tonnes represents a resounding success in a challenging year and is testament to the resilience and adaptive…

Constellation has moved to slim down its wine portfolio by selling off brands to Eight Estates Fine Wines for US$209 million. The cash-only deal represents around 1 million cases of wine, and Constellation will use the proceeds to reduce debts. The Sonoma-based Eight Estates will gain several brands, including wines acquired from Fortune as recently as December 2007. Constellation chief executive Rob Sands said: ”…

Scandal-hit Italian wine region Brunello di Montalcino has elected a new president as it looks to implement new quality controls. Montalcino native Patrizio Cencioni will head the new Brunello producers’ association. His task will be to help the Tuscan wine enclave to emerge from the shadow of fraud allegations, dubbed “Brunellogate “. In a speech to association members, Cencioni said: “One of my main objectives…

SABMiller is to buy the Russian brewer LLC Vladpivo, the largest brewer in the Russian far east Primor ye region, located near the city of Vladivostok. It has an annual capacity of 1 million h l and the value of the gross assets is said to be approximately US$69 million. SABMiller says the Russian far east represents around 7.6 per cent of the Russian beer…

Ahead of national governments, beer consumer groups from 13 countries have taken the initiative to sign up to a constitution to fight the threats posed by globalisation in the beer sector. The initiative comes as InBev, already the world’s largest brewer, gears up to mount a massive takeover of the US brewing giant, Anheuser-Busch, which would give the new company a 25 per cent…

Tourists may have been cursing the skies, but Spain’s cava producers are toasting a month of rain that has saved their harvest – as long as it stops soon. More than a third of the Catalan region’s annual rainfall has arrived in the last month, ending a prolonged dry spell that had many wineries concerned. Philip Rowles, international wine manager for major cava group Freixenet,…

The Tanqueray Guild is said to be a global collective of the world’s leading bartenders, established to celebrate the art of the cocktail, their craft and the authentic, original gin martini, according to brand owner Diageo. Aligned with the Tanqueray No Ten brand, the 10 bartenders, from 10 bars in 10 cities – Athens, Barcelona, London, Miami, Milan, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Shanghai and…

New Zealand Winegrowers has reported a 2008 vintage of 285,000 tonnes of grapes harvested, up 39 per cent on last year. The increase is mainly as a result of the rise in Sauvignon Blanc production. There were also increases in Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, while Chardonnay was down on 2007. New Zealand’s key winegrowing region, Marlborough, produced 195,000 tonnes, up 61 per cent…

, the governor of California and Hollywood movie star, steps up to exchange accords with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet . This will lead to the South American country’s wine research organisations conducting joint studies with University of California Davis’s world -reno wned department of viticulture and oenology. They will be looking at sustainability, energy efficiency, wine flavours and phenolics, as well as the economics of…

Italian retail and catering giant Autogrill has revealed details of its plans to integrate its recent purchases of three of the world’s biggest duty-free and travel-retail operators – Aldeasa, Alpha Retail and World Duty Free (WDF). The two UK businesses, Alpha Retail and WDF, are to be merged to create a single UK airport retailer with an-nual sales of £565m. It will be led by…