winefeed

by Primal Wine
ArchiveMONDAY 17 AUGUST 202617 AUG
01Decanter·

Texas High Plains grape growers face market pressure as local demand softens

  • Texas wineries saw sales surge during the pandemic, then inventories backed up as consumer demand softened from 2023 onward, leaving growers with unsold fruit.
  • Akhil Reddy of Reddy Vineyards (162 hectares, 38 varieties near Brownfield) and Katy Jane Seaton of Farmhouse Vineyards report wineries now avoid multi-year contracts, wait for harvest spot-market deals, and buy only contracted fruit.
  • Growers respond by cutting care on uncontracted blocks to bare maintenance; fully contracted acreage receives premium farming, creating two-tier economics on the same property.
  • Connor Wilmeth, vineyard manager at Lahey Vineyards (405 hectares), is now selling Texas grapes to East Coast buyers to offset local softness and leverage shorter freight routes versus California.
  • Veteran growers including Jet Wilmeth and Andy Timmons are reducing acreage or retiring; Neal Newsom (benchmark grower for decades) seeks a working partner to sustain his vineyard through succession.
Reported byDecanter
02Decanter·

English estates launch prestige cuvées priced from £100 to £395

  • Nyetimber released England's first prestige cuvée in 2018, a white and rosé priced at £150 and £175, establishing the super-premium category for English sparkling wine.
  • All prestige cuvées employ extended ageing on lees (seven to eight years minimum) and selective vineyard parcels, mirroring Champagne house standards and justifying £100-plus price points.
  • Producers cite solera blending, Slavonian oak ageing, and vintage-specific terroir expression as differentiators, positioning these wines as luxury investments rather than commodity sparkling wine.
  • The category emerged between 2017 and 2022 as English sparkling wine gained international recognition, with estates releasing library and prestige bottlings in small quantities.
Reported byDecanter
03VinePair·

Centre-Loire appellations gain traction as Sancerre prices soar above $40

  • Sancerre Sauvignon Blanc now sells for $40 to $50 per bottle, while neighboring Centre-Loire appellations Pouilly-Fumé, Menetou-Salon, Quincy, Reuilly, and Coteaux du Giennois offer similar quality for $20 to $30.
  • Clément Berthier, Sancerre appellation president, confirms the region is at production capacity with no plans to expand vineyards or volume.
  • Almost three-quarters of Sancerre production is exported, half to the US, while neighboring appellations have smaller export volumes but growing availability.
  • Winemakers across Centre-Loire report earlier harvests due to climate change, with 2024 potentially starting as early as August 20, forcing experimentation with abandoned acid-retaining varieties to preserve freshness.
  • Matthieu Delaporte, winemaker at Domaine Delaporte in Sancerre, notes Pinot Noir from the region offers strong quality-to-price ratio as an alternative to Burgundy.
Reported byVinePair
04VinePair·

World Cup 2026 failed to lift US beer sales despite industry hopes

  • Anheuser-Busch InBev spent $110 million on Michelob Ultra World Cup marketing but projects only 0.25% full-year volume lift from the effort.
  • US beer category sales fell 2.1% in dollars and 3.4% in volume for the week ending July 19, the tournament's final day, versus year-ago figures.
  • ABI's US depletions and shipments fell 1.9% and 0.6% respectively during Q2 2026, when half the tournament occurred.
  • On-premise draft sales rose 7.1% in dollars and 6.46% in volume during the tournament across BeerBoard's bar network, but off-premise retail showed declines.
  • Spirits outperformed beer significantly; Cutwater products surged 60% in dollars and volume in the final tournament week while overall beer declined.
Reported byVinePair
05VinePair·

Rogue Ales' Dead Guy IPA IP draws $400k bid in bankruptcy auction

  • U.K. digital marketing agency Silver Scope Media Ltd bid $400,000 for Rogue Ales' intellectual property nine months after Oregon Brewing filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
  • Rogue's IP includes recipes, yeast strains, trademarks, social media accounts, and the Dead Guy IPA brand; Oregon Brewing valued the portfolio at $2 million.
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court for District of Oregon is accepting competing bids through Aug. 21, with minimum increment of $40,000 above Silver Scope's offer.
  • Valley View Winery, Oregon-based, filed an objection claiming perpetual license rights to Rogue beer products under 1997 settlement agreement with Oregon Brewing.
  • Rogue shuttered all operations citing $17 million in debts against $5 million in assets; bankruptcy court hearing on sale and objections scheduled for Aug. 26.
Reported byVinePair
06SevenFifty Daily·

Soju surges in US market while shōchū lags, driven by Korean cuisine and younger drinkers

  • Soju grew 133 percent between 2019 and 2025 in the U.S., while shōchū grew only 11 percent over the same period, according to Koryn Ternes, an IWSR consulting director for the Americas.
  • Green bottle soju, a sweeter low-alcohol style created after a 1965 rice ban in Korea, now dominates U.S. imports; Jinro has held the world's best-selling spirit title for 25 consecutive years.
  • Spec's wine retailer in Texas purchased less than $1 million in Asian spirits in 2018; purchasing now reaches multi-millions, driven by rising demand from younger consumers and interest in Korean culture, per James Barlow, fine wine and Asia portfolio manager.
  • Craft soju brands like Tokki Soju, launched in Brooklyn in 2016, are slowly gaining traction as consumers mature beyond mass-market green bottle products, though bartenders remain the primary growth engine for higher-proof shōchū.
  • Both spirits benefit from boom in Asian cuisine on-premise, where diners unfamiliar with soju or shōchū trial them at restaurants before seeking them in retail, per Lok Yan Li, Japanese and Asian beverage portfolio manager at Skurnik Wine & Spirits.
Reported bySevenFifty Daily
01Decanter·

Two young sommeliers champion natural wine and affordable Gamay to Gen Z drinkers

  • Daria Volokitina, sommelier at Hotel Plaza Athénée in Paris, paired Austrian Furmint with casual barbecue to challenge her brother's beer-only habit, framing wine around sensation rather than formal tradition.
  • Alex Padilla, retail staff at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa, California, promotes a $36 Sonoma Gamay to customers seeking approachable, character-driven wine outside fine-dining contexts.
  • Both workers, formerly outside wine, now use their youth as an asset to convince peers that wine is no longer confined to formal occasions or people who 'understand' it.
  • Natural wine styles and transparent winemaking appeal to this cohort, yet awareness remains low; Volokitina found friends unfamiliar with natural wine despite its growing popularity among younger drinkers.
  • Young industry workers see their role as bridges between wine's traditional gatekeeping and a generation seeking wines they can afford, understand, and enjoy casually.
Reported byDecanter
02VinePair·

Eight Grenache alternatives to pricey Château Rayas in Southern Rhône

  • Château Rayas in Châteauneuf-du-Pape stands apart by bottling 100 percent Grenache alone, commanding four-figure prices, while the region's peers favour blends.
  • Delas Frères produces a Grenache-forward Châteauneuf-du-Pape aged 12 months in large oak then concrete tanks, yielding 10,000 to 12,000 bottles annually at roughly $63.
  • Domaine Balme, founded by its owner at age 23, uses concrete aging on 70-year-old Grenache vines under biodynamic practice, bottled at around $24.
  • Sébastien Clément's 'L'Amista' matches Rayas as 100 percent Grenache from 1954-planted vines but retails at $30 versus four figures.
  • Vieux Télégraphe's La Crau cuvée from 1898 vines retails at $136, and Pegau's Cuvée Réservée at $70, offer structured Grenache within reach of Rayas seekers.
Reported byVinePair
03VinePair·

Eight sommeliers name Sancerre bottles worth premium prices

  • Eight US restaurant sommeliers and wine professionals were asked which Sancerre bottles justify prices above $45, citing rising costs in the Loire Valley region.
  • Vincent Gaudry's biodynamic 'Le Tournebride' and 'Mélodie de Vieilles Vignes' were named by multiple professionals for textural precision and minerality at around $50.
  • Domaine Vacheron's Guigne-Chèvres and Gérard Boulay's offerings from Chavignol sub-zone were praised for expressing terroir through limestone soils and stone-driven mouthfeel.
  • Professionals advised avoiding the $30 to $45 range, where bottles have risen in price without matching quality gains since 2020.
  • Sancerre's 80 percent Sauvignon Blanc plantings and distinctive soils of marl, silex, and limestone are restoring professional respect for the grape after decades of commercialization flattened its reputation.
Reported byVinePair
04Decanter·

Decanter World Wine Awards 2026 sees record quality entries and medal inflation

  • Decanter World Wine Awards 2026 received 16,631 entries judged by 245 tasters including 106 women, a record female participation.
  • Cool-climate regions gained ground: England's Oxfordshire, Shropshire and Rutland won medals for the first time; Germany's Pfalz Weisser Burgunder took top honours over Riesling.
  • Spain's top-medal count jumped 52.4% on 2025, with new Platinum awards for Jumilla, Castilla-La Mancha and Priorat alongside traditional regions.
  • New Zealand claimed two Best in Show awards and eight Platinum medals including two from Canterbury; Rías Baixas in Spain and Bierzo took debut Best in Show places.
  • Medals expanded across all tiers: 196 Platinum (1.2% of entries), 924 Gold (5.6%) and 6,193 Silver (37.2%), with Value category enlarged to Top 35 wines.
Reported byDecanter
05SevenFifty Daily·

Ancient vine-training systems vanish as labor costs and mechanization reshape European winegrowing

  • Italy's alberata system, once widespread around Naples and depicted in 1793 landscapes, survives on only a handful of hectares today, replaced by mechanizable methods like Guyot and vertical shoot positioning.
  • Lanzarote's hoyo vine-pits, developed after volcanic eruptions buried fertile soil (1730-1736), draw thousands of tourists annually and anchor the island's tourism economy, yet vineyard area fell 19 percent between 2000 and 2026 due to extreme labor demands.
  • Alberto González Plasencia, owner of Bodegas Timanfaya on Lanzarote, warns that hoyo loss would drive away tourists and devalue local wines, prompting regional subsidies to slow decline despite ongoing vineyard abandonment.
Reported bySevenFifty Daily
06VinePair·

Brooklyn housing complex installs pathways from 450,000 recycled wine corks

  • Public Housing Community Fund and Cork Collective, a 2024 partnership between Rockwell Group and cork maker Amorim, built walkways and playgrounds from upcycled wine corks at Marlboro Houses in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
  • Cork Collective sourced over 450,000 bottle corks from NYC and other US restaurants, ground them, mixed with adhesive, and installed the $500,000 surfaces across the NYCHA complex.
  • Children living at Marlboro Houses submitted playground designs; Center for Justice Innovation, The Urban Conga, and the Resident Association incorporated their mockups into the final layout.
  • Cork absorbs stormwater, reduces flooding, lowers ambient temperature by 20-30 percent, and replaces toxic plastic or rubber, materials accounting for less than one percent recycling rate globally despite 13 billion corks manufactured yearly.
  • Three billion corks are discarded annually in the US alone, making wine-bottle waste a significant feedstock for building materials and infrastructure.
Reported byVinePair
01SevenFifty Daily·

Light exposure drives pyrazine levels in wine grapes, research shows

  • Methoxypyrazines, or pyrazines, are nitrogen-based aroma compounds that create green, herbal, and peppery notes in wine, particularly in Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc, and related varieties.
  • Light exposure is the primary factor controlling pyrazine concentration in grapes; shoot and leaf removal increases light on clusters and reduces pyrazine levels, as Dominique Roujou de Boubee's 1995 University of Bordeaux research demonstrated.
  • Vine rootstock choice affects pyrazines indirectly through the vigor and canopy density it produces; eight different Cabernet Sauvignon rootstocks showed significant variation in grape and stem pyrazine content.
  • Soil type influences pyrazines via water retention and vigour: well-drained gravel soils produce lower pyrazine grapes than clay-silt or limestone soils in Bordeaux conditions.
  • Temperature's role remains unclear despite winemakers observing fewer pyrazines in warmer sites; light and heat are difficult to separate in vineyard studies.
Reported bySevenFifty Daily
02SevenFifty Daily·

Disease-resistant hybrid grapes cut fungicide spraying by 80 percent across Europe

  • PIWIs, hybrid grapes bred for mildew resistance, require two to three fungicide sprays yearly versus eight to 15 for traditional vinifera varieties, cutting chemical use by up to 80 percent.
  • Modern genetic testing technology rhAmpSeq, deployed since 2019, identifies disease-resistance genes with precision and allows breeders to stack multiple resistance layers into single varieties.
  • Germany leads PIWI adoption with 4,000 hectares planted in 2025, representing four percent of German vineyards; France is developing ResDur hybrids retaining regional signatures like Bordeaux character.
  • A 2026 Luxembourg study found PIWIs delivered twofold economic savings and threefold environmental benefits versus traditional varieties, with largest gains in soil ecology and water quality.
  • Industry tastings with mature PIWI wines from established vineyards prove critical to acceptance; growers report PIWIs require no vineyard practice changes beyond reduced spraying.
Reported bySevenFifty Daily
03SevenFifty Daily·

Vineyards test netting to cool grape clusters during heat events

  • Vineyard netting, traditionally used for hail and bird protection, is being deployed to lower cluster temperature and preserve color, acidity, and phenolics during heat spikes.
  • UC Davis research on Cabernet Sauvignon found shaded clusters had 27 percent more anthocyanins than unshaded fruit during heat stress, as anthocyanins degrade above 35 degrees Celsius.
  • Catena Zapata in Mendoza uses hail netting on 90 percent of vineyards to filter direct sunlight into brief pulses rather than prolonged exposure, preventing vine stress in high-altitude desert conditions.
  • Petra estate in Tuscany found netting reduced Merlot cluster temperature from 50 degrees to 40-41 degrees Celsius and cut sunburn incidence from 41 percent to 3 percent under 90 percent shade.
  • Net color matters: white and green nets perform better than black; placement must avoid contact with clusters to prevent heat transfer, and tradeoffs include altered airflow, disease pressure, and phenolic development.
Reported bySevenFifty Daily
02wineanorak·Jamie Goode·

Restaurants: Dear Sainte Éloise, Sydney, with three nice wines

  • Dear Sainte Éloise in Potts Point, Sydney, is a wine-focused casual restaurant with a list emphasizing low-intervention wines and strong Australian and European representation.
  • Fleet Lichen Pinot Noir 2025 from Gippsland, planted 1990 on own roots with clones 115, D5V12, and 777, scored 93/100 for bright, tart cherry fruit with brisk acidity.
  • Domaine Simha Sanskrit Gamay 2025 from Derwent Valley, Tasmania, whole bunch wild fermented and aged 6 months in seasoned demi muid, scored 94/100 for sappy brightness and chalky structure.
  • Sabi Wabi Nomu Syrah 2025 from Pokolbin, Hunter Valley, blends direct-pressed and whole-berry fermented parcels, designed chilled with soft tannins and sweet cherry-strawberry fruit, scored 92/100.
Read the full story
03The Morning Claret·Simon J. Woolf·

Who's Afraid of Volatile Wines?

  • EU law limits volatile acidity in wine to 1.2 g/L for reds, 1.08 g/L for whites; Sébastien David's Loire Cabernet Franc and Pittis' orange wine Mash Pitt exceeded these limits and faced destruction orders.
  • The US permits 1.4 g/L for red wines, rising to 1.7 g/L for super-ripe grapes; the EU's updated 2025 exceptions list allows up to 2.4 g/L for hundreds of appellations including Amarone, Madeira, and Tokaji.
  • Volatile acidity becomes unsafe for consumption only at 10% concentration; the EU's 1.2 g/L limit sits between safe wine levels and vinegar's 40 g/L minimum, with no documented health risk justifying the regulation.
  • Orange wines, which are skin-fermented like reds, must comply with the lower white wine VA limit of 1.08 g/L despite having tannin profiles similar to red wines.
Read the full story
04Tim Atkin·Tim Atkin MW·

Michelin And The Death Of The Wine Guide

  • Michelin's Wine Selection Burgundy 2026 awarded nine producers three grapes, 20 two grapes, 33 one grape, and 32 'selected' status.
  • Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux publicly demanded removal from Michelin's guide after receiving only one grape despite being a celebrated Vosne-Romanée house.
  • Michelin rates producers based on vineyard management and consistency rather than individual wines, unlike competitor Guide Hachette des Vins which rates cuvées one to five.
  • Michelin owns the Wine Advocate entirely since 2019 (acquired 40% in 2017), raising questions about its influence on the new wine guide's selections.
  • Consumer wine guides emerged in the 1970s-80s with publications like Decanter, Wine Spectator, and Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book, but internet availability since mid-1990s made print guides obsolete.
Read the full story
05Maker's Table·Meg Maker·

Notable Releases from Troon Vineyard

  • Troon Vineyard released 2025 Vermentino and 2023 Syrah from Oregon's Applegate Valley.
  • Troon Vineyard, in Grant's Pass, farms using certified biodynamic and regenerative organic principles.
  • Troon ferments with ambient cultures, uses minimal sulfite, and ages in neutral barrels, concrete, qvevri, or stainless steel.
  • Applegate Valley's alluvial soils, high-latitude long days, and cold overnight temperatures from Siskiyou Mountains favor Mediterranean grape ripening.
Read the full story
06Grape Wall of China·Jim Boyce·

Q&8 | Wang Yuanzhu Talks Grapes, Grain & Ancient Wine

  • Coram Collective, founded in 2023 with 2024 production, co-ferments rice wine with grape varieties like Chardonnay and Merlot, and innovates huangjiu, China's ancient yellow wine.
  • Co-founder Alex Yuanzhu Wang's huangjiu with aged Chinese tangerine peel emerged from a December 2024 inspiration after a long brewing day, combining citrus notes with fermented rice softness.
  • Coram's products are already listed in over 100 restaurants and bistros across Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu within one year of launch.
  • Wang clarifies that quality huangjiu peaks between three and eight years of aging, not indefinitely, and differs fundamentally from cooking wine in complexity and intended use.
  • The 80% Chardonnay, 20% glutinous rice co-ferment (Chardomi) involves steaming and saccharifying rice separately before co-fermenting with freshly pressed grape juice, addressing different fermentation requirements.
Read the full story
07Be Wine Curious·Miquel Hudin·

A wine of straw

  • Dessert wine consumption has declined for approximately 75 years and shows no signs of recovery.
  • Goût Russe Champagne in the 19th century contained 300g/l of sugar for the Russian market.
  • Raül Bobet, co-owner of Ferrer-Bobet in Priorat, Catalunya, released a dessert wine with a 20-year aging process.
Read the full story
08Drinks Insider·Felicity Carter·

What I Learned at a Conference on Drinking

  • Drinking studies is an interdisciplinary field treating alcohol as cultural and social practice, not merely a drink or health hazard.
  • Historical research on drinking is extremely difficult because drinking was so ubiquitous that ordinary people's habits were rarely documented.
  • Ireland's 2018 Public Health (Alcohol) Act introduced minimum unit pricing, supermarket barriers, advertising restrictions, and cancer warning labels on alcohol.
  • Cancer warning labels mandated for May 2026 were delayed to September 2028, blamed on international trade pressure from EU and WTO members.
  • Industrial Revolution shifted the meaning of moderation from avoiding disgraceful drunkenness to maintaining sobriety for economic productivity and worker reliability.
Read the full story