The London International Wine Fair opens in London this week and some of the more unusual brands on display are from India.
Industry experts are predicting that India will emerge as one of the largest wine producers in the world in the next fifty years.
Some of the Indian brands to be showcased at the fair include Marquise De Pompadour, Tiger Hill, Indage Reserve, Chantilli, Riviera, Ivy and Omar Khayyam.
Most of their technology and advice is from Europe, Indian winemakers are now promoting themselves in a big way to catch the attention of the rest of the world. Though India offers an ideal climate for winemaking and Indian wines have also won many prizes abroad, the biggest challenge for their industry is to make wine lovers around the world comfortable with the Made in India tag.
Showing posts with label Kent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kent. Show all posts
Monday, 19 May 2008
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
China will be leading wine producer by 2058
China will come to the fore in the next half-century and emerge as the leading wine producing country. This is according to a new document out from Berry Bros & Rudd entitled 'The Future of Wine Report'.
Two significant areas are set for change in the next fifty years, it says. Firstly, the rise of wine brands will lead to massive changes in the marketing and packaging of wine products and secondly New World wine countries will see radical changes as climate change sets in.
China especially (curr
ently the world's sixth largest wine producer and number four in terms of area under vine) will come to prominence as the leading producer by 2058.
The report says Cabernets and Chardonnays, in particular, will be in demand.
Alun Griffiths MW said: "China has the vineyards, but not the technical expertise, however, if good people from wine producing countries think there is opportunity to make wine in China, they will go there and invest."
China will come to the fore in the next half-century and emerge as the leading wine producing country. This is according to a new document out from Berry Bros & Rudd entitled 'The Future of Wine Report'.
Two significant areas are set for change in the next fifty years, it says. Firstly, the rise of wine brands will lead to massive changes in the marketing and packaging of wine products and secondly New World wine countries will see radical changes as climate change sets in.
China especially (curr
ently the world's sixth largest wine producer and number four in terms of area under vine) will come to prominence as the leading producer by 2058.The report says Cabernets and Chardonnays, in particular, will be in demand.
Alun Griffiths MW said: "China has the vineyards, but not the technical expertise, however, if good people from wine producing countries think there is opportunity to make wine in China, they will go there and invest."
Friday, 9 May 2008
Women hospitalised after cafe mistakes washing up liquid for wine
Two women have been taken to hospital after a New Zealand cafe mistakenly served dishwashing liquid as mulled wine.
Chico's Restaurant in the mountain resort of Queenstown on South Island pleaded guilty to a charge of selling food containing extraneous matter — the chemical sodium hydroxide — that caused injury
Customer Sarah Ferguson had ordered a glass of "Mountain Thunder" mulled wine from the cafe and spat out the liquid when she experienced a burning sensation on her lips and mouth.
Cafe worker Bethany Sim then offered to test the drink and suffered a similar reaction.
I can think of some so-called popular wines over here that may struggle to pass the dishwasher test!!
Chico's Restaurant in the mountain resort of Queenstown on South Island pleaded guilty to a charge of selling food containing extraneous matter — the chemical sodium hydroxide — that caused injury
Customer Sarah Ferguson had ordered a glass of "Mountain Thunder" mulled wine from the cafe and spat out the liquid when she experienced a burning sensation on her lips and mouth.
Cafe worker Bethany Sim then offered to test the drink and suffered a similar reaction.
I can think of some so-called popular wines over here that may struggle to pass the dishwasher test!!
Monday, 14 April 2008
Same wine - different lable
Have you ever wondered if you are continually drinking the same wine but with a different label?
Well your concerns may not be unfounded.
A recent industry report flagged up a frightening statistic - there are currently an estimated 3000 second la
bels floating around the worlds wine racks.
So what is a second label? Lets be clear, it is not a second wine. Merely a bottle with a differently designed label to disguise the fact that there are thousands of wines on sale in the high street that are exactly the same in every detail. Except for the name and the price - yep, the price.
Second labels are a valuable, cost effective tool for the the majors to make more money without over stocking. It enables them to widen their range of wines and spread it out around different stores, without actually having to buy new wines from different growers. There are many growers that will quite happily label many of their wines to suite your requirements. Therefore if you have a chain of shops you can label the same wines to suite the expectations of your clientele. For example if you have two shops, one in a fairly affluent area and one in an area where the customers are a bit more price sensitive. You can label the same wine differently to appeal to both sets of customers.
It also enables you to charge a £1 or so extra depending on what you think it will bear.
It is a useful tool for the majors who stock their wine departments according to the demographic of each particular stores customer base. It also enables the producers or their agents to sell the same wine to different companies without conflicting overlaps.
Is it illegal? No it certainly is not. There are strict EU laws governing the labeling of wine.
According to the Food standards Agency these are the legal requirements.
'Specific mandatory items must be shown, in one field of vision. These include nominal volume (eg 75cl), alcoholic strength (eg 11.5% vol), bottler's details, country of origin, type of wine. In addition a statement about the sulphur dioxide content will be required on any label when this exceeds 10mg/litre.'
That is all you legally need to have on the wine label and it doesn't even need to be on the front label. It is perfectly OK to print all this info on a back label.
Well your concerns may not be unfounded.
A recent industry report flagged up a frightening statistic - there are currently an estimated 3000 second la
bels floating around the worlds wine racks.So what is a second label? Lets be clear, it is not a second wine. Merely a bottle with a differently designed label to disguise the fact that there are thousands of wines on sale in the high street that are exactly the same in every detail. Except for the name and the price - yep, the price.
Second labels are a valuable, cost effective tool for the the majors to make more money without over stocking. It enables them to widen their range of wines and spread it out around different stores, without actually having to buy new wines from different growers. There are many growers that will quite happily label many of their wines to suite your requirements. Therefore if you have a chain of shops you can label the same wines to suite the expectations of your clientele. For example if you have two shops, one in a fairly affluent area and one in an area where the customers are a bit more price sensitive. You can label the same wine differently to appeal to both sets of customers.
It also enables you to charge a £1 or so extra depending on what you think it will bear.
It is a useful tool for the majors who stock their wine departments according to the demographic of each particular stores customer base. It also enables the producers or their agents to sell the same wine to different companies without conflicting overlaps.
Is it illegal? No it certainly is not. There are strict EU laws governing the labeling of wine.
According to the Food standards Agency these are the legal requirements.
'Specific mandatory items must be shown, in one field of vision. These include nominal volume (eg 75cl), alcoholic strength (eg 11.5% vol), bottler's details, country of origin, type of wine. In addition a statement about the sulphur dioxide content will be required on any label when this exceeds 10mg/litre.'
That is all you legally need to have on the wine label and it doesn't even need to be on the front label. It is perfectly OK to print all this info on a back label.
You may now feel as though you've been had but is this any different than buying cheaper own brand products rather paying more for the leading brand that is made by the same manufacturer? You may well be paying more for the same product because of the way it is dressed up?
A case of 'The King's new clothes' maybe?
Friday, 28 March 2008
Red wine kills cancer cells?
A natural anti-oxidant in grape skins and red wine can help kill cancer cells in the pancreas by crippling the cells’ core energy source, says a new study.
Findings of the study have been published in the latest edition of the journal, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Other natural anti-oxidants include caffeine, melatonin, flavonoids, polyphenols, and vitamins C and E.
Although red wine consumption during chemotherapy or radiation treatment has not been well-studied, most physicians would not tell the patient to give it up during treatment. Perhaps a better choice, Okunieff said, would be to drink as much red or purple grape juice as desired.
Cheers!
Findings of the study have been published in the latest edition of the journal, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology. Other natural anti-oxidants include caffeine, melatonin, flavonoids, polyphenols, and vitamins C and E.
Although red wine consumption during chemotherapy or radiation treatment has not been well-studied, most physicians would not tell the patient to give it up during treatment. Perhaps a better choice, Okunieff said, would be to drink as much red or purple grape juice as desired.
Cheers!
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Clarke names Maison in top list
For the third year running Maison du Vin has been named in top wine expert Oz Clarke's list of top UK Wine Merchants!Oz also lists our Rolle – Chateau Coujan as one of his best 250 wines in the UK.
The wine is now available on line from our shop at only £6.99 per bottle.
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Wine Safari to the Rhone Valley
This article first appeared in What's On Magazine in November 2006 and is a short account of our Wine Safari to the Rhone Valley in Oct 2006.
We have just returned from another wonderful Wine Safari to the Rhone Valley. Organised by
Maison du Vin of Hawkhurst.
Yet again we were very warmly welcomed by all the wine growing families we visited. One of the many high lights was being taken to see a Mobile distillery in action. It was set up in a village car park in Hermitage. It is used to make Eau de vie from the left over grape skins.
The amazing thing is that local people bring their joints of meat to be poached in the hot vats of steaming alcohol and yes we were watching our own lunch being cooked!
A big thank you must go to Jean Pierre Mucyn and his lovely wife Helene of Domaine Mucyn at Tain-Hermitage for their hospitality; to take such a huge chunk out of their very long and busy day would not have been easy at such a critical time of year, yet they chose to share their lunch with 22
strangers! Memories of the few hours we spent with Jean-Pierre & Helen Mucyn and their entire family will stay with us forever.
Their generosity and the way they organised 22 people descending on their home was outstanding special mention must go to Fabrice at Chateau de Beaucastel in Chateau Neuf du Pape.
His enthusiasm commitment eloquence knowledge and delivery were fantastic. Yes, of course he had done it many times before but remember it was'nt just a sales pitch, they don't sell from the Chateau and he is not performing to groups of tourists on the hour every hour.
Again it was an absolute privilege to be there and one not available to the average touring punter! French wine is having a tough time right now so thank goodness for people li
ke Eric Chauvin of Domaine Souverain Sablet (another great lunch by the way)! Fabrice and Jean-Pierre Mucyn. They are at the very vanguard of what still makes French wine so unique and interesting. They deserve our support for they are at the very heart of that one word so uniquely French, one small word that means almost everything. Terroir.
The hopes, dreams, ambitions, disasters, triumphs, history traditions of one place and its people translated through a product captured in a glass of wine, an expression of place. Hand in glove with everything we stand for Real wine Real places Real people.
So ends another wonderful trip. Looking back it seems like the sort of thing that only happens to travel writers, journalists and TV personalities, but it happened to us our happy little band one glorious sunny day in early Autumn, lost somewhere beneath the vine covered slopes of the Northern Rhone - How wonderful!
Special thanks to Kevin and Beverley Griffin of Maison du Vin for organising such a superb weekend and we can't wait for next years Wine Safaris to Italy!
We have just returned from another wonderful Wine Safari to the Rhone Valley. Organised by
Maison du Vin of Hawkhurst.Yet again we were very warmly welcomed by all the wine growing families we visited. One of the many high lights was being taken to see a Mobile distillery in action. It was set up in a village car park in Hermitage. It is used to make Eau de vie from the left over grape skins.
The amazing thing is that local people bring their joints of meat to be poached in the hot vats of steaming alcohol and yes we were watching our own lunch being cooked!
A big thank you must go to Jean Pierre Mucyn and his lovely wife Helene of Domaine Mucyn at Tain-Hermitage for their hospitality; to take such a huge chunk out of their very long and busy day would not have been easy at such a critical time of year, yet they chose to share their lunch with 22
strangers! Memories of the few hours we spent with Jean-Pierre & Helen Mucyn and their entire family will stay with us forever.Their generosity and the way they organised 22 people descending on their home was outstanding special mention must go to Fabrice at Chateau de Beaucastel in Chateau Neuf du Pape.
His enthusiasm commitment eloquence knowledge and delivery were fantastic. Yes, of course he had done it many times before but remember it was'nt just a sales pitch, they don't sell from the Chateau and he is not performing to groups of tourists on the hour every hour.
Again it was an absolute privilege to be there and one not available to the average touring punter! French wine is having a tough time right now so thank goodness for people li
ke Eric Chauvin of Domaine Souverain Sablet (another great lunch by the way)! Fabrice and Jean-Pierre Mucyn. They are at the very vanguard of what still makes French wine so unique and interesting. They deserve our support for they are at the very heart of that one word so uniquely French, one small word that means almost everything. Terroir.The hopes, dreams, ambitions, disasters, triumphs, history traditions of one place and its people translated through a product captured in a glass of wine, an expression of place. Hand in glove with everything we stand for Real wine Real places Real people.
So ends another wonderful trip. Looking back it seems like the sort of thing that only happens to travel writers, journalists and TV personalities, but it happened to us our happy little band one glorious sunny day in early Autumn, lost somewhere beneath the vine covered slopes of the Northern Rhone - How wonderful!
Special thanks to Kevin and Beverley Griffin of Maison du Vin for organising such a superb weekend and we can't wait for next years Wine Safaris to Italy!
Monday, 11 February 2008
How much would you pay for your wine?
OK - so you can buy a bottle of wine for under £3.00 per bottle, but you can pay a whole lot more!
Take these beauties for instance:
Chateau Margaux 1787 £112.500
Chateau Lafite 1787 £80.000
Chateau d'yquem 1784 £28,294
Massandra Sherry 1775 £21,750
Domiane de Rommane Conti 1985 £14,055
Le Montrachet 1978 £11,964
Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945 £8,187
Screaming Eagle 1994 £1,916
Would that be one case or two sir!
Take these beauties for instance:
Chateau Margaux 1787 £112.500
Chateau Lafite 1787 £80.000
Chateau d'yquem 1784 £28,294
Massandra Sherry 1775 £21,750
Domiane de Rommane Conti 1985 £14,055
Le Montrachet 1978 £11,964
Chateau Mouton Rothschild 1945 £8,187
Screaming Eagle 1994 £1,916
Would that be one case or two sir!
Saturday, 2 February 2008
The One Hundred and Fifty Two Grape Variety Wine
Announcing the 'One hundred and fifty two grape variety wine!'
Master Italian Wine Maker Mario Giribaldi has, after ten years work, released his 'Cento Uve' - and the wine is made from 152 different grape varieties!
As you can imagine such a feat is very rarely attempted let alone perfected.
The wine is powerfully built yet has tremendous finesse with lashings of fruit and a wonderful seductive inky black colour. This will reward the patient few for at least the next ten years!
This 2004 vintage is now available in the UK exclusively from Maison du Vin at a price of £29.99 per bottle.
Master Italian Wine Maker Mario Giribaldi has, after ten years work, released his 'Cento Uve' - and the wine is made from 152 different grape varieties!
As you can imagine such a feat is very rarely attempted let alone perfected.
The wine is powerfully built yet has tremendous finesse with lashings of fruit and a wonderful seductive inky black colour. This will reward the patient few for at least the next ten years!
This 2004 vintage is now available in the UK exclusively from Maison du Vin at a price of £29.99 per bottle.
Thursday, 10 May 2007
Don't fall into the discount trap!
It seems that more and more people are sleep walking into the discount trap. The big brands spend obscene amounts of money to get us to believe that there really is a Jacobs Creek, a Blossom Hill, and that their purely generic blend that just happens to be made in South Africa is actually representative of the countries indigenous wines!
65% of wine sold in the UK is on discount. Some of the price-cutting is so deep that most of us must question whether quality can be maintained at such a level. Indeed to quote Oz Clarke in his 2007 wine buying guide. “ The big brands are doing too well out of bribing all of us to drink their wines with deep discounts and half price offers.” Yet despite that the quality has been ebbing away for years. Old world wines, France, Italy, and Spain struggle because they take a bit of effort to understand, most supermarkets admit that they are not in the education business.The truth is that many wines from these Countries offer endless fascination. A fascination that can be enjoyed alone in solitary bliss. Or with groups of friends.
But I guess that it is endemic of today's Society that wine joins the endless list of products that deliver shallow gratification instantly at a rock bottom price. It's up to the individual to decide what they are really buying? But surely it can't be as simple as “How do you want your alcohol and at what cost?
65% of wine sold in the UK is on discount. Some of the price-cutting is so deep that most of us must question whether quality can be maintained at such a level. Indeed to quote Oz Clarke in his 2007 wine buying guide. “ The big brands are doing too well out of bribing all of us to drink their wines with deep discounts and half price offers.” Yet despite that the quality has been ebbing away for years. Old world wines, France, Italy, and Spain struggle because they take a bit of effort to understand, most supermarkets admit that they are not in the education business.The truth is that many wines from these Countries offer endless fascination. A fascination that can be enjoyed alone in solitary bliss. Or with groups of friends.
But I guess that it is endemic of today's Society that wine joins the endless list of products that deliver shallow gratification instantly at a rock bottom price. It's up to the individual to decide what they are really buying? But surely it can't be as simple as “How do you want your alcohol and at what cost?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)