Welcome at Flying Wine Writer | Jan Rook

The top drop: Opus One

At the luxury Okura Hotel in Amsterdam is presented a unique vertical tasting Opus One. The greats years are 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010. It was organized by Le Vin en direct at the 23th floor where we enjoyed the clear and shiny weather in the Netherlands. There were around 40 wine professionals attending the event. Read more...

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Wine exports exceeded $1.3 billion annually for the first time in March, according to figures released by Statistics New Zealand - a 9.2 per cent increase from 12 months ago.
Wine is New Zealand's eighth biggest export good, according to the Overseas Merchandise Trade March 2014. Source: The New Zealand Herald

Monday, April 28, 2014

Sylvie Sorneau sued her chateau employer over illnesses allegedly caused by pesticides. After seven-years the case concluded recognizing the responsibility of her employer. Sylvie was hospitalised in Sainte-Foy-La-Grande in June 2007. She said at the court that she was no longer able to work. Dutch millionaire Philip de Haseth-Möller sold Monestier La Tour in January 2012 to Swiss Karl-Friederich Scheufele. Here video made in 2008 during our visit. Source: Le Monde…

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Julian LeCraw sued The Antique Wine Company, The Antique Wine Co. Holdings, AWC Global, and Stephen Williams, in Federal Court.

LeCraw, an Atlanta collector, has bought numerous bottles from Williams since the early 2000s, including a $100,000 bottle touted as "the world's most expensive bottle of white wine."

In 2006 and 2007, LeCraw bought 13 more bottles of allegedly vintage wines, and what he believed to be a 6-liter 1908 Chateau Margaux, according to the complaint.
LeCraw claims he discovered in 2013 that all of those wines, as well as the 1787 d'Yquem, were fake. Read more...

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Viognier is an example in the world achieving success as stand-alone wine. It creates diversification on the internal market and provide an open door for potential international consumers. At Vinisud 2014 was presented a spectacular tasting about Condrieu. The report gives an international impression about how is now viognier best wine-style. Read more...

Friday, March 21, 2014

There are two strategic options available to Spain to improve its competitive positioning - Spain must either increase production of international varietals or build foreign market consumer demand for its traditional varietals.

From a strategic standpoint, a focus on increasing production of international varietals quickly opens up new export opportunities for Spain, but will generally force Spanish producers to compete on price with New World producers (e.g. Chile, Australia and South Africa) in the more commoditised segment of the market where prices can be more volatile. Rabobank report click here...

Monday, March 03, 2014

One very simple and economic strategy to help winemakers reduce alcohol levels in their wines is to inoculate grape must first with M. pulcherrima AWRI1149 and then, to finish the fermentation, add a wine strain of S. cerevisiae. Whilst this strategy carries some risk of compromising wine quality in some grape musts, as the Chardonnay used in this study, it might improve sensory attributes in Shiraz and reduce the alcohol level by up to 1.6% (v/v). A decrease in ethanol concentration of this magnitude will be a significant advantage to winemakers sourcing grapes from warm, sunny regions; reducing ethanol content from, for example, 15% (v/v) ethanol to 13.4% (v/v) is a significant development in the generation of reduced alcohol wines. Read more...

Monday, February 24, 2014

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, Vinisud confirmed 1642 exhibitors to attend the 2014 exhibition. Mediterranean vines become the focal point of the wine industry. In 2013 they represented 50.93% of global wine production. Mediterranean producer countries have recorded a rise of over 4% in their revenue from wine exports, in spite of a 9.2% fall in volume. Currently, they account for 65% of exports, worth a total of 26.billion euros. The first day was crowd. There was every second full of taste. Excellent Master Classes about Spanish wines with Gérard Basset and Jose Peñin, then Paolo Basso presenting a tasting with Mediterranean wines. Condrieu presented three beautiful viogniers which shows the elegance of the varietal. Sicilian wines presented a wine and food combination with autochthones grapes. It was an amazing day. Later more...

Monday, February 17, 2014

Rabobank wine quarterly Q4 report announces good news for the wine market in the UK. Wine consumtion habits continues to shift into the home. France wine production falls due to poor weather conditions. New Zealand returned to growth, due to strong demand from Northern Europe and the U.S. In the US, bottled wine imports experienced solid growth in both volume (7%) and value (9%). Read more...

Record-setting dryness for many locations in California reported by United States Drought Monitor last days. Moreover, it is drought emergency declared for Mendocino County. Bill Koehler of Redwood Valley Water said “if we do run dry, the economic impact on our community is going to be huge, not just for the individual domestic (users), but agro and the wine grape industry in general, and so there may be some access to those folks who are seeking compensation."