Category: Articles

Silicon Valley Bank Releases 23rd Annual State of the US Wine Industry Report

The 2024 report examines the latest consumption, pricing, sales data, and the most promising wine industry marketing strategies. It provides an in-depth analysis on the key trends impacting the US wine industry:

• While full-category wine sales by volume will be down for a third consecutive year;
• 2023 year-end premium wine sales will likely end with another year of positive value growth;
• Tasting room visitation was lower in the premium segment in 2023, but improvement is expected in 2024;
• Direct-to-consumer sales will grow again modestly in 2024; and
• Conditions for overproduction in the total wine category are present, but inventory supply is more balanced in the premium segment.

Full Report: https://shorturl.at/xHXY9

Source: Silicon Valley Bank

Nine Creative Ways to Use Leftover Champagne

New Year’s celebrations have ended and somehow you still have some left, how can that be?

Here are nine creative ways, I’ve learned along the way how to use leftover champagne.

1. Mix up some Champagne cocktails.
2. Freeze into ice cubes to use in cocktails and sauces.
3. Soak some fruits in Champagne for brunch.
4. Make a Champagne vinaigrette – yumm.
5. Use to make luscious Champagne truffles.
6. Make a mouth-watering Risotto.
7. Create sauces for a seafood dish.
8. Create a creamy Champagne chicken dish.
9. Add it to your bath water and enjoy the moment !

Five Essential Tips for Serving Champagne This New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve is the time to celebrate all your successes and everything you’ve accomplished in 2023. It’s also a time to look forward to the new year, and new beginnings!

Countless bottles of Champagne will be opened on New Year’s Eve to toast and ring in 2024. Here are some essential tips:

1. Choosing Stemware
In choosing stemware, the standard flute constricts the wine’s aromas and flavors. So, to enjoy Champagne to its fullest, use a standard white wine glass. Champagnes that have a high percentage of Pinot Noir, including Rosés use a larger glass, such as a Pinot stem, as this will allow more of the nuances in the wine to come through.
Make sure the glasses are clean and polished to get the purest bubbles, with no soap.

2. Temperature
The ideal temperature for serving is around 46°-50°F or 8°C – 10°C.

The best way to chill Champagne is to place the bottle in a bucket with ice and water for around 30 minutes, or in a refrigerator for a few hours.

3. Removing the Foil and Cage
Remove the foil wrapper, and gently untwist the wire cage off the cork, holding the bottle upright. Use your thumb to keep the cork from releasing unexpectedly.

4. Opening
Firmly grip the cork with one hand and gently twist six times, counter clock wise, the bottle from its base with the other hand, while keeping it at an angle and pointed away. The cork should emerge softly, with a whisper, not a bang.

5. Pouring + Serving
Hold the glass at an angle and pour a small amount of Champagne into the glass. Let the foam subside, then pour a little bit more. This will help preserve the bubbles. Champagne warms quickly, so I would recommend a one-third pour.

Campari Buys Courvoisier from Beam Suntory for $1.2 Billion

Italy’s Campari (CPRI.MI) on Thursday agreed to buy historic French cognac house Courvoisier from Beam Suntory for $1.2 billion, marking a big push into brandy with Campari’s biggest acquisition on record.

The purchase of a top four cognac brandy is the crowning achievement for Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz, who is due to leave next year after steering Campari through a long list of deals, including the purchase of Grand Marnier for 490 million euros in 2016.

“Christmas came early for Campari this year,” Kunze-Concewitz told analysts.

The deal will strengthen Campari’s presence in the United States, which accounts for 55% of Courvoisier’s sales, and offers transformational potential in the Asia Pacific region – also a large cognac market, led by China.

The deal is expected to boost Campari’s net sales by around 9%, Kunze-Concewitz told analysts, adding that it was also a rare opportunity to expand the company’s premium spirits portfolio and its production and bottling capacity in France.
“Clearly this is a brand which fits into our playbook, and we expect to relaunch and grow it substantially as we’ve done with some of the other brands,” Kunze-Concewitz said. “With our marketing model we can get this brand to perform at a really different pace.”

Sales at Courvoisier, founded in 1828, declined 33% in the 10 months to Oct. 31 versus a year earlier, Campari said. It said the reasons were slowing U.S. sales after post-COVID peaks and the process of de-stocking by wholesalers that had filled their warehouses excessively.

The deal, expected to close in 2024, envisages an additional earn-out of up to $120 million, to be payable in 2029, Campari said in a statement, adding that it would fund the acquisition via a mix of debt, cash and equity or equity-like instruments.
It has secured from a group of banks a fully committed 1.2-billion-euro bridge loan with a duration of up to 24 months and will monitor markets for possible issuance.

Source: Reuters

“Ungrafted Vines” hits the silver screen in 2024

He’s a winemaker, a rebel, an iconoclast and an outspoken critic of Bordeaux’s “industrial soup” style of winemaking – and now Loïc Pasquet is an unlikely movie star.

Pasquet’s battles with the Bordeaux establishment have seen him dragged to court, fined and forbidden from using the Bordeaux appellation because of his commitment ungrafted vines and native Bordeaux varieties. However, he has had the sweetest of revenges by producing a wine that has become the most expensive Bordeaux-produced wine – and now a movie about his achievements is hitting the screen.

The 51-minute documentary will air via Apple TV next year and features Pasquet documenting his battles with bureaucracy and his dedication to recreating the pre-phylloxera wines of Bordeaux. It also features input from respected wine writers like Jane Anson and Jacky Rigaux.

Pasquet, who bought his first bottle of wine when he was just 11 years old, believes that wine is a European cultural treasure and that it has been debased by too many Bordeaux producers in order to pander to critics, rather than simply making wines that reflect the terroir.

“Why destroy that heritage to make one style of wine? They are saying to [wine critic Robert] Parker ‘What wine do you like? We will make it for you.’ They are making industrial soup,” he told journalists at a preview of the film.

The launch of Pasquet’s 2015 vintage of Liber Pater at a staggering $33,000 (subsequent vintages have also hit that mark) was the spark for the documentary, but he was open about his pricing policy.

“This is what my customers will pay to drink something that nobody else can. If you go into space, how much does it cost?”

He was referencing his wines being made from grapes grown on ungrafted vines, an anomaly in Bordeaux.

“If you try a Bordeaux from 1860 [before phylloxera prompted the grafting of vines onto disease-resistant rootstocks] and 1960 you can taste the difference. Grafting changes the chemical composition of the wine.”

Source: Wine Searcher