The Wine & Viticulture Journal will be holding its next regular tasting in Tasmania to coincide with the International Cool Climate Symposium being held in Hobart from 31 January to 4 February. The focus of the tasting will be Australian Pinot Noirs with recommended retail prices of $50 and over.

This is a beautiful, rich wine that is fairly intense but not overpowering. In the glass it is a deep red with a touch of purple,writes Wine Time columnist Denis Sodomka, in The Augusta Chronicle. The aroma is full of black currant, anise and a bit of eucalyptus. The flavours are full of rich, red-berry fruit, black currant and cassis, with some cedar and spice. It’s a very pleasant wine that’s good to sip and great with food.

Think of wine critic Robert Parker as the E.F. Hutton of fermented grapes. When he talks, oenophiles listen. So, when Parker, publisher of the Wine Advocate, said recently that the world is entering the ‘age of the buyer’ – a prolonged period of stable or declining wine prices – it was enough to get sommeliers buzzing over their Chateau D’Yquem.

Treasury Wine Estates, formerly known as Foster’s Group, laid off 30 of its Napa County employees at the end of last week, the company announced. “We are putting in place a new global organization structure to better position us to build strong global brands and drive top line growth and efficiencies,” Stephen Brauer, managing director at Treasury Wine Estates, said in a news release.

After years of regulatory wrangling, mega-producer E & J. Gallo Winery has emerged victorious in its quest to enlarge the Russian River Valley (RRV) AVA in a decision announced by the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau on 16 Noember which became effective on 16 Decenber. As requested in the petition from Gallo Family Vineyards, the ruling expands the RRV AVA by 14,044 acres and the overlapping Northern Sonoma AVA by 44,244 acres. The AVA now covers parts of what most locals might consider Central/Southern Sonoma or the Petaluma Gap.

More than 100 people from around the world attended the 11th annual Pierce’s Disease Research Symposium in Sacramento last week, giving top researchers the opportunity to meet and discuss the latest progress in the search for a solution to Pierce’s disease.

The symposium highlighted research projects in disease and insect management, biology and ecology, as well as crop biology, and economics. A poster session held during the symposium allowed researchers to present their results and speak to attendees on a one-to-one basis and encourage further discussion in a more casual setting.

More than 100 people from around the world attended the 11th annual Pierce’s Disease Research Symposium in Sacramento last week, giving top researchers the opportunity to meet and discuss the latest progress in the search for a solution to Pierce’s disease.

The symposium highlighted research projects in disease and insect management, biology and ecology, as well as crop biology, and economics. A poster session held during the symposium allowed researchers to present their results and speak to attendees on a one-to-one basis and encourage further discussion in a more casual setting.

After a second year of unseasonably cool temperatures, the grape tonnage has been tallied and the results are ready. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 3.3 million tonnes of winegrapes were harvested in the 2011 growing season, a 9 percent drop from the previous year.

After a second year of unseasonably cool temperatures, the grape tonnage has been tallied and the results are ready. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 3.3 million tonnes of winegrapes were harvested in the 2011 growing season, a 9 percent drop from the previous year.

For the past few decades, icewine makers here have been doing well. According to the Canadian Vintners Association, between 2004 and 2010 the export market for icewine nearly doubled to 12m Canadian dollars; in terms of volume it grew 43%. Icewine has to be harvested at temperatures of -8C or below. But Canadian vintners like Quebec icewine maker Charles-Henri de Coussergues are worried that similar wines are produced all year round in places where winters are much milder – simply by artificially freezing the grapes.In Canada, they call these wines cheap knock-offs.