• Is Dom Perignon parent for sale? That’s the story that has had the wine world atwitter (pun fully intended) since the end of last week. Reportedly, French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, which also owns Luis Vuitton, wants to sell its wine and spirits brands to Britain’s Diageo, the drinks behemoth whose brands include Guiness and Smirnoff. The price is said to be around 12 billion euros, or about $15.8 billion. Why this deal and why now? The LVMH brands, which include Krug champagne, are some of the most prestigious in the world. Is LVMH feeling a recession pinch? Does Diageo see an opportunity to buy the brands at a recession discount? Or is this just more multi-national wheeling and dealing in which the investment bankers get rich?
• Just 7 percent of wine drinkers drink 80 percent of the wine: That’s the finding from a study by Pointer Media Network, which says that 7.5 million wine drinkers in the U.S. consumer 8 out of every 10 bottles sold. For imported premium and imported wine, 4.7 percent drive 80 percent of the volume. Which, and not coincidentally, is about the same number as that for table and box wine -- 4.6 percent drive 80 percent of the volume. This compares to the 15 percent figure from the Wine Market Council – that is, 15 percent of Americans drink 91 percent of the wine,
• Wine critics and biorhythms: How do you get a critic to like your wine? Have the critic taste it when the moon is in the best position, of course. Tesco and Marks & Spencer, which sell one-third of all wine in Britain, invite critics to taste their wines only at times when the biodynamic calendar suggests the wines will show at their best. Hey, not even the Wine Curmudgeon can make this stuff up. Bunk? Hooey? Depends on who you ask. Biodynamics is gaining currency in the wine world, but what strikes me as even more important is that Tesco is a $94 billion company and Marks & Spencer is an $18 billion one. They’re awfully big to go in for hooey.
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