• Big 2009 crop: Expect to see one of the biggest harvests since 2005 this year, reports Paul Franson in Wines & Vines. Estimates are that it will be one-half million tons bigger than 2008, and will approach the epic 2005 harvest. That one was so big that it took the state several years to work its way through all of the grapes. For wine drinkers, this should be good news by lowering grape prices and boosting quality for mid-priced wines.
• Appeals court upholds New York law: This is not unexpected, given the 2005 Supreme Court decision that legalized direct shipping between wineries and consumers didn’t lift the restriction that barred consumers from buying wine from out-of-state retailers. Still, the appeals court’s logic was interesting. It wrote that the three-tier system, which requires producers to sell to wholesalers and wholesalers to sell to retailers, prevents “the existence of a 'tied' system between producers and retailers, a system generally believed to enable organized crime to dominate the industry." Which century do the appeals court judges live in?
• What went wrong in Australia: This article, by the New York Times’ Meraiah Foley, is the best explanation I’ve seen about the crisis facing the Australian wine industry.My favorite quote: “But that wave soon turned into what Mr. Hayward described as ‘a perfect storm of laziness’ in which no one — neither wine media nor importers nor the top United States sommeliers — felt the need to learn much about Australia besides South Australian shiraz.” That’s so accurate I wish I had written it.
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