"With Chile much in the news (albeit for reasons unrelated to wine), I went looking for the cause for this particular sentiment. I found that the fault, in many ways, lies with Chilean winemakers themselves—at least with the producers of three decades ago. The wines exported then were fairly unremarkable but priced to compete with some of the cheapest wines in the U.S. While this strategy helped to secure Chilean wines a spot on the market, it tarnished their reputation among wine drinkers, who continued to associate all subsequent (though often superior) efforts with that first wave."

Read it at the Wall Street Journal.

Source :: Big Think

Patricia Kluge has thrown her heart, soul and no small amount of money into her Virginia wine business but that may not have been enough. C-Ville.com is reporting that Kluge Winery and Vineyard, the business that she and her husband Bill Moses opened in 1999, is in the hands of its lenders. Last month, Trevor Gibson, who had been the company's chief financial officer for five years, left Kluge Winery. Details of what happened aren't exactly clear but C-Ville.com has a statement from Bill Moses that says that the bankers have taken the first steps toward "dismantling the winery as an operating business as well as an auction of the property."

Kluge and Moses have Albemarle House, their 45-room English style manor, on the market for $48 million and earlier this year they sold off the contents at Sotheby's in a two-day buying bonanza that brought in $15.2 million. A sale of her jewelry brought in around $5 million.

TheHook.com says that a foreclosure notice list a total debt of $34,785,000. The assets of the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards include 907 acres in southern Albemarle County, 164 of which are vineyards. The sale would also include the Farm Shop and tasting room, as well as offices, production buildings, six employee houses, and a 34,000-square-foot former carriage museum. A sale scheduled for December 8 is set to take place at the vineyard office building on Grand Cru Drive in the southeastern part of the county while a second auction on December 11 in Madison would sell off 15,000 cases of Kluge Estate wine.

TheHook.com is also reporting that the lender Farm Credit filed a lawsuit against Kluge and Moses October 29 in Albemarle Circuit Court. According to that article, the couple also faced foreclosure on "Glen Love" a luxury spec house they developed at Vineyard Estates that was our estate of the day back in 2008 when it was listed at $6.8 million.

Kluge and Moses are still in negotiations with the lenders and may yet be able to save the winery before the auction.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: Luxist

"The theory has its origins in the biodynamic movement, which Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher, began in the early 20th century. The ideas are simple, albeit eccentric. Biodynamic wine is created from grapes grown in harmony with nature. This means that the wine is not only organic, but also crafted with a heightened awareness of stars and planets—that is, the forces of cosmic energy. Because such wine growers view the vineyard as a living organism, they presume the grapes are affected by the moon, like other living things. Similarly, consumers should be mindful of when they drink such wine, as the phases of the moon affect the taste of the vintage."

Read it at Intelligent Life.

Source :: Big Think