For years the invention of Champagne has been attributed to Benedictine monk Dom Perignon, shown above. Now new research suggest that it was British scientist Christopher Merrett who first invented the process and bottle for making Champagne.

 The Daily Mail reports that Merrett used techniques from the cider industry to control the second fermentation which adds the fizz and he also pioneered the use of stronger glass needed to prevent the bottle exploding. He gave a paper to the Royal Society in 1662 describing a process of adding sugar and molasses to make a wine taste sparkling. This was over 30 years before Dom Perignon’s work at the Abbey of Hautvillers at Epernay.

The research comes from author James Crowden, whose new book, Ciderland, looks at the history of cider in the West Country.

By Deidre Woollard.

When designers begin to create a new store concept for a client, typically projects begin with a survey of the competitors stores to gauge where opportunities for improvement might exist. But designers Aleksi Hautamäki and Anders Nord faced a rare opportunity when they began work on a new concept wine store for Alko in Finland, no competitors.

Alko which is state owned, was given its monopoly status 75 years ago. It has a strong role in the Finnish society and has had divided opinions for decades. Those in favour of the monopoly think that the controlled distribution reduces social problems, while others view that alcoholic beverages should be available elsewhere, too. The challenge for designers was to develop a concept that would better serve all the different customer groups while departing from the very traditional way Alko used to look and operate.

The resulting design breaks the conventional style of wine shops that use dark wood and traditional display cases. The new store uses light Douglas fir on all the furniture surfaces, on suspended ceilings and on the floors. Inspiration came from the works of designers such as Aalto, Wirkkala and Tapiovaara. And this Finnish tradition in the use of wood was brought into the 21st century.

The flagship building site is on a prime spot next to the Parliament building and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The building was bombed by the Russians during the Second World War and part of the beams had been damaged and repaired later with concrete, which made it impossible to open up the suspended ceiling. Also because of the tight alcohol legislation in Finland, designers had plenty of restrictions. Aleksi noted ”You can’t, for example, have hard liquor in view from the shop window, and we had to think how to hide it.”

The new graphic identity has been carefully considered and merged into the three-dimensional store design. Wayfinding and graphics were structured to be positioned at 90° angles to be easier to read.

We didn’t want to compete with the curves of a bottle, we wanted Alko to be standing firmly giving guidance and expertise about their product, says Anders.

Service areas are located on both floors in the middle of the main circulation. They consist of desks with digital displays mounted on the tabletops where customers can browse the selection. There is a smaller ‘curated’ selection for fast shopping near the store entrance and adjacent to the checkout for customers in a rush.

Because of the vast quantity of shelving and bottles, Aleksi and Anders thought the space would need some character elements to break it up. They designed a light installation hanging on top of the stairs to draw customers to the heart of the new Alko experience, the service area and the new downstairs wine boutique. The designers also made a large logo of cotton strings, using a traditional technique, to create intimacy by the checkout.

We wanted customers who usually spend 6 minutes at Alko to spend at least 12 minutes – 6 minutes shopping and 6 minutes exploring and learning about the products, says Anders.

Project photography by Pierre Björk

Visit Source.

The latest tool in the battle against counterfeit vintage wines is rather high tech. Antique Wine Company in London asked Guegan’s Centre for Nuclear Studies to create technology that zaps bottles with ion beams generated by a particle accelerator. The beams are meant to determine how old the glass in the bottles is and where it originated from. They can compare the suspicious bottles with known bottles from a certain chateau.

Of course this brings up the problem of new wine in old bottles. That involves another test, a method that tests for levels of a radioactive isotope, cesium 137, in the wine itself. Techniques like this were used in the case of wines sold by Hardy Rodenstock, the wine dealer who is the subject of "The BIllionaire’s Vinegar" a recent book that includes the story of American collector William Koch who has sued Rodenstock claiming bottles which allegedly belonging to US president Thomas Jefferson were fakes.

Because of the high cost of testing, techniques like this are only used when there are significant amounts of money on the table. This may force savvy fraudsters to move into the mid-range of the vintage market where clients are less likely to resort to such elaborate means.

Related articles:

Using RFID To Track & Monitor Wine

Prooftag, A New Way To Combat Wine Fraud

By Deidre Woollard.

Benzinger’s Signaterra wine is a new wine label that seeks to join the best of three forces, earth, nature, and man for excellent wine. They have produced two wines, the 2006 Bella Luna Pinot Noir Russian River Valley and the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc Shone Farm Vineyard Russian River Valley.

The Signaterra wine notes are divided into Earth, Nature and Man categories which describe the location of the vineyard and how it is formed, the climate and how the grapes are tended (often using organic, biodynamic and sustainable farming methods) and the way the grapes were harvested and how the wine was produced. At $24, the Sauvignon Blanc is on the pricier end of that varietal.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently named it tops in their tasting of Sonoma County Sauvignon Blancs finding it rich and well-balanced with notes of jasmine and mango cream aside the citrus and grassy flavors traditionally associated with Sauvignon Blanc.

By Deidre Woollard.

Italian prosecco is in the process of re-branding itself as the "softer, lighter" bubbly, not to mention cheaper. Production has already increased thirty-fold over the past four decades, with plans for greater distribution particularly to emerging wine markets like China, where marketing drives the majority of sales, relegating prosecco to champagne wannabe status.

Hence Italy’s support of reserving the name prosecco for wine produced only within the region, a formerly Slovenian area that’s been growing grapes since the 1500s, to up the exclusivity factor. Oh, and then there was that little Paris Hilton promo. Italian winemakers disparaged the pairing (she was, after all, promoting an Austrian-crafted sparkling wine in a can), but Paris certainly knows a thing or two about aspirational status.

By Tracy Chait.

After reading "The Billionaire’s Vinegar" it’s hard not to be skeptical about wine finding stories but this one from the BBC is pretty amazing. An 1893 bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne was found in a sideboard at a Scottish castle.

The BBC News reports the sideboard came from Torosay Castle on the Isle of Mull. The owner Chris James found the bottle after getting a locksmith to cut a key to open the piece of furniture. Once opened the sideboard revealed a bottle of brandy, a port decanter, a bottle of claret and the single bottle of 1893 Veuve Clicquot. The drinks are believed to have been locked up since at least 1897.

James contacted Veuve Clicquot, who said the bottle was the oldest in existence. The priceless bottle is now displayed at the company’ s visitors center in Reims, France.

By Deidre Woollard.

Even in tough times, consumers are still willing to buy premium – provided you get your brands positioning right.

Once you’ve slashed your price it’s virtually impossible to increase the price later.

Don’t leave money on the table, read the article.

Advances in both technology & transportation have brought the global economy to the fingertips of nearly everyone on the planet.

As consumers learn more about other parts of the world & the special products they offer, the wine industry – the Chilean wine industry, in particular – has discovered how important branding is to its reputation & success.

Read the entire article by Joe Ray.