As if boxed wine and mini-bottles weren't controversial enough now we have wine packaged in individual glasses. Marks & Spencer debuted the individual serving sizes called "Le Froglet" in the UK this summer and has now started offering them in Hong Kong at their M&S food shop in Wanchai. A sign that they're doing well? Perhaps. M&S reports that more than one glass is sold every minute.

Although the glasses are, of course, not really glass. It took 18 months of development to come up with the design, which includes a plastic wine glass, a leak-proof paper top, and even "inert filling technology" to keep the wine from being exposed to oxygen inside the packaging. The single-serve glasses are geared to impromptu picnickers or people who want just one glass with dinner and according to the WSJ they actually taste better than expected, as long as you don't let them sit too long after opening.

Le Froglet comes in three flavors, Shiraz, Rosé, and Chardonnay, for about $5 each.

By Rigel Celeste | Source :: www.luxist.com

Want to cut your carbon footprint and get a buzz at the same time? Grab a bottle of wine from the Sonoma Wine Company in Graton, California. The winery is the pilot project for Cogenra Solar, a startup backed by top VC Vinod Khosla. It brings together photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies to produce hot water and electricity from a single unit.

Cogenra's technology reflects sunlight into a solar array that in turn faces down into a mirror. A tube located above the array carries liquid that has been heated by sunlight reflected off the mirror. That heat is then used to produce hot water.

The company explains:

Traditional photovoltaic (PV) systems convert approximately 16% of the sun’s energy into usable electricity, discarding the remaining energy as waste, mostly in the form of heat. Solar cogeneration captures this waste heat and transforms it into real value—hot water. This cogenerative solution has the added benefit of cooling the PV components, which boosts the system’s electric generation.

Cogenra is taking aim at the commercial market. "If you look at heat consumption, a substantial part is on the industrial level and the institutional level–jail, retirement communities, hospitals. Everywhere where there is industry, industry uses heat," says Dr. Gilad Almogy, Cogenra's CEO.

That includes wineries. As part of the pilot project with Sonoma Wine, Cogenra has set up a 272 kW electric and thermal installation to support the facility’s operations. "We give them electricity to run the plant, and heat to run the winery," Almogy says. The installation, which is partially funded by a $1.5 million research grant from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration program, will be completed by the end of the year.

By Ariel Schwartz | Source :: Fast Company

Despite a move in recent years to replace cork closures for wine with alternatives such as synthetic cork or screw-caps, a study by AC Nielsen on behalf of the Cork Quality Council indicates that the premium domestic US wineries are increasing their use of cork closures, with brands using cork showing higher annual sales growth over those using alternatives.

According to the data released recently by the CQC, out of 100 top selling wine brands, the number of brands using cork closures rose to 72 during the past five months, registering an increase of 7.5%. These brands using cork as the closure also posted an average annual sales bump of 10.2 %, compared to annual growth of 3.7 % for alternative closures majority of which are screw-caps.

Cork comes from a certain variety of oak tree that is only found in the Mediterranean, especially Portugal.

The reason for sticking with cork has a lot to do with the psychological value of cork with the consumer. Some whiskies, such as Makers Mark, also use cork stoppers or the premium impression. Though with whiskies, which do not typically get stored on their sides after opening, cork dry-out can happen if the bottle doesn't get consumed fast enough.

A look at the survey indicates that the maximum use of alternative closures is in the $6-9 range- whereas 16 producers use cork, 15 are still using screwcaps (more than half of screw-cap users are in this category).

France's cork federation last summer went on the the offensive with a poster campaign that features wine and champagne bottles with outlandish alternative stoppers like a plastic duck and the slogan: "Always imitated, never equaled."

By David Kiley | Source :: www.luxist.com

Can lighting affect wine taste? One German study found that drinkers who were served a bottle of Riesling in differently lit environments had different taste experiences. Researchers found that subjects rated the wine as better and more expensive tasting when exposed to the red or blue background lighting versus rooms with green or white background lighting. According to an article in the Telegraph, the wine was described as being sweeter and fruitier in red light than in white or green light. When drinking in the red or blue lit room the subjects though the wine was worth as much as one euro more for the same bottle.

Dr Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel, of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz said in the Telegraph article that more tests are needed to determine why the color makes a difference. One theory is that some colors put people in a more positive mood but it may be more complex than that. The study certainly makes a case for mood lighting in wine shops and tasting rooms as well as in bars or restaurants.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

The owners of Grand Rêve Vineyard in Red Mountain, Washington are reeling after an unexpected and mind boggling crime: sometime over the last week $4000 worth of rare grapes were stolen right out of their vineyard. Coined 'The Great Grape Caper of Red Mountain' the theft was clearly well planned and cleverly executed as the thieves made off with a ton (literally) of very specific and exotic grapes called Bushvine Mourvedre. Because they ignored every other kind of grape and did such a clean and complete job it's being considered the work of professionals. "Whoever it was, knew what they were doing." said Ryan Johnson, one of the vineyard partners and manager. "They were very thorough."

Mourvedre grapes are usually only found in areas of southern France and are often used in valuable, high end wine. 'Head trained' to grow as a bush instead of on a long trailing vine, they're particularly labor intensive and this harvest was a bit of an experiment that started way back in 2008. "The most frustrating thing about this is we waited three years to see what these vines would do," said Johnson. "This was our opportunity to see what the future might hold for us."

At this time authorities have no suspects but think it was an 'inside job' by someone familiar with the tightly-knit Washington wine community. Paul McBride, the other partner at Grand Rêve, said "For somebody in the state to think 'Gosh, I have just got to have that Bushvine Mourvedre,' that takes a real wine geek." Plus the thieves had to know where the grapes were, how and when to harvest them, and have a means to quickly sell them or make wine. This was no spur of the moment effort.

If there's any bright spot in this dark cloud it's that the thieves may not have gotten quite as great a bunch of grapes as they could have. According to Johnson "The grapes are good right now, but if they'd waited another 10 days, what they got would have been absolutely phenomenal. They missed out."

The stolen grapes are valued at about $4000 but estimates put the wine they would have made at worth over $30,000.

By Rigel Celeste | Source :: www.luxist.com

Eco-consciousness has hit the elixir of intoxicants. France's Champagne industry is going green, trying to make amends for an estimated 200,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted each year. The largest part of that destructive footprint is its typically heavy bottle.

Dom Pérignon, a Benedictine monk, made the glass thicker in the 1600’s to help control the bottles from exploding. His distinctive bottle design came to embody the luxuriant nature of the contents, and the imbibing experience.

Fast-forward to the 1970’s, when the bottle’s standard weight had augmented to two pounds each. Now, the Champagne industry—which accounts for 10% of three billion bottles of sparkling wine annually—intends to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% by 2020, and 75% by 2050.

“This is how we’re remaking the future of Champagne. We’re slimming the shoulders to make the bottle lighter, so our carbon footprint will be reduced to help keep Champagne here for future generations,” Thierry Gasco, master vintner for France's famed Pommery branded champagne, told the New York Times.

Pommery was the first to obtain ISO 14001 environmental certification more than ten years ago for their sustainable growing practices, energy and water conservation, and waste management.

Its POP Earth label was introduced to “bring attention to the principles of ethics, as well as corporate and environmental governance.”

“It’s important to understand that the process of making POP Earth is the same as the process used for all of Pommery’s Champagnes. POP Earth is the celebration and result of Pommery’s environmental initiative over the past 12-14 years,” comments Gasco.

Pommery has even prevailed upon their staff to commute to work by train rather than car for the past two years.

Pommery’s parent company, Vranken-Pommery Monopole, which also owns Heidsieck, began using lighter bottles in 2003. Veuve Cliquot and Moët & Chandon now have champagne in those lighter bottles fermenting in their cellars.

The design of the lighter bottles was a challenge, as they must withstand extreme pressure and a four-year journey from factory to wine cellar to consumer’s consumption.

According to Gasco, Vranken Pommery, one of the larger houses, has spent between $635,000 to $1.3 million annually since 1994 on environmental initiatives.

It only makes the Champagne nectar sweeter, knowing the new lighter bottles will be impacting Mother Nature less and still constraining “the devil’s wine” from exploding.

By Sheila Shayon | Source :: BrandChannel

Greenopia released its updated list of the most sustainable U.S. wineries this week with some big changes from last year's rankings. The wineries, rated on factors including transportation, growing practices, transportation, building logistics, and packaging, performed better than ever, and for the first time, two wineries took the top rating of four leaves.

Benziger and French Rabbit share the top spot, with both wineries scoring four out of four leaves (last year, Benziger scored two leaves and French Rabbit scored three). French Rabbit is, according to Greenopia, "the one vineyard who has put together all the pieces of the green puzzle" thanks to its biodynamic farming techniques, TetraPak packaging (which we delved into recently), and thorough environmental reporting. Benziger also features a selection of biodynamic and organic wines. The winery received kudos for natural cork-bottled wines, green building practices, and stringent environmental reporting.

At the bottom of the rankings, Greenopia lists perennial favorites like Yellow Tail (no organic or biodynamic wines, synthetic cork on bottles), Stag's Leap (minimal environmental reporting), and Charles Shaw (grapes grown and processed far from the bottling plant).

Cheap wine enthusiasts need not despair, however–the ultra-tasty French Rabbit wines retail for under $10. And as we recently discovered, organic wines are a bargain more often than not.

By Ariel Schwartz | Source :: Fast Company

The recession hurt U.S. wine exports last year, but not to Hong Kong, where American imports surged 138 percent to $40 million, according to U.S. trade data.

In recent years, China's newfound wealth has been feeding a demand for luxuries. As part of that new appetite, the Chinese – who once mixed wine with soda – are developing a taste for wine. The number of Chinese who drink imported wine – those willing to hand over $20 or more for a bottle – will grow to about 50 million within the next 15 years, estimates Wine Intelligence. (That's nearly the number in the U.S. who now drink imports.)

Not surprisingly, California wineries currently account for 90 percent of the U.S.'s total wine exports, but small wineries from Washington and Oregon are doing their best to grab a piece, particularly in emerging markets. The value of Washington's shipments to Hong Kong leaped fivefold last year, according to figures cited by the Associated Press.

Hong Kong – a major re-exporter to the Chinese mainland – is fourth-largest export market for U.S. wines, after Canada, the European Union and Japan. Since Hong Kong scrapped an 80 percent import tax in 2008, the country's wine imports leaped to a record $491 million – of which 8 percent was from the U.S. (The bulk of the wine was from France.)

Jonathan Ryweck, a one-man exporter for three Washington wineries, ships a few pallets at a time to the Far East.

"This is not a get-rich scheme, let me tell you," Ryweck told the AP of his Port Townsend, Washington-based company, Transnational Ventures. "It's growing very nicely but it's still real small volume and it's a tough sell."

But it's coming along.

"The Chinese love the taste profile of Washington wines," Ryweck said. "If you can get the product in their mouth, you can sell it." (Read more on American wine in China.)

In May, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke signed an agreement with the Hong Kong Commerce and Economic Development Bureau to help promote U.S. wine sales in China.

Earlier this year, a survey commissioned by wine fair Vinexpo revealed that red wine still is king in China, with 88 percent of annual total sales by volume. But as more Chinese women develop a taste for wine, white wine drinking is rising and is expected to grow by 41.7 percent by 2013.

By Courtney Rubin | Source :: Inc.com

Brooklyn New York is getting its own custom crush wine-making facility. Brooklyn Winery has been under construction for the past few months. The plant will import grapes from both California and the New York State wine regions and will have customers working on custom barrels or shared community barrels. Wine Business reports that the facility should open next month. It will also offer classes and professional events. Currently the entire New York area only has one similar facility, City Winery.

Resident winemaker Conor McCormack was formerly with the company that started it all, San Francisco's Crushpad and he will supervise production and instruct amateur winemakers in hands-on sessions. McCormack will also make house wines which will be sold at the wine bar and tasting room. A full barrel costs $5,700 and delivers 300 bottles. The price includes a barrel planning session with McCormack to help you select your varietal and region, and discuss wine style options.

After that the potential winemakers learn more by taking part in five private winemaking sessions covering topics like fermentation, pressing, racking, barrel tasting and finally bottling. The bottles are finished with your own custom-designed wine label including the name of your choice. Custom Barrel may be shared by a group of up to 12 people and 1/2 barrels are also available.

By Deidre Woollard | Source :: www.luxist.com

What is this? And where is it?

Actually, it is not a secret defense weapon in the US Air Force arsenal, but upon approaching it, it does look numinous and otherworldly. It is actually the Peregrine Winery, situated in Gibbstown, New Zealand, on the famous Central Otago Wine Road, a road that takes the oenophile 20 minutes outside Queenstown, NZ on a great tasting trip, beginning with Peregrine.

Before discussing the wine, it is important to mention this architecture's many awards, the most recent being the New Zealand Supreme Architectural Award. Judges from UK magazine The Architectural Review like it too, placing it, in 2004, in the top five of its annual emerging architecture awards. The jury described the Winery as "an elegant blade of light [that] contrasts with the rugged and sublime natural landscape.

But Chris Kelly, the architect, described the building in a more avian manner: "It was recognized early on that the building would be important in reinforcing the Peregrine wine brand, so the changing roof gradient was inspired by old images freezing the kinetic rotation of a bird in flight. The roof is evocative of the majesty the Peregrine or native falcon has as it glides on the thermal uplifts off the heated land."

However it is interpreted, it is also on DesignCrave's 2009 list of the Ten Architectural Wonders Of The Wine World, for among other things, its inventive handling of space and light.

Continue reading Peregrine Wines of New Zealand: Awards-Winning Wines, Architecture, Philanthropy.

By Susan Kime | Source :: www.luxist.com