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WINE lovers still coming to terms with plastic corks and screw caps will be in for a shock when the latest packaging revolution hits dining room tables later this month.In an unusual departure for the home of fine wine, one of France's top producers is to replace traditional glass bottles with cardboard and plastic cartons normally associated with milk and fruit juice.Burgundy-based producer Boisset says the controversial packaging will help preserve the quality of its wines as well as appeal to environmentally-conscious drinkers.Boisset president Jean-Charles Boisset said: "We wanted to be innovative with quality, in a way that was good...

In the fog-shrouded forests of California's remote North Coast, winemakers believe they've found the perfect terrain to grow the notoriously fickle pinot noir grape prized by connoisseurs. Vineyard developers are snapping up thousands of acres of redwoods and firs in Sonoma County, with plans to clear the trees and plant the once-obscure varietal made famous by the wine-fueled road trip film "Sideways." Environmentalists and residents in Annapolis, a tiny town about 140 miles north of San Francisco, are trying to rein in the pinot lovers. "If you've seen the movie, you've seen the glassy-eyed stare they have when they talk...

Do you prefer wine or beer? Your preference may shed some insight into the rest of your diet, according to a new study. Researchers in Denmark found that people who buy wine also buy healthier food and therefore have healthier diets than people who buy beer. The findings are published in the online edition of the British Medical Journal. Studies have shown that drinking wine is associated with lower risk of death from some causes. Some studies have also suggested that wine drinkers have healthier diets than beer or spirits drinkers, and this may explain wine's beneficial effect on health....

Climate change may be making some wine tastier and more potent. Forget France.In the future, wine buffs may be praising the merits of a fine Canadian pinot noir, the subtleties of English chardonnay, or even the complexity of a world-class Pennsylvania cabernet sauvignon.The cause: climate change.Some scientists believe that rising temperatures and longer growing seasons are already affecting wine, making vintages sweeter and stronger, and changing where grapes can be grown around the world.Previously unheralded German wines have gotten surprisingly better in the last two decades. The alcohol in California wine has risen - which can be both a good...

RED wine could hold the key to preventing and treating serious gum disease, research suggests. Components found in the tipple, called polyphenols, were found to target molecules which attack cells causing periodontal disease. This affects the gums and the bone that surrounds and supports teeth, often causing teeth to move and fall out. Around 15 per cent of those aged 21 to 50 suffer from periodontitis, rising to 65 per cent of those over 50. Scientists in Quebec, Canada, suggest the polyphenols in red wine could be harnessed to tackle this disease. However, people should not rush for the wine...

Russia bans Moldovan, Georgian wine 20/04/2006 - Russia’s ban on Moldovan wine could open the door wider to eager foreign competitors, looking to use their higher quality and better image to woo Russian wine drinkers. Russia's ban on wine from Moldova and Georgia has erupted in political rows this week, with Moldovan authorities reportedly threatening to try and block Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation. Russia said the ban had been imposed because the wine did not meet its quality standards, while Moldova and Georgia accused their neighbour of playing political power games. The ban, however, comes at a...

A handful of venerable Californian wines have once again beaten their French counterparts - in a re-run of the Paris Tasting of 1976. Against all expectations the Cabernets – Ridge Monte Bello 1971, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 1973, Mayacamas 71, Heitz 70 and Clos du Val 72 – were voted superior to their rivals in Bordeaux. In yesterday's extraordinary series of coordinated tastings in London and California, hosted by Steven Spurrier, some of the world's most eminent tasters found the Californian wines to have retained more of their verve over the years than the Bordeaux. Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson, Matthew...

Oops, they did it again. Judges in a rematch of a 1976 blind taste test between French and Californian wines have handed the laurels to California for a second time. The French wine industry gnashes its teeth. Thirty years ago, nine French wine experts shocked the world -- and themselves -- when they ranked certain California wines above their French counterparts in a blind taste test that came to be called, notoriously, "The Judgment of Paris." The French defended their belles dames at the time by sniping that the young west-coast wines wouldn't age well. "Our wines will improve with...

While Russia is at war with Georgia Ukraine decided to help its Georgian friends. Before Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvilli’s visit to Kyiv for a GUAM summit there appeared lots of bill-boards supporting Georgian wine. In particular, on Saakashvilli’s way along Boryspil-Kyiv highway there have been set billboards with a glass of wine and inscription: “Try the wine of freedom”, “It has more freedom than it’s allowed” Both variants of billboards had an additional inscription “Georgian wine is forbidden in Russia”. The same billboards and light-boxes have been set in all central streets in Kyiv. As known, at the end of...

NEARLY a billion bottles of French and Italian wine are to be turned into fuel and disinfectant because producers cannot find buyers.The EU agriculture commissioner yesterday announced plans for a radical shake-up of the wine market to prevent over-production. In the meantime, it was agreed that the EU will finance the conversion of millions of bottles of French and Italian wine into industrial alcohol. The growing popularity of wines from the New World has been blamed for the decline in the appetite for traditional European produce. "Europe is producing too much wine for which there is no market," the commissioner,...

Climate warming could spell disaster for much of the multibillion-dollar U.S. wine industry. Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 81 percent -- by the end of this century, according to a study Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper indicates increasing weather problems for grapes in such areas as California's Napa and Sonoma valleys. The main problem: An increase in the frequency of extremely hot days, according to Noah Diffenbaugh of the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University. Grapes used...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Climate warming could spell disaster for much of the multibillion-dollar U.S. wine industry. Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 81 percent -- by the end of this century, according to a study Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Marquis Nicolò Incisa della Rochetta has no gripe with the look of the wine bottle with the 1995 Sassicaia label that sits on his file cabinet. Nor does he mind how it tastes. The problem is, he didn't produce it. Unlike authentic Sassicaia, the bottle doesn't come from vineyards on the Marquis's family estate on a hillside along the Tuscan coast. Instead, it was snagged with 20,000 other counterfeit bottles in a raid by Italian government inspectors. Real: A bottle of 1995 Sassicaia from Italy, which costs up to $640. Sassicaia is one of a number of top wine makers...

AUSTRALIAN wine regions won't be able to grow the grapes they're famous for because of global warming, wine lawyers said today. Lawyers from Adelaide-based Finlaysons rate climate change as the biggest long-term challenge facing Australia's wine industry. Wine quality could suffer from reduced harvest times, more extreme weather and reduced water supplies, Finlaysons partner Will Taylor said. “Climate change is probably the biggest long-term issue facing the wine industry throughout the world and individual Australian winemakers and grapegrowers need to be planning for it now,” Mr Taylor said.

GRAPE growers have been warned that global warming will push the best winegrowing regions south to Tasmania and New Zealand, threatening Australia's best-loved wine regions.West Australian winemaker Peter Pratten, who has 200ha of vines in the south of the state, intends to act now to ensure the quality of his vineyards. "Global warming is very serious -- I think it is upon us," Dr Pratten said. "If we stay where we are we will have to think about warmer-climate varieties ... or else we will have to start thinking about where in Australia can we grow the cool-climate wines."As chief...

It is the ultimate irony. For the wine growers of Bordeaux, already suffering a financial crisis, the season has been too good. Though the quality appears to offer hope of salvation, the quantity of the 2006 vintage is causing problems.

A wind-driven wildfire on Saturday threatened some of California's premier vineyards and the winemaking city of Napa, one of several blazes kindled across the state by dry conditions and seasonal Santa Ana winds. The 400-acre (160-hectare) Napa fire started on Friday morning off a rural highway north of the wine lovers' haven by what fire officials believe was a downed power line. Firefighters had cornered the blaze northwest of the city and were hoping to have it contained by Sunday evening. The Napa Valley, about 40 miles north of San Francisco, is famed for its wine production and beauty and...

Drinking Cabernet Sauvignon may help prevent Alzheimer's disease, according to new animal research. Reporting in the November issue of the FASEB Journal, researchers observed the effects of feeding the red wine to mice with Alzheimer's disease-type brain changes. Compared to mice that received ethanol or water, the mice that were given Cabernet Sauvignon experienced significantly reduced Alzheimer's disease-type brain deterioration of memory function. The researchers, from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, found Cabernet Sauvignon's benefits were due to its ability to prevent the generation of proteins that cause plaque build-up in the brain, which is the...

Russia’s ongoing campaign to intimidate independent-minded governments in its neighborhood has taken a new twist. Targeting Georgia and Moldova, Russia has banned imports of their wines to Russia’s substantial wine market. Any Russian historian would have counseled against this action, as both the images and the results are not what Russia’s new imperialists seek. For Georgians, they have seen it all before. Foreign invaders of the tiny country have often attempted to use the “wine weapon” to bring Georgians to heel, usually by burning or otherwise eradicating Georgia’s famous vines. Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Persians all tried this. The surviving several...

Huge amounts of a red wine extract seemed to help obese mice eat a high-fat diet and still live a long and healthy life, suggests a new study that some experts are calling "landmark" research. The big question is, can it work the same magic in humans? Scientists say it's far too early to start swilling barrels of red wine. But some are calling the latest research promising and even "spectacular." The study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Aging shows that heavy doses of red wine extract lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems and...