New EU/Australia wine trade agreement comes into force 1st September

The new agreement governing the wine trade between Australia and the European Union comes into force on 1 September 2010, replacing the previous one signed in 1994.

It full protection to the EU's geographical indications and includes a clear Australian commitment to protect the EU traditional denominations.

The agreement provides for the immediate protection of some EU geographical indications for wines. For the use of other terms, phase-out periods have been agreed. In particular, Australian producers will not be able to continue the use of important geographical names, such as 'champagne', 'port', 'sherry', along with some traditional wine terms, such as, 'Amontillado', 'Claret' and 'Auslese' from 1 September 2011 onwards. In return there is EU recognition of an additional 16 Australian wine-making techniques and of the 16 Australian geographical zones

                                                   

The new agreement also lists optional particulars that may be used by Australian wines (i.e. an indication of vine varieties, an indication relating to an award, medal or competition, an indication relating to a specific colour, etc) and regulates the indication of vine varieties on wine labels. It outlines the conditions for Australian wine producers to continue to use a number of quality wine terms, such as 'vintage', 'cream' and 'tawny' to describe Australian wines exported to Europe and sold domestically.

In 2009, EU wine exports to Australia were worth about €68 million and Australian exports to the EU are 10 times as big at €643 million.

Our Personalised Australian Shiraz and Personalised Australian Chardonnay already meet the revised labelling rules.

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English winemakers on the up

Two English wines won gold medals in the International Wine Challenge this year, and there are now more acres of red wine vines in England than ever before in the modern age. International recognition has been accompanied by a surge in national demand – supermarkets are finding English wine much easier to sell, and Waitrose opened its own British vineyard in 2009.
English sparkling wines are particularly making a splash, and beating champagnes in blind tastings.

DAVID SANDISON

'Everyone thought we were crazy' to plant red grapes, says Christopher White, of Denbies wine estate in Wiltshire

Read more from the Independent

We have looked at adding English wines to our personalised wine range, we still find a price/perception barrier among our clientèle. English wine still seems to be a bit of a wine buff area at the moment.

E

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Russia to ban night-time spirits sales

The Russian authorities are banning off-license sales of spirits at night, in an effort to curb Russia’s drinking culture.

The law is being changed to prohibit retailers from selling any type of spirits between the hours of 10pm and 10am. This follows on from a previous, widely ignored law, that banned the sale of any drink over 15% abv between 11pm and 8am.

Vodka dominates the Russian spirits market at roughly 70% of sales. Russia already raised the minimum price on a bottle of vodka to 89 roubles (£1.87), and increased the excise duties on beer, and is considering cutting sales at street kiosks. Police have also begun enforcing a zero drink-drive limit and there are further plans to make selling alcohol to minors a criminal, rather than an administrative, offence.

It is thought that half a million people die of alcohol-related causes in Russia every year, with the average Russian consuming a litre and a half of pure alcohol every month. It is now the main cause of premature death in adult males.

President Medvedev has previously talked of his shock at what he called “colossal” levels of drinking and has set about combating over-consumption and its links to black market production and supply.

Of course this sort of ban can make the problem worse. It is thought that currently around 51% of the spirits available on the market are distilled illegally! And during Gorbachev's drink clamp down in the 80's, there was a big surge in potentially fatal moonshine made from alcohols found in aftershave, boot polish and even window cleaner. So the death rate might actually rise because of this!

You can order personalised wine around the clock from our website!

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Weird bottle design - A two headed bottle!

A Romanian design company have come up with their own corporate wine gift. A two headed bottle!

Ampro Design  give this to all their new clients. This bottle has two necks and two integrated cups.

This how they describe it:

"The "Design Business Bottle" was made to capture the essence of our business in connection with the client's business, and thats why we designed a bottle with 2 necks: one for us, and one for the client, after all don't we all drink from this business?

And the story is like this: we thought: "Let's make a gift for every contract we sign...let's make a good wine bottle", and we did: the bottle has 2 necks covered by 2 glasses: one written "Our Business" and the other: "Your Business" because, as a client, you put a little of your business in our business, and in the end you will enjoy the sweet wine inside."

Silly gimmick, you can only open one end, and who wants to drink out of a vase?

For a  more sensible option look at our corporate wine gifts

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Britain has the best Sci-Fi "Monsters"

By monsters what we're looking at is non- humans.

Obviously at number one is the greatest threat to the known universe ever, the Daleks.

The metal-clad genetic mutants from Skaro - first seen on Doctor Who back in 1963 - triumphed over more modern creatures from Star Wars, Star Trek, and other Hollywood blockbusters films.

Leading sci-fi and fantasy magazine SFX, (t he Earth's greatest sci-fi and fantasy magazine is how they describe themselves), commissioned a poll of 8,000 fans.

Britain hit the jackpot with these placings
1 Daleks from Dr Who
4 Death from Terry Pratchett's Discworld
5 Gollum form Tolkein's Lord of the Rings
9 Aslan from C S Lewis' Narnia
13 Cybermen from Dr Who
16 Pinhead from Clive Barker's Hellraiser
18 The Great Dragon from the Merlin TV series
19. Frankenstein's Monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Perhaps we ought to have a sci-fi label range for our personalised wines.

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Beer boosts your bones, cheers!

Beer boost for bones

In a revelation likely to make the health lobby choke on their All-Bran and wheat grass shakes, US scientists have discovered that drinking beer can actually be rather good for you!

According to the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, a study at the University of California, Davis (UCD), more usual known for their work on wine, has revealed that drinking certain beers is good for your bones. And may be helpful against diseases like osteoporosis. 

The key is silicon, not the bit in your computer but dietary silicon. Apparently beer is a major contributor to Western society's silicon intake!

Malted barley and hops are high in silicon and much is extracted during brewing. Pale malts are best as they are less heat affected than the production of darker malts. If you drink beer made with cheaper ingredients such as wheat, maize or even rice(!), then you miss out.
Low alcohol "lite" beer and alcohol free beer had the lowest silicon levels on the tests.

To get your recommended level of silicon intake, and for the good of your bones, drink a pint of traditional ale a day, especially if you're a woman.

For a bit more on the science visit sciencedaily.com

To know a bit about our industry, visit personalised wine

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Drink if you want to drive

Scottish Boffins have developed a new biofuel mad from the waste of the whisky process. The Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University claim the fuel can be used in ordinary cars without the need for engine adaptation.

The waste products used are pot ale, liquid left in the copper stills, and draff, the spent remains of the grains. These are used to produce the butanol base of the biofuel. For the connoisseurs amongst you, these were provided by Diageo's Glenkinchie Distillery in East Lothian.

Professor Martin Tangney, Director of the Biofuel Research Centre at Edinburgh Napier University, is leading the ground-breaking research.

“The EU has declared that biofuels should account for 10% of total fuel sales by 2020. We’re committed to finding new, innovative renewable energy sources.

 “While some energy companies are growing crops specifically to generate biofuel, we are investigating excess materials such as whisky by-products to develop them.

"This is a more environmentally sustainable option and potentially offers new revenue on the back of one Scotland’s biggest industries. We’ve worked with some of the country’s leading whisky producers to develop the process.”

Professor Martin Tangney


The benefit to the whisky industry is that they can turn a waste cost into an additional revenue stream.

The University intends to take the new fuel to market via a spin out company and make it available at petrol pumps. Which should certainly boost their coffers.

Do you think we will see this on the next series of Dragons Den?

So one day it really could be a case of drink your whisky if you want to be able to drive your car.

It would be nice if our personalised malt whisky would one day help save the planet!

Here is the full press release

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South Africa want to water down their wine!

Yes they really do. According to decanter.com, the official proposal to do this, to legalise the adding of water to the grape must, has already been passed by the South Africa's Wine and Spirit Board and it is now being under review by the Government. The plan is for the new law to be in place before the Spring 2012 harvest (southern hemisphere = spring harvest).

Apparently their reasoning is that they want to produce more lower alcohol wines, as these are growing in popularity.

What they haven't taken into account is that EU wine law prohibits this, so none of the wine will be allowed into the EU. As this is a key market for South African wine exports, it seems that they are shooting themselves in the foot here.

What bothers me more than their economic suicide bid, is that surely the wines will suffer. You add water, you dilute the flavour. Is bland newly fashionable?

We do not offer any South African personalised wine at Euromarque. That is certainly unlikely to change now.

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This is just so wrong - Wine Flavoured Sweet Cigarillos

Yes indeed, a new product to upset both the anti-drink brigade and the anti smoking lobby. I doubt it will ever make it to Britain.

A strange new product in the US. A cigarillo is a long, thin cigarette-like cigar, about 4.5inches long, like this
 
But this one is wine flavoured! To me this is just a weird idea

To me this sounds like ruining two perfectly acceptable products. If you don't like cigarillos, don't hide the flavour, just smoke them. If you like wine, just drink it.

Of course if you are a hard drinker, why not go straight for the tequila flavour?

I think I'll just stick with drinking my personalised champagne.

Hat tip to Good Grape for noticing this.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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On-line wine selling is the fastest growing area of UK retail

Its not all down to Personalised Wine labels of course!

According to research by IMRG/ Capgemini, the UK beer/wine/spirits sector has increased by 23% in the year to April 2010. That puts the UK on-line wine market at a value of £200 million, which is pretty sizeable but not dominant. In comparison the traditional mail order wine sales are £700 million.

I always wonder how many of the wine websites are actually legal. To sell wine to the public in any quantity, the business must hold alcohol licenses, but not sure everyone does. And I'm certain the local authority enforcement is minimal at best. The best way to police this is for you the customers to only buy from sites that state their license details, like us of course. 

More on the on-line sales figures at the drinks business.

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