by Adam Lechmere – Port is set to overtake sherry as the leading fortified wine in the UK by 2020, according to a major port shipper.
Croft Pink: a different demographic
The prediction can be extrapolated from a reading of Neilsen statistics for fortified wines over the last 16 years, Andrew Hawes, managing director of wine importers Mentzendorff says.
According to Neilsen, in 1996 port sales were around 500,000 cases. This figure has crept steadily upwards, standing at 759 cases in 2011, an average increase of more than 50%.
Since reaching a peak of 897 cases in 2007, however, volume sales have shown a slight downward trend to 2011’s figure.
Sherry and vermouth, which were selling in excess of 2m cases a year in the mid-1990s, have now declined by more than 50% in some instances, each selling around 1m cases. Vermouth has fallen from 2039 to 794 cases since 1996, sherry from 2054 to 1191 cases.
«Buttriger Melonenduft, verbundenes Holz, etwas leicht und kurz, mollige Frucht, rustikaler Abgang, stoffige Fülle, ausladener Nachhall, minzgeprägter Rosenholzduft». Für Professor Rainer Jung sind derartige Geschmacksbeschreibungen für Wein wenig verständlich. «Dieses Jägerlatein schreckt Weinkonsumenten, die den Zugang zum Produkt suchen, mit Sicherheit ab. Weil sie sagen: “Das verstehe ich nicht”», erklärt der Sensorikexperte an der Forschungsanstalt Geisenheim im Rheingau.
Fast der gesamte rheinland-pfälzische Eisweinjahrgang ist durch die Kontrollen der Weinprüfer gefallen – jetzt haben einige Winzer Klage gegen die Landwirtschaftskammer eingereicht. Sie wollten die Zuteilung von amtlichen Prüfungsnummern für Eiswein erreichen, teilte das Verwaltungsgericht Mainz am Freitag mit.
© Oeneo Bouchage | L-R: Diam
produces a range of corks for fortified, still and sparkling wines.
Corks are popping at Oeneo, the company behind Diam closures, as another Champagne house, G.H.Mumm, joins the growing number of producers in the region moving away from natural cork. With an estimated one in six Champagne bottles now sealed with the technical closure, the French-owned company has come a long way since setting up as a natural cork producer at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
© AFP With half of the sparkling wine
sold in the U.S. mislabeled as Champagne, it’s time to get to grips with this most regal of bubbles.