DAN'S WINE BLOG- GLOBAL

The wash up from Vintage 2024 across the globe is that it is the smallest vintage since 1961. This is due to a number of severe weather events around the world plus the growing number of vine-pull schemes and people just abandoning vineyards of their own accord.

Whilst this statistic will help to reduce the massive wine glut we currently have, falling wine consumption almost everywhere will in part mitigate this effect. So basically the wine industry is no better off despite the impact of so many growers misfortune.

UK

Due to bad weather England is suffering it’s second worst harvest since records began. Persistent wet weather has caused massive outbreaks of mildew with the resultant loss of fruit.

This has come at a time when English wine sales and reputation have been steadily growing both at home and across the globe.

At the same time bottled wine imports to Ireland have fallen by 14% in the last twelve months.

A TAD PRICEY!

I recently saw a list of the top 10 most expensive wines in the world on the online magazine ?Wein.plus. The interesting thing was that 9 out of the 10 were Burgundies (one German Riesling – Egon Muller) and that five out of those nine were from Domanie Leroy!!! Talk about total dominance, the Leroy?Musigny?Grand Cru?at 34,806 Euros being the most expensive!!- makes Australia’s Penfolds Grange look like an absolute bargain huh!!!

BUBBLING ALONG

Since the start of the century the demand/consumption of sparkling wine (bubbles) has boomed across the globe. The demand for Champagne has risen by nearly 10 million bottles a year – currently experiencing a hiatus, whilst every other form of bubbles has seen substantial growth. From Spanish Cava- struggling to meet unprecedented demand due to their adverse weather conditions, through the German & Austrian Sekt- rocketing along- even creating new PDO’s-Protected designation of origin, i.e. Certified quality, to almost every bubbly producing country’s local product- including the USA, Australia & New Zealand and then there is Prosecco.

Prosecco has been booming, so much so that the Italians saw the quality Australian Prosecco which was burgeoning in Europe and other areas as such a threat, that in 2009 they changed the name of the grape variety from Prosecco to Glara and claimed that Prosecco can only come from its designated area in Italy. Still before the courts!

Furthermore, it has only been since the 20th of May 2020 that Italian wine makers were allowed to produce Rose Prosecco- It was illegal before this. Again it was due to the fact that Australia- with significantly less restrictive wine rules & regulations had been producing quality Rose Prosecco for many years and it had become quite popular in Europe and other countries.

Anyhow, irrespective of the Italian putsch, global sales of bubbly continue to grow significantly, and now include rapidly growing demand for de-Alcoholised/ Non Alcoholic bubbles. This demand is off a small base but growing very rapidly.

So cheers- here’s to a good glass of bubbles from wherever it comes from.