Wines from Australia are being discounted as a result of a wine glut. Some wines are being sold for a third of the original prices. While it is considered a short term phenomena it is still troubling news for Australian wine and the global wine industry.

The Robert Mondavi Winery celebrated its 40th anniversary last weekend in Napa, with hundreds in attendance to commmemorate the 1966 founding of the iconic winery. Mondavi is considered one of the grandfathers of the California wine industry. At the founding of his own winery in 1966, he believed that California wines could rival the greatest of European wines.

During that period, Californian wines were recognized as inferior to old world wines. The French and Italians believed that no new world wine could compare to wines that had been produced from vineyards going back centuries. Mondavi proved them wrong.

Sommelier India columnist Alok Chandra, recently discussed Reveilo in an article for Business Standard. Reveilo is a hundred acre vineyard and winery which in his opinion is making the best wine in India. The father and son team of Suersh and Yatin Patel have transformed their table grapes family business into a wine producer. The first harvest was taken in February-March 2005, with the Cabernet Sauvignon yields kept down to 1.5 tons/acre.

According to Alok's notes, the Reveilo Chenin Blanc 2005, Reveilo Chardonnay 2005 and the Reveilo Syrah 2005 are especially promising. Vikram Doctor also covered Reveilo for the Economic Times and Express Hospitality featured the vineyard too.

According to the Business Standard article, Reveilo is available in Mumbai at Parry (Bandra), Twinkle (Andheri), Juben (Juhu), Nita (Churchgate), Big Boy (Chembur), Peekay (Crawford market) and The Cellar (Malabar Hill).

Global wine consumption increased for the seventh straight year in 2005 to 2.59 billion 9-litre case. Most of the increases came from drinkers in the US, UK and China too according to the 2005 edition of The Global Drinks Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast. China is projected to trail just France, the US and Italy in terms of total consumption by 2010.

The European Union continues to be the world's largest wine market accounting for 58% of global consumption in 2005. The U.S only accounted for 11% while China was at 6% of the world's consumption. Constellation Brands ws the world's largest wine marketer exceeding 100 million cases.

Italy was the top wine exporter last year in terms of volume, beating Spain and France according to the International Wine and Vine Organization (OIV). Interestingly, over 90% of their wine exports go to just 11 countries. While exports to India have increased 80% in the last four years, it still represents a small percentage of Italy's global exports.

The real question is how are Indian exports doing? To which countries are Indian wine makers are exporting the most? We suspect most exports are going to the US, UK and Canada. Grover Vineyards, for example exports wine worth $ 4,35,000 every year. When you travel abroad, what other Indian wines do you find? Are they popular?

As consumers struggle to understand why the Indian government with various duties makes foreign wines so expensive for us. Well, apparently Russia has even larger problems. New import laws there have forced shopkeepers to remove their bottles from the shelves until they get the new excise stamps in time for a July 1st deadline.

The government only started issuing the stamps in May and importers have been scrambling to get their bottles stamped. To make matters worse, restaurants and wines stores cannot re-stamp the bottles. They have to be returned to the importer for re-stamping.

Chateaux Margaux and Latour are leading the way with this year's Bordeaux wines. The 2005 vintage is the most expensive ever with wines being released at a record breaking €350 per bottle. The winemakers blame the high prices on free markets while consumer advocates like Robert Parker are furious.

In a significant departure from the past, The European Commission is adopting plans to reform the European Union's wine sector. As Jancis Robinson has pointed out, this promises to be an emotionally charged and controversial affair.

The problem is simple. Even though Europe produces some of the finest wines in the world, the consumption of those wines are dropping. New World wines from the southern hemisphere and the US are attracting more attention and more dollars too. To better compete with these wines, the European Commission is going to encourage winemakers to make bolder, stronger wines. Furthermore, the EU is going increase its paltry €14 million promotion and marketing budget.

But the suggested reforms go still deeper. EU's Agriculture minister, Mariann Fischer Boel, is recommending that the rigid rules around wine making be abolished. She is also suggesting that the over complicated wine labelling system be changed. Whether Europe can swallow these reforms or not remains to be seen. Most recently, the European Commission approved plans for 79 million gallons of French wine and 69 million gallons of Italian wine to be distilled into undrinkable, industrial-grade alcohol simply because they had such an over supply of wine.

Controversial celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay caught Sir Cliff Richard off guard when he had him blind taste one of his own wines on live television. Ramsay first had the British entertainer blind taste a red Bordeaux worth around $750. Richard loved the wine. Ramsay then poured a second glass, which the singer branded "insipid."

When Ramsay told Richard that the second glass was one of Richard's own (a much cheaper Vida Nova from Portugal), Richard fumed but then later blogged about the evening and explained that his palette was tired especially after the expensive Bordeaux. The moral of the story - simply don't do blind tastings on live television.

Vijay Mallya and the UB group, the world's third-largest liquor producer plans to buy a wine company from France's Taittinger for $15 million. UB currently has only a small presence in the wine segment. UB proposes to import wines from the French champagne house to boost its presence in the Indian and Chinese markets.

Americans are drinking more wine than ever before, a new study by the Wine Market Council shows in a recently published article on Bloomberg. At the same time, the U.S. is still far behind some nations in per capita consumption.

Growth has been dramatic, from 177 million cases of table wine consumed in 1996 to 205 million in 2000 and 249 million last year. Add in sparkling wines, sherries and ports, and the figure hits 300 million, with a retail value of $25 billion.

Most interesting have been the reasons for the increase in wine consumption namely, 1. News stories about how moderate wine consumption can be a positive in terms of health; 2. Change in consumer attitudes regarding occasion appropriateness; 3. A strong U.S. economy; 4. Rising disposable incomes; and 5. Branded advertising.

Are the same reasons spuring wine consumption in India? There's certainly a lot of articles on wine but not that many on the health benefits (which are actually numerous).

The Guardian is reporting that a bid by India's United Breweries to take over the French champagne group Taittinger has sparked concern among wine professionals in the company's home region in Northern France. The $660-million bid is seen as a threat to the French system of locality-based appellations for wine. The UB Group is the world's third largest spirit producer with ownership of Kingfisher beer. Taittinger is the world's ninth champagne producer, with 4.5 million bottles sold per year, 62,5% of them outside France.