Wine Blog

Many quite a few colleagues have asked what sites I use to keep up on the industry.  So, I thought it would be helpful if I posted the links here.

*Wine Spectator - http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Home/

*Wine Spectator Trade News - http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Trade_News/Home/0,3698,,00.html
*Wine Spectator Blogs - http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Free/WS_Blogs/0,4505,,00.html

Wines & Vines News - http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news
Beverage Daily - http://www.beveragedaily.com/
Just Drinks - http://www.just-drinks.com/
Wine Marketer - http://www.winemarketer.com/
Drinks Media Wire - http://www.drinksmediawire.com/index.asp
Adams Beverage - http://www.adamsbevgroup.com/home.asp
The Drinks Business - http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/
Ship Compliant Blog - http://www.shipcompliantblog.com/
WineGuy.org - http://www.wineguy.org/

Google specialty tools
Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en
Google Reader - http://www.google.com/reader/view/

Posted by Thomas Gallagher at 06:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know this quite a few days late but I really wanted to comment on this.  Hong Kong has eliminated their duties on wine after having them last year (they went from 80% to 40%).  The implications of this in my opinion could be huge and we are already seeing some repercussions.  Two US wine auction house have already announced that they will be holding auctions in Hong Kong.  Vinfolio, is trying to make further inroads into the market, announced prior to duty elimination.

Will this create a new powwer center in the world of fine wine? 

(HT The Wine Collector - a Vinfolio blog) 

Posted by Thomas Gallagher at 12:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Posted by Thomas Gallagher at 06:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some of you know some of you don't, I am currently a candidate with the Wine MBA program at BEM Management School.  After reading the January 26th WSJ lead editorial on the Global Fed I could not help but think about the effects on the wine industry.

In our session last March Australian producers that were hedging currency were looking at $0.85 US to the AUS$ it is now at $0.8801.  When we started the program in January of 2007 the Euro was at around $1.30 and now it is $1.48. 

What does this mean, it means that the quality wine at reasonable prices that the American consumer has relied upon will be harder to come by in 2008.  Europe and Australia have relied on the US and the UK for increased consumption and the US for relative pricing stability for over a decade, and that could be coming to an end.  Wild currency flucuations will not be helpful for the wine industry.  It has become increasingly global industry and this unpredictable financial future could truly hurt an industry that is just getting over severe wine gluts in France and Australia.

My one hope is that the american wine industry will learn how to properly export their wine instead of the situation we currently where tip number one for Decanter magazine's August 2007 issue is "Don't bother trying to find good value Californian wines outside the US."  We are doing nothing to improve the image american wine abroad.

It will be interesting to see what the shake out will be from all of this. 

Posted by Thomas Gallagher at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)