Honour system for drinkers at Berlin wine bar

You pay 1 Euro (about $1.50) and sample various wines displayed on the bar. For as long as you want, The New York Tiimes reports

Then, at the end of the night, you sling a few coins, or notes, or whatever you think is "fair" into a jar on the bar.

Cool.

Read the full report here.

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Wine: Girl power

Those for whom every day is Valentine's Day may be interested in a new range of wines aimed at women developed by a French wine merchant. WineSight has selected about 30 French wines under the label Sublimelle, "parce que la femme est Sublimelle". It boasts "no need for images of lingerie", so the fact that a French lingerie label of the same name adorns such fine brands as Forplay (sic) and Leg Avenue, is presumably a coincidence. Selected by a man, Fr�d�ric Auriol, the range (available at www.chateauselect. co.uk) offers wines for a variety of occasions, "whether it is a girls' night out, an individual tasting, a romantic dinner, after love-making, or a business success".

Young women embarking on drinking wine are particularly susceptible to the blandishments of marketing speak, as I have found from the sessions I teach 18-year-olds in schools on the Leiths course.

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French send wine by sailboat

French vineyard owners are returning to a slower pace of life by starting to export their wine by sailing boat - a method last used in the 1800s - to reduce their carbon footprint.

This month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland in a 19th-century barque, saving 22,680kg of carbon.

Further voyages to Bristol and Manchester in England and even to Canada are planned soon afterwards.

The three-mast barque Belem, which was launched in 1896, the last French merchant sailing vessel to be built, will sail into Dublin after a voyage from Bordeaux that should last about four days.

The wines will be delivered to Bordeaux by barge using the Canal du Midi and Canal du Garonne, which run across southern France from Sete in the east, via Beziers in Languedoc.


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The Business of Wine -- An Executive Seminar

Laurent Guinand, the president of GiraMondo Wine Ventures (a wine business consulting firm), is conducting a seminar on Friday March 14, 2008: The Business of Wine -- An executive seminar. This seminar will take place at the GiraMondo Wine Ventures Headquarter in Wheaton from 9:30am to 5:00 pm.

Wheaton, MD (PRWEB) February 24, 2008 -- Laurent Guinand, the president of GiraMondo Wine Ventures (a wine business consulting firm), is conducting a seminar on Friday March 14, 2008: The Business of Wine -- An executive seminar. This seminar will take place at the GiraMondo Wine Ventures Headquarter in Wheaton from 9:30am to 5:00 pm.

In this seminar, Laurent Guinand will present and discuss about the most important business trends in the wine industry:

- Consolidation of both wineries and wine distributors
- Understanding the evolution and developing sophistication of the American wine consumer
- Increasing importance of wine marketing (with business cases such as Yellow Tail, Fat Bastard or Red Bicyclette)
- Consequences of disruptive technologies such as internet, telecom or RFID
- Challenges of importing and marketing imported wines in the United States
- Areas of the industry that are recruiting and the profiles they are looking for

This seminar utilizes business cases from Harvard Business School and materials from other graduate school specializing in the wine industry as well as a number of articles from trade publications.


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Farmers markets backed by Vic Govt

Victorian food and wine producers hope to tap into lucrative new markets with the help of State Government grants announced on Friday.

By next summer it is hoped there will be a defined network of farmers' markets and new ways of attracting more tourists and locals to them.

The region from Colac to the South Australian border and extending north to the Hamilton district has experienced a boom in new food growers in the past decade.

New local produce includes wine, cheese, olives, biscuits, bread, smoked eel and trout, chocolates and vegetables.

However, it is generally felt the Western Victorian region lacks the marketing profile of other parts of the State.

A Great South Coast Food and Wine Group established three years ago as a representative organisation will undertake a marketing study using $16,000 from the Government.

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A wine primer

Erich Orris began uncorking wines for his clients in downtown Rapid City about 18 months ago. What happens after the bottle’s foil is peeled away and the cork drawn from its neck has less to do with snobbery than with customer satisfaction, he said. Here’s a quick overview.

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NAPA wine executive returns for Northwood tasting

The president of one of Napa Valley's most prestigious wineries, Bryan del Bondio, returns to Meridian this month to lead the February 28th wine tasting at Northwood Country Club. Del Bondio will lend insight to the entire Markham portfolio as area wine lovers sample the 2003 Cabernet, 2004 Merlot, 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, 2003 Petite Sirah, 2005 Chardonnay, and the 2001 Reserve Merlot. The Markham selections come from a company that traces its history in Napa back to 1874 and an immigrant from Bordeaux, France, Jean Laurent. Today, the winery is owned corporately (the Mercian Corporation), and has benefited from a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion. The Markham facilities, located in St Helena almost directly across the street from the old Christian Brothers Winery (now the impressive home of the west coast branch of the Culinary Institute of America and its Center for Professional Wine Studies), are among the premier of the Napa region.


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