Listen to Industry News and other Insights on the Bevcast Podcast Channel on Soundcloud. Bevcast Weekly News is a news series giving you a quick look at the most important news, trends and developments of the week.

Bevcast Weekly News is brought to you by China Wine Competition, which is an international wine competition that Beverage Trade Network hosts in Shanghai where wines are judged by Quality, Value and Package. Submission is now open for the 2019 China Wine Competition.

Please visit ChinaWineCompetition.com for more information on how winning a China Wine Competition medal can help you grow your wine brand.

So gear up for your week ahead – these are our top stories of the week.

*To listen to the full Podcast and more, kindly stay tuned into BevCast channel on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Stitcher.

Climate Change Conference in Portugal Focuses on Sustainability

A new generation of “wine climatologists” are looking at how wine producers can adapt to the impact of climate change via new sustainability efforts. The second annual Climate Change Leadership Conference in Portugal highlighted the growing number of wine businesses embracing the Porto Protocol.

Porto Protocol Has Already Signed Up 130 Members in Less Than a Year

Winemakers are signing up for the Porto Protocol, which launched in July 2018 with the endorsement of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Signers of the Porto Protocol are asked to take actions to reduce global warming, and then share those actions with others in the wine industry.

Al Gore Lays Out Vision for Sustainability in Wine Industry

One of the stars of the Climate Change Leadership Conference in Portugal was Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who delivered the keynote address. This is just the second year of this conference, and it has already generated enormous visibility for the issue within the wine world.

Harvard Studies the Impact of Climate Change on Fine Wine

Warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events are having an impact worldwide, and that is leading researchers to study the impact on premium wine regions. For example, Harvard’s Kennedy School of government is now studying the ways that the wine industry can reduce its carbon footprint globally.

New Zealand’s Sauvignon Blanc Continues to Reinvent Itself

New sub-styles of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc are emerging in regions like Central Otago and Hawke’s Bay. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc has already reinvented itself once in order to become a broadly appealing wine with distinctive fruit and herbal notes not found in European Sauvignon Blanc.

Arizona Wines Looking To Make a Splash on National Scene

The upcoming Verde Valley Wine Festival will highlight 16 Arizona winemakers from 3 major vineyard regions within the state. Each year, the festival has grown in size, suggesting that wine drinkers who grew up with California wines might soon be tempted to try out the new wines from Arizona.

Indiana Wine Industry Starting To Make Its Mark

Indiana is another non-traditional wine producer starting to gain traction in the U.S. The state now has a signature wine varietal – Traminette – backed up by a new marketing campaign called “Try on Traminette.” 116 wineries in Indiana have adopted the grape as the keystone of the state’s wine industry.

Women Winemakers in the Spotlight at Texas Wine Conference

The inaugural Wonder Women of Wine (WWOW) Conference took place in Austin, Texas, where approximately 200 women participated in discussions, presentations and networking events. The primary theme was promoting equality in the wine world for women, with the keynote on the topic of “the new terroir of wine feminism.”

Top 10 Women Influencers in the Chinese Wine Industry

Women are making their mark on the fast-growing Chinese wine industry. Women now hold top positions at importers, distributors and e-commerce platforms specializing in wine. The Top 10 list of industry influencers includes women winemakers from Ningxia and Xinjiang, a sommelier, and the operator of the Lady Penguin wine club.

European E-Commerce Wine Sales Continue to Surge

According to the latest Rabobank report on the European wine market, e-commerce sales of wine in the period from 2010 to 2017 surged by 66 percent. At the same time, European wine consumption actually fell by 5 percent. Thus, consumers are still shopping for wine online even as consumption falls.

Overseas sales of UK Wines Double in 2018

Wines from the UK just reported a milestone year in 2018. Not only did British winemakers produce a record-breaking amount of wine last year due to warmer growing conditions, but also they saw wine exports double. The USA and Scandinavia are the two primary export markets for UK wine.

US Wine Exports Decline in 2018

Meanwhile, U.S. wine exporters had a down year in 2018. Wine exports were down 12 percent by volume and 5 percent by value, according to data from a wine industry consulting group. The one bright spot was U.S. bulk wine sales, which were up 12 percent by volume and 10 percent by value.

Artificial Intelligence Is Coming to the Wine Industry

Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the third-largest premium wine company in the United States, is now using AI to pair its wines with the top-trending recipes on AllRecipes.com. The winemaker has partnered with Meredith Corporation on this new AI-driven marketing deal that could reach as many as 55 million consumers.

Buying Fine Wine With Cryptocurrency

IronGate.Wine, a retailer of fine and vintage wine, will now accept two forms of cryptocurrencies for the purchase of expensive wine bottles. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will now be alternative payment methods for young, Bitcoin-rich millennials looking to build up their private wine collections.

The Unexpected Impact of Brexit: British “Booze Cruises”

Ahead of Brexit in March 2019, wine retailers with European stores are seeing a surge in “cruiser millennials” who are taking cruises across the English Channel to stock up on French wines at discounted prices. British wine retailer Majestic has seen a 49 percent surge in sales at two stores in Calais.

It Might Be Possible To Change the Types of Wines You Like

Researchers at Penn State University in Pennsylvania are studying how people’s preferences for certain types of wines can change over time. The researchers studied wine drinkers in Pennsylvania and California to see if they could increase their liking of certain types of wines made from native grapes found in North America.

The Era of the 750ml Bottle May Be Coming to an End

A top Rioja producer – Ramon Bilbao – is introducing a new three-quarter-size bottle (500 ml) to cash in on the trend for smaller wine bottles. For wine drinkers who want to enjoy wine mid-week, but don’t want to consume an entire bottle, smaller size makes it easier for consumers to try new wines.

Forbes Ranks the Billionaires of the Alcohol Beverage Industry

According to the Forbes list of the wealthiest people in the world, there are a surprising number of “booze billionaires” who have amassed billions of dollars from their alcohol beverage brands. Number 10 on the list, for example, is Juan Francisco Beckmann Vidal, the chairman of Mexican tequila brand Jose Cuervo.

Meet the Four Different Kinds of Wine Drinkers

According to a bestselling Italian book on wine, when it comes to enjoying wine, there are four major archetypes of wine drinkers: the illiterate, the literate, the graduated and the educated. For wine marketers, these four different types each represent a unique approach, behavior, and spirit toward wine.

The New Wine Influencers Are Not Who You Might Think

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted the new influencers of the wine industry – people like NBA basketball star LeBron James. In an era of social, media influencers and celebrity endorsements, the “LeBron Factor” means that any wine he mentions immediately becomes a customer favorite on wine review sites or wine apps.

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Thank you again for listening to Bevcast. Once again, a quick reminder to enter your wines in the 2019 China Wine Competition, the international wine competition that is organized by Beverage Trade Network in Shanghai that rates wines by Quality, Value, and Package.

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