U.S. wine consumption continues to rise. In 2006, according to Adams Wine Handbook, Americans bought more than 283 million cases of wine, a 3.4 percent increase over the previous year. The biggest gainers were imports, with sales of French, Italian and Australian wines up 21.9, 6.7 and 6.8 percent respectively. Leading the import parade was Australia’s Yellow Tail brand, with sales of 8.1 million cases.

Up to one-third of France’s controlled-appellation (AOC) wines are illegitimate, says UFC-Que Choisir, France’s leading consumer watchdog group. They claim that the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO), the government agency which regulates French wine appellations, awards AOC status to almost any wine that applies, and pays little heed to qualifications. As a result, says Que Choisir’s Alain Bazot, “For a number of years, we’ve seen a steady fall in quality in a number of AOCs, which has undermined consumer confidence.”

Daily wine consumption helps prevent tooth decay, gum disease and sore throats, according to scientists at Italy’s University of Pavia. Or as one researcher put it, “Our findings ... indicate that wine can act as an effective antimicrobial agent against the tested pathogenic oral streptococci and might be active in caries and upper respiratory tract pathologies prevention.” (For more details, see the July 11 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.)

Drinking red wine may help men prevent prostate cancer, say researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). More specifically, their studies show that mice fed resveratrol, a compound prominent in red wine, were 87 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer. “A cancer prevention researcher lives for these days when they can make that kind of finding,” said lead scientist Coral Lamartiniere. “I drink a glass [of wine] ... every evening because I’m concerned about prostate cancer. It runs in my family.” (To read more about the UAB study, see the August 2007 online edition of the Journal of Carcinogenesis.)

Two noted California wine brands, Santa Barbara’s Firestone Vineyards and Sonoma’s Davis Bynum, have been sold. Firestone’s new owner is insurance mogul and vintner William Foley II. Under the deal, Foley – who also owns Foley Vineyards and Lincourt in Santa Barbara County – gets Firestone’s 150,000-case Santa Ynez Valley winery, all unsold stocks (around 210,000 cases), and 380 acres of vines. The Firestone family retains ownership of Curtis Vineyards, Firestone Walker Brewing Company and a new estate winery in Paso Robles. Davis Bynum’s new owner is fellow Sonoman Tom Klein, the long-time proprietor of Rodney Strong Vineyards. Under this agreement, Klein acquires the Bynum brand and all its stocks, while the Bynum family keeps the winery and vineyards – though these, too, are reportedly for sale.

Baron Elie Robert de Rothschild, co-owner of Bordeaux’s Château Lafite-Rothschild and a 25 percent stake-holder in the Rothschild banking empire, died last August at the age of 90. Elie, who took over a fairly-rundown Lafite just after World War II, is credited with overhauling the property and returning it to prominence among Bordeaux’s elite wine estates.

The genomic code of vitis vinifera, the grape species responsible for 90 percent of the world’s wine-grapes (including Cabernet, Syrah, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, etc.), was deciphered last summer by a team of Italian and French scientists. “The biggest benefit [to this],” U.C. Davis Professor Emeritus Carole Meredith told The Sacramento Bee, “ is that it will allow us to better understand how [wine] grapes work” and “how [they] respond to different environments.”

Washington state winemaker Mike Hogue, who sold his eponymous Hogue Cellars to Vincor (now Constellation Brands) in 2001, is back in business. He’s a partner – with Bud Mercer and son Rob Mercer – in Prosser, Washington’s new Mercer Estates winery. And he’s also reunited with former Hogue Cellars winemaker, David Forsyth, who will fill the same role at Mercer. The new operation will produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Riesling, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and is slated to make 70,000 cases annually. The first vintage will be 2008.

Ever wonder what gives Shiraz/Syrah-based wine that unique peppery quality? Well, it’s a compound called rotundone, say Australian Wine Research Institute scientists, who discovered the ingredient in 2006 but kept it secret until they could secure a patent. “The discovery promises to revolutionize the way wine is made,” says Melbourne’s The Age newspaper, as now “producers, who previously relied on luck and traditional fermenting techniques, will be able to manipulate environmental conditions such as shade and moisture levels to control the pepper flavors in Shiraz[/Syrah].”

French wine producers are upset with Europe’s biggest wine-bottle manufacturers, BSN-Glasspack and Saint Gobain, who they claim have conspired to create a bottle shortage. But the two companies plead innocent, saying the current shortage is the result of equipment breakdowns, labor strikes and a huge springtime demand for Rosé wines.

Archeologists have uncovered ruins of what is believed to be France’s oldest-known winery. The site, located near Clermont l’Herault in the Languedoc region, dates from around 10 A.D. and is said to have been built by the Roman Quintus Iulius Primus.

California wine giant E. & J. Gallo will launch a line of $15-per-bottle “Martha Stewart Vintage” wines in January. “The initial release,” says Reuters, “will include a 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, a 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2006 Sonoma County Merlot, to be sold in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, Phoenix and Portland, Oregon.” This appears to be a shrewd move. For as Stewart spokeswoman Elizabeth Estroff told Reuters, “Wine is an important part of entertaining and cooking, two areas where Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has significant credibility and brand equity.”

Nikola “Nick” Nobilo, one of New Zealand’s pioneering wine figures, passed away last August at the age of 94. Nobilo, who emigrated from Croatia in 1937, founded Nobilo Wines in 1943, and built it into New Zealand’s second-largest wine company before selling out in 2000 to Australia’s BRL Hardy, a subsidiary of Constellation Brands.

Patz & Hall, one of California’s top producers of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, recently moved into a gleaming new winery in Sonoma. The state-of-the-art facility features its own mini water-treatment plant; several large (18-foot by six-foot) clarifying tanks which educe clear wine without filtration; two open-screen membrane presses, a big, 15,000-liter one for whole-cluster Chardonnay pressing and a small, 3,500-liter one for handling Pinot Noir after fermentation; and three small, temperature-controlled, barrel-aging rooms.

Oenology and gastronomy will soon be partnered at Bordeaux’s Château Pape Clément. In early 2008, the esteemed Pessac-Léognan wine property will open an on-premise tasting school and restaurant, to go along with its recently inaugurated wine boutique.

Sonoma’s Buena Vista Winery celebrated it’s 150th anniversary last September. Founded by California wine pioneer Agoston Haraszthy and now part of Beam Estates, Buena Vista is the Golden State’s oldest continuously operating winery.

Sacre bleu! One of Bordeaux’s venerable négociant firms, Cordier, is now marketing wine in 25-cl tetra packs replete with straws. Called Tandem, the brand offers three A.C. Bordeaux wines, a red, white and Rosé, and is aimed, says Cordier’s Vincent Bonhur, at people who “drink ... on the run.” So far the wines are available only in Europe.