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Well, pour yourself a glass of vino to go with that lobster tail tonight because wine prices have fallen so much, winemakers in Australia are complaining that wine is now cheaper than some bottled water. WATER! Dan Murphy, a major wine-retail chain in Australia, is currently selling cleanskins, bottles of wine without a label that are usually sold in a case, for 1.99 Australian dollars, or about $1.60, the Sunday Mail reports. That’s less than half of what wine cost 10 years ago, the New York Times reported. “Australia can’t even bottle air and make money selling at that price,”...

THE value of Australia's wine exports rose to $2.8 billion in 2005/06, new figures show. The 2 per cent increase on the previous year comes as more Australian wine than ever is consumed locally and overseas. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released today showed 722 million litres of wine was exported in 2005/06 - eight per cent more than the previous year. ... The United Kingdom imported $946 million worth of Australian wine, some 36 per cent of the overall export market. The next largest export targets were the US ($864 million) and Canada ($246 million), the ABS...

MORE than eight million litres of this season's production of Beaujolais wine is being turned into near-pure alcohol for use in disinfectants, cleaning products or fuel additives, as French vineyards face up to a massive overproduction crisis.A chronic wine glut, falling domestic consumption and fierce overseas competition have converged to create a wine crisis on an unprecedented scale. With "lakes" of unsold wine threatening to undermine prices, the European Union has resorted to paying vintners to destroy some of their stock each year, distilling billions of bottles of perfectly drinkable wine into pure alcohol. Sceptics say the measure, which cost...

ROBBIO, Italy (Reuters) - Wine conjures up the image of cultured drinkers sipping their way delicately through a full-bodied vintage. But for two history buffs with a passion for the tipple, northern Italy has the barbarians to thank for its long wine-making tradition. Luca Sormani, from Como, and Fulvio Pescarolo, from the tiny town of Robbio near Milan, have traced the region's wine culture all the way back to its Celtic roots and have started making it according to ancient methods. Celtic tribes from farther north -- known to the Romans as "Barbari" -- conquered northern parts of Italy about...

Tired of Chardonnay? Alsace offers an alternative to the tyranny of oak. I hope there's a sequel to "Sideways," the wine-soaked movie that's had a dramatic impact on American consumers. Since lead character Miles gushed about Pinot Noir as "haunting and brilliant," U.S. sales of Pinot are up more than 30 percent. Meanwhile, Merlot -- which Miles scorned as imbecilic -- has slumped. "Sideways" was the funniest Hollywood treatment of wine since Lucy Ricardo stomped grapes in Italy. But I don't want a sequel for artistic reasons. I want Miles to come back and trash Chardonnay. Just like Merlot, Chardonnay...

A winery took up the age-old question, What do women want, and came up with this answer: A lower-alcohol wine. The new product, White Lie Early Season (search) chardonnay, bucks the trend of "fruit bomb" wines that carry a hefty alcoholic punch. It clocks in at 9.8 percent alcohol compared to the 13 and 14 percent found in some vintages. With its curly scripted label and "wink-wink" marketing — corks stamped with white lies, such as "I got it on sale" — Beringer Blass Wine Estates (search) is aiming squarely at women, consumers who some wine marketers believe have been...

Source: Geological Society Of America Date: 2003-11-04 Climate Change In The Vineyards: The Taste Of Global Warming Wine lovers take note: global warming is already tinkering with your favorite indulgence. A study of the world's top 27 wine regions' temperatures and wine quality over the past 50 years reveals that rising temperatures have already impacted vintage quality. As for the next 50 years, climate modeling for these same wine regions predicts a 2°C temperature rise that is likely to make cool growing regions better producers of some grape varieties, and already warm wine regions less hospitable for viticulture. The details...

Great story, the man riding with the broken collarbone right now has cut his overall deficit from the main riders in more than half from 9 minutes to 4.What an epic 100th tour this has been!