After many years of being the unassailable giant of wine traded fairs, this year's postponed ProWein was a relatively quiet event, with only 13,000 more visitors than attended Wine Paris/Vinexpo in February when the pandemic was raging far more fiercely. As Robert Joseph reports, the two events are firmly squaring up for a competitive few weeks at the beginning of 2023.

Reading time: 4m 10s

Meininger has returned to the Ahr wine region nine months after the flood. Although piles of rubble still incite anger, sleeves are rolled up and the focus is firmly on the future. Simon Werner reports what he found there.  

Reading time: 5m 50s

The rapidly-growing short video platform has broadened its audience from dance-crazy teenagers to adults interested in wine. But the relationship between TikTok and alcohol is not straightforward, as Alice Dawkins reveals.

Reading time: 6m

Yeast can help give wines flavours such as vanilla and raspberry, but more complex flavours are still trickier, and making Trebbiano taste like Sauvignon Blanc is still some way off, as Erika Szymanski of Colorado State University explains.

Reading time: 5m 15s

The last two years have been a great challenge for the Australian wine industry. Jeni Port gives an overview of recent developments and possible solutions.

Reading time: 5m 20s

Even as recently as 25 years ago, the suggestion that Sauvignon Blanc would become the most popular grape variety – of either colour – in Britain, the most competitive wine market in the world, would have been dismissed as fanciful. Robert Joseph looks back at this unlikely success story.

Reading time: 5m 40s

In the United States restaurant patrons and staff say goodbye to ‘before Covid,’ adapt to ‘during Covid,’ and wonder if there will ever be an ‘after Covid.’ Roger Morris reports. 

Reading time: 4m 25s

Wine charity auctions on both sides of the Atlantic are changing, as  L.M. Archer and Edward Lewis discover.

Reading time: 12 minutes

In an age where everything is on-demand and off-menu, the post-pandemic world seemingly remains addicted to the digital offerings to which it was restricted to during lockdowns. Among these, some of the most popular have been podcasts. They are  fast-growing businesses. Big and small players in wine are able to inform about regions or simply to promote products. Robert Mason reports.

Reading time: 4m 40s

Sogrape R&D chief Antonio Graça reveals details of the EU-financed MED-GOLD research project to help three agricultural sectors. 

In an exclusive interview, Antonio Graça spoke to Meininger’s at length about the potential of genotype selection in combating climate change, gene-editing, the role of wild yeasts in terroir character and robot tasters – and MED-GOLD, the climate research project that brings together wine, wheat and olives. Robert Joseph provides a brief summary.

Reading time: 3 minutes 

Interview with Antonio Graça of Sogrape

In this exclusive lengthy interview with Antonio Graça head of Research and Development at Sogrape, Meininger’s editor at large, Robert Joseph picked his brain about topics ranging from Portuguese and international grape varieties, to gene-editing, the role of wild yeasts in terroir character, robot tasters – and his latest climate research project that brings together wine, wheat and olives.

Reading time: 17m 55s

The war with Ukraine unleashed by Vladimir Putin has already caused huge numbers of casualties and led to the displacement of millions of refugees. Sergey Panov reports about the difficult situation in Russia and its effects for the Russian wine market.

Reading time: 4m 40s

In an exclusive broad-ranging interview for Meininger’s, Rob McMillan of the Silicon Valley Bank offered a view of the current and future of the US wine industry from the perspective of an informed financial analyst. Find the full interview HERE.

Reading time: 2m 40s

Interview with Rob McMillan of the Silicon Valley Bank

In an exclusive broad-ranging interview for Meininger’s, Rob McMillan of the Silicon Valley Bank offered Robert Joseph, editor at large of Meininger’s Wine Business International, a view of the current and future of the US wine industry from the perspective of an informed financial analyst.

Reading time: 12m 40s

Almost overnight, NFTs - Non-Fungible Tokens have come from nowhere in the art world to become a market worth more than a quarter of the value of the US wine trade. Now they are moving into wine. In this extensive article, Robert Joseph attempts to throw some light on a very complex picture.

Reading time: 16 m

For a shorter version (reading time 8m 20s), click here.