Italy’s Lugana DOC increased its sales by a whopping 27% in 2019, selling 22m bottles of wine – and it sees a bright future, as long as the US tariffs on wines from the EU don’t go ahead.

US wineries shipped more than $3.2bn worth of wine to consumers in 2019 – showing that while the US may be slowing down overall, the direct-to-consumer (DtC) segment still has plenty of life in it.

Hard seltzers are taking the drinks industry by storm, eroding the market share that once belonged to wine. 

The new coronavirus spreading throughout China, and the world, has resulted in quarantined cities, travel restrictions and delayed returns to work and school from Chinese New Year holidays. Not surprisingly, this has also been bad for the wine trade.

Italian police have dismantled a wine fraud organisation, which produced and commercialised more than a million litres of fake wine.

The 25% tariff imposed by America on various European products, including still wines from France, Germany, Spain and the UK, has collapsed orders for many producers. 

The EU has agreed to increase aid for wine promotion activities by 10%, to help boost exports. The additional funding is aimed at supporting EU wine producers hit by the US government’s 25% increase in import duties on some EU still wines, which came into force in October.

The upcoming Culinary and Wine Tourism Conference at Geisenheim University will see 27 scientific experts from 15 countries speaking about the current research work being done on tourism and culinary events.

Edwin Vos has been appointed the International Head of Wine and Spirits at Christie’s. Vos joined Christie’s in 2012 a head of the Amsterdam wine department.

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump have apparently called a ceasefire in their trade hostilities, with the US agreeing to hold off on proposed tariffs on luxury French goods until the end of the year. One of those proposed tariffs was a 100% tariff on wine. 

The total growth for the US wine market rose by just over one percent in 2019, slowing from a historic yearly growth of between three and four percent, reports California's Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates (GF&A) in their annual wine market report.

As of this year, the Austrian Wine Marketing Board has both a new managing director and a new wine marketing division, signalling a new strategic direction.

The Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins and the Wine Institute of California have issued a joint statement calling on the US and EU governments not to impose tariffs on wine products, now or in the future.

One-third of grape production in the Adelaide Hills, one of Australia’s leading wine regions, has been lost or damaged in catastrophic Christmas bushfires, and the damage bill is set to exceed A$100m ($69m).

Issue 6, 2019 has landed! Inside you will find news, views and in-depth features about the international wine industry. All the articles can be found gathered together here.