The French are probably drinking less wine than the official statistics would lead them to believe. According to the French Wine Press (APV), the real figure is not 54 litres per inhabitant per year, but 43, which would place France at the same level in the wine drinking stakes as Spain and Italy. A member of the APV also added that “the French had become responsible, moderate wine drinkers”. (Source: Le Figaro)

Cans, wine in packs with straws or in coloured bricks, screw caps, small aluminium bottles, glittering, fun colours and much more. Out-of-home food packaging has become a fully fledged strategy for wine producers. With these new types of conditioning, merchants hope to reach new categories of drinkers especially amongst the young and women, but also to introduce a new type of drinking. (Source: Goûts du jour)

Rosé wines have long been associated with summer, women drinkers and have often been considered as lacking substance. However today, they face a market where the demand for high quality wines is equally as high as that for large quantities. Sales have grown by 30% per year over the last 5, involving increasingly demanding customers. While Europe has been slow to respond to the changing market, California and to a lesser extent Australia and New Zealand, have adapted to the new rapidly growing demand, by producing more sophisticated rosé wines. (Source: Harpers)

Pernod Ricard has launched a Perrier-Jouët champagne that is the most expensive in the world, priced at more than €4,000 per bottle. This limited edition “By & For”, reserved exclusively for around a hundred buyers in the world, demonstrates the ambition of wine and spirits producers to adopt the business model of the luxury industry. Each buyer will be able to have his or her bottles customised according to taste. With this made-to-measure, limited quantity, exclusive product that heightens expectations of a truly prestigious acquisition, the French group has propelled itself into the loftiest of premium markets. (Source: Le Figaro)

Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU commissionner for agriculture and rural developpement, has launched the European Wine in Moderation Programme « Art de Vivre ». At the launch, Boel called for more coordination between member states to tackle binge drinking. The Wine in Moderation has been accompanied by the launch of the website www.wineinmoderation.eu (Source: Harpers)

The wine -called Shizen- is produced with the help of Bordeaux consultant Dubourdieu by the Asagiri Wine Company. It is made from the indigenous Koshu grape, grown entirely in Japan.

This is the first time a Japanese wine has been approved by the EU. Until January 2008, no Japanese wines were legally allowed to be imported into the EU. This restriction primarily existed because of a lack of regulation in wine production. (Source: Decanter)

Barney Rhodes, one of the founding fathers of the Napa Valley wine industry has died aged 88.Rhodes helped to launch a host of important wineries and cemented the region's reputation for fine wine. (Source: Decanter.com)