Wines from Chile have taken off in the US. Since the beginning of 2007, exports of these wines to the American market, which is especially enthusiastic about red blended wines but also sauvignon blanc, showed a significant rise. The success of these wines abroad has also led to better recognition of the Carmenère grape, which today is a typically Chilean grape but which is originally from Bordeaux. (Source: EuroWine)

An agreement signed in February 2008 between the regional government of Rioja, the Spanish Council of Scientific Investigation (CSIC) and Rioja University has enabled work to start on the future Vine and Wine Sciences Institute.  Due to open in 2010, the Institute is designed to become an internationally reputed leader in wine-growing research with state-of-the-art technology and the best research scientists in the field. (Source: ADIT / Foreign Affairs Ministry)

Wine consumption in India is set to treble by 2011 to reach 17 million litres a year, according to a study ordered by Vinexpo to the United Kingdom-based International Wines and Spirits Records.

The study shows wine consumption in India stood at 6mL in 2006 and in the past four years, it has risen by more than four times.

“Contrary to a popular belief that only imported wines are mainly consumed, most wines consumed in the country is locally produced, accounting for 75 per cent of the total volume” Vinexop Overseas chairman Dominique Hériard Dubreuil said. (Source GrapeGrowers & Vignerons / Vinexpo - IWSR)

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)