by Lizzy Davies at The Guardian

Most countries struggling to deal with the scourge of teenage binge drinking attempt to separate bottle and drinker. In France they do things differently. A government-commissioned report is advising university canteens to hold wine-tasting sessions to educate the young in the virtues of moderate consumption.

by Sandra Godwin at weeklytimesnow.com.au

Restructuring the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation has begun, with staff cuts and a plan to combine the administration of the wine industry's four major national bodies under one roof.

by Matt Craze and Rodrigo Orihuela at Bloomberg.com

Chile’s strongest earthquake in 50 years may bankrupt smaller winemakers after vines collapsed, casks broke apart and millions of liters were spilled, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker-turned-winemaker said.

by Tim Atkin MW at The Times

The Chilean earthquake isn’t the only natural disaster to hit the wine business in the past year. Madeira, the tiny volcanic island that produces some of the best fortified wines on the planet, was pounded by floods last month, with many of its vineyards washed away, while in Australia, the bushfires that killed 173 people in the summer of 2009 also torched a significant part of the Yarra Valley’s vineyards.

from Reuters

South Africa's government will not approve an application by a state mining firm to prospect and possibly mine in the country's main wine producing region, the Business Day newspaper reported on Thursday.

by Blair Speedy at The Australian

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that Italian wines routinely outsell French wines by volume except during the December quarter, when demand for champagne to toast the holiday season more than doubles sales of French wines.

by Dave McIntyre at The Washington Post

We all want value in wine. For most consumers, that means we want the cheapest possible wine that tastes good. If that wine is trendy, all the better. Make it French, which carries the cachet of quality, and slap on a cutesy label that plays on Americans' cliched images of the French – say a beret-clad Frenchman on a bicycle with a basketful of baguettes, trailed by a dog with a baguette in its mouth – and you have a recipe for market success.