Wine Atlas

Vintners held their annual "bake sale" last weekend at Premiere Napa Valley to raise money for the Napa Valley Vintners Association, and the price tags went a mite higher than what mom's cupcakes usually fetch. Try $62,000 for the top lot, five cases of Shafer Vineyards Sunspot Vineyard Cabernet, which was auctioned off to Ultimate Distributors from Atlanta, Ga. That breaks down to $1,033.33 a bottle.

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The 2008 Australian grape harvest is set to produce higher yields than first thought.

Mid-harvest figures suggest up to one-point-six million tonnes will be picked, up around four hundred thousand tonnes from earlier estimates.

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The world's fastest developing major economy is the new exporting target for a group of Marlborough wineries setting off to China next week.

New Zealand Wine global marketing manager Chris Yorke said the eight-day trip aimed to search for distributors and increase sales, as well as to push New Zealand wines as strong, premium wine brands.

Of the 23 wineries represented on the Shanghai trip 12 are from Marlborough: Omaka Springs, Forest Estate, Babich, Nobilo, Stoneleigh, Terrace Heights, Jackson Estate, Oyster Bay, Spy Valley, Tohu Wines, Villa Maria, and Staete Landt.

Seven of the Marlborough wineries also have company representatives making the journey.

Mr Yorke, who is leading the trip along with New Zealand Wine marketing executive Kate Garton, said it would be New Zealand Wine's first visit to China. He also said it would be the largest ever tasting of New Zealand wines in China, with 100 wines on the sampling menu.

The three-day trip involves a media conference, tastings and a restaurant dinner matching the New Zealand wines with Chinese cuisine.

Ruud Maasdam, owner and winemaker at Staete Landt Vineyards, said he was looking forward to the tour.

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The 2008 wine harvest is under way around New Zealand's winegrowing regions, with an anticipated yield of about 18 million cases of wine. But as the pickers moved into the vineyards in Gisborne, a deal was being signed in Auckland that will make that wine harder to sell, at least in New Zealand.

The takeover of Auckland-based wine distributor Burleigh Trading by Vintage Wines & Spirits is the latest development in the consolidation of the domestic wine market and, by reducing further the representation of small wine producers in metropolitan markets, one that could have significant long-term effects on the health of the wine business.

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A growing number of middle class Chinese are discovering a taste for French wine, with sales experiencing triple-digit growth last year, trade figures have shown.

Sales of French wine grew 145 percent last year, the French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters said on Wednesday.

The growth in sales of French cognac and other spirits was equally high: Up 162 percent year-on-year by value, making China the third-largest market for the products, behind the United States and Singapore.

Chinese tipplers spent almost 247 million euros ($364 million) on French wines and spirits last year, making the country the 11th-largest market by value.

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