Photo by tarotastic

Big Wine Brands Lead Growth in U.S. Market
From Wine Spectator, not surprising that consumers are looking for wine values, which means the big boys are reaping the benefits.  The good news is American consumers spent more than $40 billion on wine last year, an all-time high.  Hopefully we’ll see more trade-up in 2011.

10 Best Hangover Cures That Work
From Enobytes, probably a couple of days late for this to be super helpful, but still great tips for the next time you overindulge.

Your Sommelier’s New Year Predictions
From Vino Sense, some thoughts on the world of wine in 2011.  Good to hear technology advances will hopefully lead to more consistent experiences for the consumer.

Best New Food & Drink Blogs 2010
From Drinks are On Me, a few potentially new-to-you food and wine blogs to follow.  Looking forward to trying these out.

Photo by derekGavey

Ransoming the World’s Most Famous Vineyard
From Vinography, I really hope this isn’t the beginning of an unfortunate trend. The owner of arguably the most famous winery in the world, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, recently received two threatening letters promising to poison his vineyards unless a substantial ransom was paid. Fortunately the culprit has since been apprehended.

Additional Tip: The most recent edition of Wine Spectator magazine has a fantastic in-depth look at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. You can also pick up a bottle to try yourself for around $3,000.

Sonoma Vintners to Wineries: Promote Sonoma County or Become a Criminal!
From Fermentation, the Sonoma County Vintners Association is trying to get a law passed that would force Sonoma County wineries to place the words “Sonoma County” on their wine labels. I completely agree with the author’s take on this one. Wineries should be free to market and communicate with consumers however they see fit through their labels. At the end of the day it’s the wineries’ responsibility to sell their wine, and if the words “Sonoma County” helps that effort they would have already made that decision.

The Top 50 Craft Breweries
From Grapes and Grains, the Brewers’ Association recently released their “2009 Top 50 Craft Breweries” list.  Unfortunately no Cincinnati-area shops made the cut, but the Great Lakes Brewing Co. out of Cleveland made the list at #23.

Screw Caps Ace Another Test Against Corks
From the May 2010 edition of Wine Spectator magazine, a 10-year study by the Australian Wine Research Institute shows how good wine performs under different closure conditions.  The results clearly show screw caps as the preferred closure over different types of corks and synthetic corks.  Once a year each wine in the study was opened, tasted, and analyzed.  According to a researcher on the study, most of the wines sealed with closures other than the screw cap were completely undrinkable.  Wow.