Global wine news

1. Wine critic Jancis Robinson has sold his personal website

Recently, Recurrent Ventures, an American digital media company backed by a private equity firm, acquired the website of the famous wine writer and critic Jancis Robinson. The amount of the acquisition was not disclosed. The above news was confirmed by her on social media. Jancis Robinson graduated from Oxford University. In 1984, she became the first person outside the wine trade industry to obtain the "Master of Wine" professional certification. She was the former Honorary Chairman of WSET, the British Wine and Spirits Education Foundation.

2. Pernod Ricard sets record sales in China in fiscal 2021

Recently, Pernod Ricard announced its sales performance for the 2021 fiscal year. The group achieved total sales of 8.824 billion euros, an organic growth of 9.7%; realized profit income of 2.423 billion euros, an organic growth of 18.3%; its regular free cash flow reached 1.745 billion euros, Set a record high. Its performance in the US and Chinese markets is particularly outstanding, with sales reaching record-breaking US$2 billion and more than 1 billion euros respectively.

3. Approximately 3.6 million tons of California wine grapes produced in 2021

Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Agricultural Statistics predicted that California wine grape production in 2021 would be about 3.6 million tons, the same as last year, and that grape production in 2020 would be the lowest in the past nine years. Since last week, grapes have been harvested in various producing areas in California. This year, some varieties have lower yields, especially some vineyards on the North Coast, which previously reported a 50% reduction in production. (PR News Wire)

4. South Korean wine imports hit a record high

According to data from the Korea Customs Service, South Korea’s wine imports last year increased by 27.3% year-on-year to US$330 million, exceeding the value of beer imports. The growth of wine imports this year is even stronger, with imports more than doubled year-on-year in the first seven months, reaching US$325 million. South Korean spirits imports reached 1.1 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 8.2% year-on-year, and also set a record high; this year's increase is expected to be even higher, with imports reaching 800 million U.S. dollars in the first seven months alone, up 26.2% year-on-year. In contrast, South Korea’s exports of spirits last year fell 10.3% year-on-year to 374 million U.S. dollars. (Xinhua News Agency)

5. 400 million bottles of Frizzanti  sold worldwide in 2020

In 2020, a total of 400 million bottles of Frizzanti will be produced and sold all over the world, with a total turnover of 429 million euros in overseas markets, 305 million euros in Italian large-scale retail trade, and a market growth rate of 4%: this figure simply refers to It is the Italian sparkling wine Frizzanti, which is a sparkling wine below 2.5 atmospheres.

In addition, the grape varieties used in micro sparkling wine involve many different wine varieties from south to north, from Pignoleto to Lambrusco, from Merlot to Sangiovese (Sangiovese), then from Chardonnay to Glera.

6. Italy's Vermontino wine emerges in the first half of the year

According to the "Report on Italian Domestic Wine Consumption for January-June 2021" recently released by the global market research organization IRI, among the wines sold in Italian domestic mass retail channels in the first half of the year, Chianti Classico DOCG red wines performed the best. Sales were 33 million euros, an increase of 7.2% compared to 2020. This was followed by Vermentino white wines, with sales of 25.7 million euros, a staggering increase of 32.5%. Chardonnay (Chardonnay) white wine sales ranked third, reaching 20 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 7.8%.

Sparkling wine sales fell slightly, reaching 118 million euros, a decrease of 0.8% year-on-year. But Prosecco sparkling wine is an exception, with sales increasing by 11% year-on-year to 12.8 million euros.