An Introduction to Canadian Fruit Wines

The Canadian Fruit Wine industry is a thriving one. There are over 150 fruit wineries operating now in Canada and most of them do quite well. Every Canadian province has fruit wineries and most wine stores will have a selection.
The modern fruit wine industry in Canada owes its popularity to commercial associations such as the [...]

In Japan, the Cranberry is king…

In Japan the cranberry is king! Cranberry yogurt. Kellogg’s Cornflakes with dried cranberries. Starbucks orange and cranberry muffins. Dried sweetened cranberries. Cranberry juice and a lot of cranberry wine from all cranberry producing region of North America.
Japan is literally eating cranberries up. Last year, it consumed 160,000 barrels, a number that is expected to double [...]

Industry Tip#3 – VA in my wine..Yuck!

I have recently had the unlucky chance of discovering a relatively high amount of volatile acid (VA) in one of the pear wines I produced. Although the wine is still usable with a small carbon treatment and some blending, it is not something winemakers ever like dealing with.
Volatile acidity refers to the steam distillable acids [...]

How do Fruit Flies find your Wine Glass?

The warming weather and the outdoor patio wine drinking season starting signals the start of many little pests springing out of nowhere.
Uncork a bottle of your favourite raspberry wine outside in the summer and odds are good an annoying fruit fly will find your glass by the time the glass finds your lips. Turns [...]

Industry Tip #2 – Storage of Wine

This “Industry Tip” deals with an important issue after all the hard work has been done growing the fruit, making the wine and properly bottling it. It is the proper storage of wine to make sure that all that hard work does not go to waste from poor handling of the finished product.
The following will [...]

Industry Tip #1 – Choosing a good Fruit Winemaker

To anyone out there looking at setting up a fruit winery or making fruit wines on a commercial basis, there are many issues to deal with and be up to date on. In this blog, I will periodically post some of these subjects online for the general good of the industry. I am in the [...]

The State of Chinese Wines…

The first annual China International Wine Forum was help recently in Beijing. It attracted most wine professionals from all over China and many parts of the wine producing world.
It was a good forum, which outlined the tremendous growth of China’s wine industry and the increased investment and involvement by domestic and outside players.
It was a [...]

Judging Wines in Shanghai

Recently, I judged wines in Shanghai at the annual “China International Wine Challenge” which is an offshoot of the largest and most prestigious wine competition in the world called the “IWC” based out of London, UK. The competition was founded by world-renowned wine expert and writer Mr. Robert Joseph. I helped him organize the China [...]

Prowein = Good Wine

Prowein, the semi annual congregation of the entire wine world occurred in Düsseldorf, Germany last month and I was there for a couple of days. Two busy days of talking to wine producers, distributors, tasting wines, looking at packaging and equipment.
It was a very busy show and business was brisk। I was amazed at the [...]

The Floating Vineyards of Thailand.

I visited a large winery situated near Samut Sakorn, 50 KM southwest of Bangkok, called Siam Winery. It is a very nice facility and very modern. Their business is thriving in Thailand’s growing wine markets but most of the growth is attributed to exports to Europe. Actually, 80% of the production is exported and ends [...]