Nielsen: Wine Sales Gain At the Expense of Discounting, Aussies Buried By Their Own Dollar

May 3, 2011

High-end wines continued their dominance of off-premise sales gains, according to scanner data from The Nielsen Company for the 52-week period ending April 2, 2011. Most gains, however, came at the expense of price discounts. Overall wine sales were up  3.2% with U.S. wines gaining 4.8 % and imports down 0.4 %. ALL BUT ONE […]

Gallo Gets “Good Deal” On Illegal Russian River Water Diversion

April 23, 2009

For more than three years, the E. & J. Gallo Winery has illegally diverted Russian River water and improperly stored it, according to an  Administrative Civil Liability Complaint filed by the California Water Resources Control Board (WRCB) on April 20. The WRCB complaint said Gallo’s actions deprived downstream water users, gained it an improper financial […]

Cosentino Scrambles For Shelter To Stay Ahead Of Lawsuits

April 17, 2009

Lawsuits in San Joaquin County have forced Cosentino Signature Wines PLC’s (MCOZ.L) to scramble for new venues where it can continue winemaking and tasting room operations. Multiple sources have confirmed that, after Cosentino hurriedly vacated its Lodi-area wineries, it placed its wine from there — and possibly some equipment — at other area wineries which […]

Gallo Gets It Right

February 8, 2009

EDITORIAL Wine Industry Insight’s comments section has burned white hot over the manner in which Jackson Family Wines conducted its layoffs. And the fact that I covered that method at all. Those of you who remember my reporting in the Wine Business Insider and Monthly days know that I have repeatedly clashed with the Gallos. […]

Bolla Ankles B-F for Banfi

February 2, 2009

Sources close to the transaction say to look for an announcement that Bolla has left its long-time home at Brown-Forman to go with by Castello Banfi. In its past fiscal year, Brown-Forman reported sales of 1.13 million cases for Bolla, compared to 1.55 million in fiscal 2001.

None of Your Damned Business! Get Lost!

EDITORIAL Getting any sort of accurate news from many wine companies is like trying to figure out who’s running the Kremlin by watching who is standing next to whom at the Mayday parade. But the old Kremlin apparatchiks have nothing on Jackson Family Wines. The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat’s Kevin McCallum did the best he could […]