I've mentioned the worries about a Champagne shortage before; the growing appetite for the sparkling wine in the newly spendy countries of India, Russia and China is draining cellars worldwide. Now producers of the French bubbly are getting proactive about increasing supply. Since they have reached a point of maximum yield, Champagne producers have nominated 40 villages in north-eastern France that may be allowed to produce the sparkling wine. Producers have turned to geologists and historians to analyze both climate and soil as well as historical links to wine growing to determine which villages should receive the honor. The national appellation institute, Inao, will now assess the shortlist but this won't alleviate any current problems. The first new vineyards probably won't be planted until 2015, with a first harvest in 2017. For the Champagne producers its an important move, they've been notoriously protective of the power of their brand and the exclusivity behind the fact that only sparkling wine grown in the Champagne region can bear the name.

We first found out  last year that  Georges Duboeuf, Mr, Beaujolais Nouveau, was being investigated for wine fraud. There was apparently something to the claims, he has been fined €30,000 for fraud because some of the wine produced by his estate was blended with a variety of grapes rather than a single source. A series of barrels had been mixed with inferior grapes in attempts to conceal a bad harvest in 2004. Under France's AOC system blending is forbidden in order to maintain the terroir of a particular wine. Duboeuf has insisted that the blending was a mistake and not deliberately done. None of the wine was sold and the production manager at the winery,  Sylvain Dory,  resigned. For his part in the wine, Dory was given a three-month suspended sentence and fined €3000.