Back in April of this year we saw one major champagne producer advocate lower production rates to compact the drop in sales. Now with harvest fast approaching, the battle is heating up over a reduction in yield. The London Times says that they may be ordered to leave up to half of the grapes on the vine in order to prevent flooding the market with champagne there is no market for. Last year the harvest level was 14,000 kg for every hectare farmed, this year Champagne houses are advocating 7,500 kg a hectare. Growers realize they have to harvest less but are pushing for 10,000 kg a hectare. The champagne houses are finding that they already have over a billion bottles in stock in their wine caves, far more than they usually keep on hand. Champagne grapes harvested will turn into wine which is ready for sale in 2011. The problem is that no body seems to know just how fast the economy will rebound and if, when it does, it will take champagne consumption with it. Champagne drinking is associated with a certain type of extravagance and it may be that even if the economy recovers quickly people may still not be ready to raise their glasses with the French bubbly.

Grape growers are coming off years when they received high prices for their grapes and champagne production was kept high to keep up with increasing demand. They are angry and according to an article in the Economist some say that the big champagne houses knew a crisis was coming, a charge the champagne houses deny. Merchants and vineyards are meeting Wednesday to set the maximum yield. If they can't reach a figure together then the regional prefect, who represents the French Government, makes the decision.

The world's largest wine appellation is right here in the U.S.A. The Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA covers 29,914 square miles along the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries including parts of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. These aren't exactly areas we first think of for wine but in recent years more and more wineries have popped up in the area and good wine has been emerging from these unexpected places. The boundaries of the AVA are all part of the "driftless" Paleozoic Plateau and have a different type of soil than areas that have undergone periods of glaciation. Grapes in the Upper Mississippi Valley AVA include ones that can handle cold winters such as the Chardonel, Edelweiss, La Crosse, Marechal Foch, Frontenac and Saint Croix. The new appellation is fifty times greater than Bordeaux and officially goes into effect on July 22, 2009.

A giant bunch of Japanese grapes recently sold for almost $1000 at an auction in Ishikawa. The Ruby Roman variety, developed by the Ishikawa Prefecture Agricultural Research Center, was sold to an upscale hotel owner on Monday. The single bunch, consisting of 30 grapes each slightly smaller than a ping-pong ball, were described as "delicious: sweet but fresh at the same time, very well balanced," by Agricultural official Hirofumi Isu. At that price they better be!

[Thanks, Laurel]

Put two of my favorite loves together, fine jewelry and fine wine, together and you get this beauty. Chopard's artistic director Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele has created a parure of a necklace and earrings with a grapevine motif to celebrate the Festival del Sole in Napa Valley. Fashion Week Daily reports that the pieces are set in 18K rose gold and feature white and colored diamonds as well as gemstones that mimic the colors and shapes of grapes, vines, and leaves.

The ten-day festival is a luxury affair currently underway through July 20. It features concerts and presentations as well as gourmet meals and wine events throughout Napa Valley.

Champagne producer Louis Roederer has put a new twist on aging their sparkling wine, they are testing out aging the wine in the cold seawater 50 feet down in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel off the coast of Normandy, France. Roederer has placed several dozen bottles underwater and plan to bring them up in one year and hold a tasting session to compare them against wines aged the traditional way in their sellers. Roederer is the first producer to test aging sparkling wine in this way but others use this message for still wines including the Cavas Submarinas wine from Chile.

The threat of a Champagne shortage and the recent decision to consider expanding the Champagne grape-growing region might be good for one small French city. The Wall Street Journal tells the story of the town of Péas, which in the 1950s decided to stop growing grapes and turn toward other agricultural pursuits such as wheat and potatoes. Legend has it that when the mayor at the time found out that his city was eligible to seek inclusion in the champagne grape-growing region, he threw the letter away.

Huge mistake. A hectare (around 2.5 acres) of agricultural land in Péas is valued at less than $9,000 while a hectare of land that can be used to grow grapes for Champagne can be worth almost $1.5 million. What a difference one letter could have made.

But Péas may be getting a second chance to earn that Champagne money with the plans to expand the regions boundaries. As you might imagine, the town is rather excited about the prospect. They will have a long wait though, the first new vineyards probably won't be planted until 2015, with a first harvest in 2017. For now, all we can do is wish Péas bonne chance.

More proof that the current trend in wine is toward being involved in the winemaking process comes in the form of a new website, Adopt a Grape. The website is an interactive experience in which you chose a grape from a specific row and vine in the vineyard and then receive video updates as the grape goes through the growing season and harvest. The site was co-founded by Duane Hoff, owner of Fantseca Winery in St. Helena which is having their hands-on harvest experience on October 6 if you want to experience winemaking first hand.

Last year the news was all about Australia's wine glut and vineyards dumping their harvests. This year the situation is much different, Australia's wine grape harvest next year could be cut by more than half because of the worst drought in a century. In the U.S. it is currently harvest season but in Australia the harvest is still months away. Still there is reason to be concerned because yields will be done in regions that rely on irrigation water from the Murray-Darling Basin. The Wine Grape Growers Australia executive director Mark McKenzie has said between 800 and 1,000 of the nation's wine grape growers could be at risk of going out of business because they cannot buy water. The news comes as Australian wine exports have reached record numbers.

My love of Wine Spectator's Unfiltered column continues unabated. This week they had a piece on Vino Erectus, the unique project of young vinter Franco Ariano. Ariano's bold plan is to train grapes to grow upside down (tip facing up) ten ferment the grapes in an antique 400-liter glass pharmaceutical amphora, bottle the wine and then bury the bottles in the ground for a year. The resulting Sangiovese blend, made from grapes on Ariano's two-acre vineyard in Saludeccio, Italy, will sell for around $2,700 a bottle. Ariano says that growing the grapes in this way leads to earlier ripening and better ventilated bunches.

Like Kendall-Jackson, Blackstone winery is seeking to seek the next level of the wine market with a new line that appeal to a different price point than their main line which is generally under $10. The Blackstone Sonoma Reserve is produced at Blackstone's Kenwood Winery in the heart of Sonoma Valley and includes a Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot and Bordeaux-inspired red blend, Rubric. The wines use grapes sourced from premium vineyards found upon the hillsides, benchlands and coastline of Sonoma County and are made by winemaker Gary Sitton.

The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay uses grapes from the cool climate areas of Russian River Valley and Carneros, with small percentages drawn from the Sonoma Coast and sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Merlot uses grapes from the Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Sonoma Valley and also sells for $16.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve Pinot Noir uses fruit from the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley region and is aged for 12 months in French oak. It sells for $18.99. The 2005 Sonoma Reserve "Rubric" is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Petite Sirah. It is matured in a combination of French and American oak barrels and sells for $18.99.

If you are a fan of Moet et Chandon, here comes some bad news. The director of the Champagne house, Frederic Cumenal told the French newpaper Les Echos that they are facing supply issues. Because the Champagne region is an AOC and is limited by geographical boundaries it stands to reason that there is not an endless supply of grapes. The continued growth and popularity of the Moet et Chandon brand has streched the brand to its limits. Cumenal said that yields are at maximum. Nature can only be pushed so far and so a new rule for the 2007 harvest in the region stipulates that growers must save excess grapes in good harvest years to put on the market during limited supply years.

Yesterday I mentioned distilleries that use old whisky casks as barbecue chips and it got me thinking about winemaking leftovers. That's when I ran across this story, on Apres Vin, a new company in Washington that specializes in using winemaking leftovers. The company creates gourmet grape seed oils based on varietals such as Riesling and Merlot infused with chipotle. The ground-up seed meal from creating the oil can also be dried to make varietal flours such as Merlot and Chardonnay, which can create purple tinted baked goods. The flour is also high in antioxidants. The company is also exploring other options such as wood stove pellet fuel made from grape stems and seeds, paper and ink from the grape skins and even Chardonnay biodiesel. The company's website isn't live yet and so far the products aren't available in a lot of places but I think this is a brilliant idea and one I hope takes off.

The May issue of The Tasting Panel has an article on hot wines from Spain and Portugal. The Garcia Figuero winery is a labor of love for Jose Maria Garcia and Milagros Figuero, a wine-growing couple who focus on Tempranillo grapes in the Ribera Del Duero region. Their showcase wine is the 2003 Figuera Noble. The grapes for this wine are sourced from estate vineyards over 70 years of age. The wine was then aged in new barrels for 21 months, the first 15 in American oak, and the last 6 months in French Allier and Troncais oak and is aged 15 months in the bottle before leaving the cellar. The result is a deeply purple wine with a nose of candied black fruits and taste of chocolate and berries. It sells for around $160.

The trend for wine lovers seems to increasingly be to offer winemaking experiences. As people learn more about wine they become curious about taking then next step and having a turn at actually creating wine. Kings Hill Cellars in Santa Rosa, California is a "members only" winery that offers grapes, winemaking and storage facilities and the guidance of a winemaker to help when needed. Members invest in either half or full barrels of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel or Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes come from North Coast vineyards, including Mountain View Ranch, Herbert's, Le Vois and Trew in Dry Creek Valley; Fowler in Knights Valley and Volckhardt in Green Valley. Members choose their varietal and then are part of all the decision making as the wines are created. The winery is also available to vineyard owners who are interested in producing wine from their own grapes. They have 17 members thus far producing a total of nine barrels last year. Membership prices range from $2,450 for a half barrel of Sauvignon Blanc to $5,950 for a full barrel of Pinot Noir.

Just in time for Earth Day, the wine brand The Three Thieves have launched a new organic brand called True Earth. The wine is made from organic grapes. There are two True Earth wines, a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petite Sirah, and a varietal Chardonnay. Both are made from California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) vineyards in Mendocino County, using no pesticides, herbicides, or conventional synthetic fertilizers. The wines contain minimal amounts of sulfites which are used in the winemaking process to preserve freshness. The first release is 5,000 cases of each type and the wines sell for $12.99.