Old law works against Canadian producers

July 7^th 2009  by Owen Roberts at Guelphmercury.com

The potential strike at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario brought out mixed feelings among store patrons, on blogs, in letters sections of newspapers and magazines, and on the streets. Among the critics are many of Ontario's small wine producers. They say the retailing giant ignores them in favour of large producers, who fatten their wallets by unscrupulously duping the public with the chronic, openly disgraceful Cellared in Canada scheme.

Top German producers declare war

July 8^th 2009  by Jancis Robinson at jancisrobinson.com

In an extraordinary development, 14 top German wine producers have, in a letter, ‘declared war’ on Christian Verlag, publisher of the Gault Millau annual German wine guide compiled by Joel Payne and Armin Diel. The producers want nothing whatever to do with the next edition, declaring they do not even want to be mentioned in it. The principal explicit reason for this unusual move is the producers’ exasperation at being expected to pay a ‘voluntary’ €200 to the publisher as well as being expected to supply tasting samples.