Fistonich honoured

George Fistonich, founder and managing director of New Zealand's Villa Maria Group, has received one of his country's highest honours by being made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

FWD conference call

Rogue traders are decimating the businesses of legitimate licensed wholesalers and cash and carries, according to the chairman of the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD), Rodney Hunt.

Majestic posts 24% rise in profits

Wine-by-the-case specialist Majestic Wine has posted another year of record pre-tax profits - up 23.9% to 13.2 million.

Coyle quits Oddbins

Lynne Coyle, the last member of the pioneering team of buyers who between them made Oddbins the most exciting of the multiple specialists during the nineties, has quit the retailer.

PLB gets a Sicilian

Sicilian producer Firriato is to be reunited with Australian flying winemaker Kym Milne MW after PLB snapped up the agency from current UK importer - and Milne's former employer - Italvini (part of WaverleyTBS).

Still life

Anjou-Saumur extends from 60km west of Angers to 15km east of Saumur, from Durtal in the north to Thouars in the south. Touraine abuts Anjou-Saumur in the west and reaches Blois in the north-east, Saint-Aignan in the south-east. Together they include 39 appellations, ranging in degree of familiarity from Vouvray to Cour-Cheverny.

US direct shipping shake-out

In the wake of the US Supreme Court's decision on direct sales between wine producers and consumers (see Harpers, 20 May), the focus of activity has shifted to individual state legislatures.

WSET confirms move date

The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) begins moving to its new home, the International Wine & Spirit Centre, on 10 June.

Geoffrey Roberts award helps Sri Lanka

The 2005 Geoffrey Roberts Award, an annual international travel bursary worth 3,000 (US$6,000) and named after the UK's New World wine pioneer, has been won by Mary Taylor of New Zealand.

Local Flavour

Sardinia's wine represents a growing industry. Its producers are an interesting mingle of small, traditional growers, cooperatives and medium to large private estates. They range from the 3.5ha, 3,000-bottle estate of Giovanni Battista Columbu's Malvasia di Bosa DOC near Nuoro (featured in the documentary film Mondovino) to Sella & Mosca's industrial 650ha, seven million-bottle production.

Lay & Wheeler sets up agency arm

Fine wine merchant Lay & Wheeler has moved its agency portfolio into a new company, Select Vineyards Agency Company.

From the heights of Mont Blanc to the depth of Inferno

Italy's smallest wine-producing region, Valle d'Aosta, an autonomous Alpine province where French-style architectural features predominate, is not only the site of Europe's highest vineyards, but also home to a broad spectrum of indigenous varieties that are usually blended to produce distinctive DOC cuves.

Booting up

Italy was the only European country that enjoyed an increase in sales of wine to the UK in 2004 (AC Nielsen), so the mood should be upbeat as 44 leading Italian importers gather at Lord's Cricket Ground for the seventh Definitive Italian Tasting, instigated by the Italian Wines Committee of the Wine & Spirit Trade Association and organised by Hunt & Coady.

Mega WOSA tasting

The Cape's generic promotional body, Wines of South Africa (WOSA), has released details of plans to shake up its annual generic tasting.

Sassicaia goes mini

Top Italian wine producer Sassicaia has launched a limited-edition Mini Cooper S sportscar. Twelve have been produced.

Benevolent launches buddy scheme and outlines funding fears

The Wine and Spirits Trades' Benevolent Society is likely to be badly hit by the takeover of Southcorp by the Foster's Group and the possible takeover and carving-up of Allied Domecq by Pernod Ricard, the Fortune Group and Diageo.

Bronco launches budget Napa Valley wine

Bronco Wine Company - famous for producing Two Buck Chuck' - is launching a $3.99 Napa Valley range.

Va-va-Vouvray

Never has a classic wine style been dumped on by so many with such regrettable thoroughness. At the outset of my research for this feature it was hard to find a friend for these charming wines, as the following responses show: I don't personally think they have anything unique to offer' (supermarket buyer); you can always find a sparkling Vouvray with a good amount of bottle age on a restaurant wine list because the turnover is so slow' (agent); or, most damning of all, Loire crmants are like Skoda cars. You wouldn't be seen dead drinking them, though inside the bottle they are quite decent' (wine merchant).

Campaign trailing

As recently as three years ago, Bordeaux remained resolutely upbeat about its most valuable foreign market. Though shipments to the UK fell 4% in 2002, they were up 5% in value. Total exports had maintained a steady upward trajectory over the previous decade, even if they had slipped back from their all-time high of just over 2.5 million hl in 1997. The curve speaks for itself,' declared Tanguy Chatillon, the then marketing director at the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB), as he laid the sales graph in front of me. Here are the figures. The rest is bullshit!'

The Interview - Robyn and Robert Wilson, Owners, Bleeding Heart Restaurants, London