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Innovation: iDealwine new home page is live!

iDealwine reveals its new home page. The objective is to make your navigation as smooth as an old claret… See below a snapshot of the changes. End of 2015, iDealwine received the Innovation Award at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris. We were obviously very honoured but what a pressure!!! From this week, you can now discover our new home page, more modern and user friendly than before. Special wine recommendations You’ll still find most of the previous tools you were using but add to this a more tailor made selection of wines grouped under…

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Auction Report: highlight on Ermitage Cathelin from Jean-Louis Chave

Over 500 buyers took part in this auction closed on 24th February on iDealwine. Overall, they have followed current market trends with a few surprises still as the Cuvée d’ermitage Cathelin from Jean-Louis Chave whose price soared. Same happened to a few other rare vintages in this sale.   In Bordeaux, the « firsts» don’t seem to be suffering from current Bordeaux bashing and the demand remains high. Petrus is still in great demand including in « lesser » vintages, as for example this 1974 increasing by 21% to €1,040 or the 2006 to €1,800 (11%). The…

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Château d’Yquem opens its doors to the public!

Major news on the Bordeaux wine tourism scene: Château d’Yquem is finally opening its doors to wine enthusiasts. Until now, tours of Château d’Yquem were the preserve of a very small circle of people such as wine professionals, journalists, and very special customers. Now, interested parties will be able to go behind the scenes of the only Sauternes premier cru supérieur. We don’t use the word “only” lightly: the classification of Sauternes and Barsac dessert wines, produced in 1855 at the request of Emperor Napoleon III, listed 27 domaines. Château d’Yquem was the only…

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Climate: winegrowers fear the consequence of a mild winter

In recent weeks, widespread enthusiasm about the quality of 2015 vintages has given way to growing concern about the current mild winter and its implications for the 2016 harvest. Winegrowers had been saying it months before their optimism spread throughout the wine sector when the harvests were over: 2015 was an excellent year for almost all France's vineyards. The long period of warmth in June and July, tempered by the rain in August and followed by good temperatures in September created the ideal conditions for grapes to ripen. There should not be any…

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Will corked wine soon be a thing of the past?

Research is moving apace to try to resolve the problem of corked wine which leads to millions of hectolitres of wastage per year– something winegrowers and wine enthusiasts alike could happily do without. We review the alternatives available and scientific progress in this area. Every year, 1-3 % of bottles sold are corked when opened. Fortunately, this rate has tended to go down in recent years due to continuous improvements in cork manufacturing techniques. Treatments used on cork and corks have been enhanced to prevent the growth of the molecule responsible for cork…

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Bettane + Desseauve award iDealwine for its innovation in wine!

On Thursday 7 December, at the lavish party at the Quai d’Orsay to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Grand Tasting, iDealwine was awarded the “Grand Prize for Wine Innovation”. This distinction pays tribute to the fruits of fifteen years of work to develop and continuously enhance the online auction platform, iDealwine price database, indices iDealwineindex, and free mobile app. We are very proud to have earned this recognition! It was a memorable evening at the Quai d’Orsay as the bettane+desseauve team celebrated in lavish style the 10th anniversary of a fair which…

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Changes of ownership at Châteaux de Rayne-Vigneau and La Tour de Mons

  CA Grands Crus, subsidiary of French bank Crédit Agricole and Caisses Régionales d’Aquitaine et du Languedoc, owner since 2004 of the renowned Sauternes Chateau Rayne-Vigneau in Bommes, has just sold the majority of its shares to the group Trésor du Patrimoine. In the same time, CA Grands Crus is becoming sole owner of Chateau La Tour de Mons in Margaux.   Chateau Rayne Vigneau owns 84 hectares of vineyards in one piece, near the legendary Château d'Yquem. Its sub-soil is composed of sandy gravel on clay and is planted with 74% Sémillon,…

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The influence of yeast on wine aromas

A recent study conducted by four researchers from Auckland University (NZ) demonstrates the evidence that regional microbial signature impacts the aromatics of a wine. A scientific approach that confirms a common understanding of the correlation between yeasts and terroir. What is a yeast? A yeast is a microscopic fungus consisting of single cells that enable wine to ferment. Yeasts are commonly used in bakery and have the function of “lifting” the bread. Saccharomyce cerevisiae is the name given to the yeast responsible for the alcoholic fermentation in grape juice. What is the role…

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This year’s Top 50 wines over €1,000

The top wines sold at iDealwine’s Online Auctions during the first half of 2015 were unsurprisingly dominated by Bordeaux and Burgundy, particularly domaine Romanée-Conti, Petrus and Yquem. Of the Top 50 bottles sold for more than €1,000 since January 2015, Bordeaux and Burgundy occupies 47 seats, or 94% of the total – with 27 of the Top 50 wines from Bordeaux. These results support recent analysis of the most searched wines on iDealwine.com, where Bordeaux accounted for 92% of the Top 100 most searched wines. Burgundy came in second place, with 20 bottles…

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iDealwine’s subsidiary IWA ranked #1 in France

Recently released 2014 figures by the French Council of Auctioneers places International Wine Auction (IWA) – the subsidiary of iDealwine that handles the administration of our online auctions – as the number one for wine auctions in France. We have to confess (blushing slightly) that we are very proud to be officially recognised as the No. 1 French wine auction operator. We are especially proud of our team’s hard work over the last 15 years and the recognition by our ever increasing customer base. Over the last few days, the French Council of…

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