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Lasers to overtake manual sorting in hi-tech Bordeaux
Manual sorting tables will soon be a thing of the past as the top chateaux embrace €100,000 laser sorting technology.

Grape surgeons, as they will be known from now on, will be using micro-surgery to remove individual pips. Any grape that does not measure up to expectations will be sent to the newly appointed Grapefinder General to be summarily sentenced and ceremonially burnt at the stake of Michel Rolland’s opinion.

Napa suffers at high end, while lower tiers and cults sit tight
The higher-end Napa wines are suffering most in the recession, with some big names discounted by nearly a third.

Yes, those cults are very tight. Screaming Ego, Tiny Reservation Cabernet Sauvignon, Continuum Financium continue to fetch a pretty dollar from dribbling collectors. One city investment banker, who chose to take his highly deserved bonus in kind, was said to have had the world’s largest allocation of a Napa wine so expensive that it requires its own team of bodyguards, transferred to one of his offshore accounts.

Tour de France to pass through the Médoc
The Médoc has just been chosen as the second-to-last stage of next summer’s Tour de France, being held from July 3 to 25, 2010.

Forecasting a torrid, hot summer the Tour de France has been diverted through the vineyards where the riders will be encouraged to “irrigate” the parched vines. 2010 is, therefore, already expected to be a “piss good” vintage.