Despite a softening overall market, US wine sales are getting a boost from bubbles: sparkling wines and premium cuvées are posting double‑digit revenue gains, signalling consumers still crave celebratory bottles.

New data from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America’s SipSource tracker reveals that, over the past three months, Champagne revenue jumped 14.7% and Prosecco rose 10.2%, while Sauvignon Blanc edged up 3.2%. Higher‑priced wines – those above $16 – outperformed cheaper ranges, with the $50‑plus segment seeing a modest 0.9 % increase, the only wine tier to stay positive in a 6% market downturn.

Champagne, Prosecco and Sauvignon Blanc contrasts sharply with the broader 6% fall in volume and value across wine and spirits combined, and it highlights the resilience of occasion‑driven purchases.

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Champagne has temporarily raised its maximum permitted alcohol level to 15% for the 2026 vintage, following an exceptionally hot, dry growing season that pushed grape sugars unusually high.

The change is an unprecedented response to a remarkable harvest. Champagne normally limits wines that have been enriched through chaptalisation to 13% alcohol, but some 2026 grapes reached potential alcohol levels above that threshold.

The region experienced its earliest harvest on record, with heatwaves and drought accelerating ripening while sharply reducing yields. The combination produced grapes with concentrated sugars but, surprisingly, plenty of fresh acidity.

The temporary 15% ceiling will only affect a small number of producers, rather than signalling a new direction for Champagne as a whole.

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A Spanish winery has shown that fermentation CO₂ needn't simply vent away — it can become fuel, thanks to a pilot project turning captured carbon dioxide into renewable methane using green hydrogen.

At Viñas del Vero in Aragón, researchers from CIRCE, Rovira i Virgili University and Gonzalez Byass ran the trial through the 2025 harvest as part of the EU-funded FUELPHORIA project. Over 300 hours, a two-stage methanation reactor converted 90% of the captured CO₂ into gas that was roughly 80% methane, with no catalyst degradation.

The team called it Europe's first integrated winery CO₂-to-methane system, built to cope with harvest's short, intense burst of gas rather than a steady year-round supply. Captured CO₂ is also being explored for inerting tanks and cutting water use — turning an unavoidable emission into a genuinely useful resource, and hinting at a promising option for wineries seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

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Britain’s new ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank could remove a significant range of wines from UK shelves, particularly from the specialist kosher market.

The ban, announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, targets goods produced in settlements rather than Israeli products generally. For wine, that could mean the loss of brands including Psagot, Shiloh and Gush Etzion, all currently sold in Britain.

Aaron Schapiro, owner of London-based Arele’s Kosher Wines, told the Jerusalem Post that many Israeli wines stocked by UK stores come from settlement wineries. If imports are prohibited, he said, he expects to lose more than half of his inventory.

Other producers, including Tura, Gvaot and Hevron Heights, also have wines on the UK market and could be affected. The precise impact will depend on the new rules defining the origin of wine and grapes.

The ban is expected to take effect within months, giving importers time to assess their ranges.

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Researchers have found that differences in Pinot Noir grape chemistry between two vineyards were associated with soil pH, manganese and the bacteria living around vine roots.

The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, found that changes in soil conditions and rhizosphere bacterial communities tracked with differences in amino acids and phenolic compounds in the grapes.

Rather than identifying a single cause, the researchers found a network of linked factors including soil pH, cation exchange capacity, exchangeable manganese and bacterial community structure.

The findings add to growing research into how conditions beneath the vines may help explain why grapes from different vineyards can develop distinctive chemistry. Amino acids are important for yeast fermentation, while phenolics influence colour, bitterness and astringency.

Although the study covered only two Pinot Noir vineyards, the researchers suggest that combining soil and microbial measurements could eventually improve precision viticulture and help growers better understand the factors shaping fruit composition.

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Three recent wine fraud cases in the UK and Italy reveal just how many ways criminals can exploit the value attached to wine, from imaginary bottles and convincing counterfeits to entirely false claims about where a wine was made.

Wine fraud is often associated with fake bottles, but the latest cases show that the deception can happen much earlier in the supply chain.

In the UK, wine executive Stephen Burton has been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a $99 million investment fraud. Investors were told their money was being used to finance loans secured against collections of rare wine. The supposed collateral included more than 25,000 bottles, featuring prestigious names such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Château Lafleur. In reality, prosecutors said Bordeaux Cellars held just 217 bottles.

Another UK case involved a more traditional form of fraud. A 34-year-old man was arrested after 55 bottles of suspected counterfeit wine were allegedly sold to a victim for more than £500,000. At an average of over £9,000 a bottle, convincing labels and packaging could generate enormous profits.

In Italy, meanwhile, authorities seized 2.5 million litres of wine falsely certified as DOP or IGP, worth more than €4 million. Here, it was the wine's claimed identity and provenance that were allegedly falsified.

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