California grocery store wine scheme: Executives at top distributor charged with bribery // Victoria’s wine industry worth a record $10.8 billion

A federal grand jury indicted five executives of the nation’s largest alcohol distributor, Southern Glazer’s, for allegedly bribing a California grocery store buyer.

Victoria’s wine industry has delivered a record $10.8 billion economic contribution in 2025, according to the ‘2025 Victorian Wine Industry Economic Scorecard’ commissioned by Wine Victoria and prepared by RMCG.

Although “clarity and continuity” are top of the agenda at Vinexpo Americas 2026, the show is ambitiously pursuing wider reach and categories.

Barboursville to change ownership but maintain continuity

Stuart Boxer has announced he will retire from the role of chief financial and strategy officer of Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) from September, as the company strives to claw back more than AU$100 million.

Sparkling wine giant Henkell Freixenet has unveiled it now has full ownership of Freixenet SA, becoming its sole shareholder.

This is the final installment of the Drinking with Esther newsletter. After 10½ years at the Chronicle, I’m taking on a new adventure, a move that is filling me with all sorts of strange emotions.

Beyond my last column for Wine Spectator

The legislation would pass the social costs of alcohol misuse to the industry.

On March 2, Ontario and Nova Scotia announced a deal that would enable wineries in each province to ship and sell direct to consumers in the other province.

Julian Dyer, the Chief Operating Officer UK and Europe at Australian Vintage (AVL)  has announced he will step down from his role at the end of June after 14 years helming the UK side of the business.

Melbourne native Jane Eyre, who has lived in France since 2004 and established her own trading company fifteen years ago, has become technical manager for Domaine Comte Armand in Pommard.

The current state of the wine industry displays some interesting parallels with late Soviet-era winemaking.

Modernizing New York’s wine laws is a pro-consumer and pro-small business reform. It reflects what voters want.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is offering up to $1 billion of financial aid to American producers of certain specialty crops, including growers of wine grapes, through its new Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) program.

The study was released as supporters of expanding alcohol sales rallied on Lawyers Mall in Annapolis, urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would permit grocery stores to sell beer and wine.

A handful of producers working in a new appellation, San Luis Obispo Coast, are making fresh, savory wines that speak of their maritime place.

Morocco is a land of contradictions and ancient echoes, a place where the ruins of the Roman city of Volubilis stand as witnesses to a wine history that stretches back millennia.