• A marketing researcher at Babson College demonstrated that taste-testers preferred Italian wine to Indian wine if they were told ahead of time where the wines came from. But they liked the Indian stuff better when they weren’t told until after they tasted it. [ABC]
• It turns out drinking wine at 30,000 feet isn’t like drinking wine on the ground. One of the largest suppliers of wine to airlines knows to select wines that will stand up to the drying of nasal passages and reduced senses of taste and smell on airplanes. [Napa Valley Register]
• Will Lyons has some recommendations for choosing wedding wines, which include lots of Champagne (or cava if you’re poor) and table wines that are “fairly neutral.” [WSJ]
• Illinois-based Terlato Wines, the company that owns the ever-popular Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio label, is trying to do for prosecco and Chianti what they’ve done for pinot grigio. [KNOX]
• In the first half of this year, wine collectors (mostly Asian) bought over $200 million in fine wine (mostly French premier and grand crus), which is nearly double the amount sold in the same period last year. [Reuters]
• Asimov and the New York Times tasting panel “felt a distinct absence of excitement” while tasting recent vintages of northern California sauvignon blancs. [NYT]
• Last weekend, Jay McInerney got to hang out with Daniel Boulud and a couple of NYC’s top sommeliers drinking Riesling in a backyard. Then he wrote a couple hundred words about it. Nice work if you can get it … [WSJ]
