First California, now Spain suffers from fire. Galicia, the home of Albarino, has been hit by fires started by arsonists who have killed 31 people in a spate of forest fires. The arsonists used combustible balloons to start fires throughout the region. Fuelled by winds from Hurricane Ophelia, the fire spread quickly, however rainfall earlier in the week extinguished many of the fires.

Meanwhile in California, a dozen large fires are still burning. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s latest summary, the Atlas Fire, near Napa, is seventy-seven per cent contained, and the Nuns Fire, east of Sonoma, is sixty-eight per cent contained. The death toll is now over 40.

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Spain is to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy on Saturday after a referendum last week that saw the separatist achieve a victory in a plebiscite with a very low turnout.

The uncertainty of whether Catalonia will stay in Spain and Europe has meant that the Catalonian banks and wine companies will need to move offices if they want to access the European market without tariffs.

Its been reported that the board of Cava powerhouse Codorníu intend to move the head office from Catalonia to Rioja. While Cava production is predominantly based around the Catalonian city of Barcelona, other regions are allowed to make Cava, and Rioja is both geographically close to Barcelona and already a large producer of Cava in its own right.

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Sweden wins award for best palate, with France in the middle of the pack and Italy last.

France and Italy may be two of the power house wine producers in the world, but seemingly their palates are not so good. That’s according to results from the La Revue du Vin de France, at the fifth annual Tasting World Championships held in Burgundy this week.

24 teams from around the world competed tasting 12 wines. Teams had to identify the country, region, main grape variety, the vintage and, if possible, the producer.

The top ten results were Sweden, Britain, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Finland, Spain, Hungary, Canada, China and Poland. France came 11th place out of 24, and in last place was Italy.

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The desire for Blue has seen the creation of all sorts of combination, now scientist have discovered, that popping a bottle of champagne at 20 ̊C creates a bluish cloud of gas. This is according to the studies of co-author Gerard Liger-Belair, a professor at the University of Reims in France's Champagne region, where he studies bubbles and foam.

At normal drinking temperature, well chilled or 8-10 ̊C only a white cloud appears. But with warmer wines the sudden drop in temperature, associated with the sudden decrease in pressure, creates tiny particles of dry ice. These particles reflect light, similar to the way the sky does, turning the cloud blue.

You may not have noticed this though, as the escaping gas is blue for only the first thousandth of a second - and you probably don't drink warm fizz.

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It seems almost every year we are talking about another annual increase in sparkling wine sales. This year has been no exception with another 9% growth in sparkling wines in the 2016/2017 year according to accountancy group UHY Hacker and Young. Sales rose to 156 million litres in the UK. A rise of nearly 13 million litres! This is part of a steady rise in sparkling wine sales since 2012 with sales now 76% higher over the last five years.

It’s not all Champagne though. The UK, is the leading import market for Prosecco accounting for around ¾ of European exports. Prosecco also over took Champagne as more important to the UK market in terms of value and volume back in 2015. Since then sales of Champagne in the UK (their largest export market) have continued to slide.

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Fires are raging across California in Napa and Sonoma counties, destroying wineries and killing 31 people.

The fires, flared over night fuelled by high winds, have been most damaging in the Atlas Peak-Stag’s Leap area near Yountville, and in Sonoma County between Kenwood and Santa Rosa and in the mountains north and west of Calistoga. Already it is being reported that Stags Leap, one of America's most iconic wineries, has lost vineyards and buildings.
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