The 18th edition of the Brussels World Competition took place on 6th-9th May in Luxembourg. 250 wine tasters from all over the world came to taste over 7358 samples.

Founded in 1985, the domaine du Faucon Doré constists of 22 hectares of vines in the appelation Côtes du Rhône Contrôlée and 5 hectares in IGP-Vin de Pays. In 1999 the Faucon Doré converted to organic growing methods ; in 2009, it went biodynamic. Loyal to the Millésime Bio Fair and its Challenge for 5 years, this year the estate won a gold medal and two silvers, leading the estate to second place for the total number of medals won in the competition ! The domaine du Faucon Doré can be found on the WineAlley website, by searching for it in the WineAlley plaza.

The current crisis, long in development, has been a heavy blow, and it is not the fault of producers that they did not foresee in advance what even Nobel prize winning economists were unable to predict. Consumers, faced with declining purchasing power, have also reduced their expectations and expenditures as well, preferring the “adequately good” over the excellent. As a result, the typical Italian products which have suffered the most have been those in the upper-middle price range. Those who have benefitted the most have been firms which offer phony agricultural products. They offer products claiming authenticity but which are not of true Italian origin, but all the same are gaining market share both abroad and in Italy itself.

An analysis of the figures for bulk wine sales contracts for 43 weeks of the 2009-2010 campaign.

Latvia has always been a country with abundant natural food resources (fish and meat, dairy products, cereals and berries). Once known as the "larder of Russia" and of Sweden, this country produced and packaged food products, not only for its neighbouring countries, but also for the rest of the world. Today, the food industry remains one of the most important sectors of activity, and which benefitted at the start of the 1990s from the first large foreign investments.

The euro, which was worth 1.49 dollars at the start of December 2009, has seen a very rapid fall: 8 June 2010, it dropped below the psychological barrier of 1.20 dollars (1.19). It was the same day that- symbolically- Airbus obtained a contract of 11.5 billion dollars for an order from Emirates, which symbolised the revival of competitiveness for eurozone businesses. Amongst the eurozone countries, Germany is a supporter of a strong euro; however other countries are feeling the beneficial impact for their trade of the currency’s depreciation on exports to countries outside the monetary zone. These exports increased in value by more than 10% in the first quarter of 2010, to reach 125 billion euros in March. This result is certainly partly due to the recovery of commercial activity, put also partly to the dpreciation of the euro. The impact of this depreciation should be considerable on trade in wine between the eurozone and the rest of the world. The eurozone countries are extremely important in wine terms: 94% of wine growing capacity and 79% of consumption volume in the European Union, 60% of production capacity and 50% of consumption in the world. The steep fall in the euro against major global currencies should therefore influence trade in the eurozone countries in 2010.

The sparkling wine market is getting back up off the ground. Sparkling wine sales have revived along with growth from 2009 and this rebound was confirmed in the first quarter of 2010 by a vigorous upturn in trade in Champagne. An end to the double dip market.