Hey Guys,

I'm doing a research paper on technological developments that are threatening the wine industry (within the last 2 years). While the stats need to be Canadian - if anyone has any ideas in general about the wine industry, would you let me know?

I'm quite stuck

Much appreciated Thanks!

What exactly do you mean by technological developments threatening the wine industry?

I work closely with a lot of wine suppliers, mainly french, and mainly expensive brands (louis latour, dom perignon, etc etc) and they aren't being threatened by technology developments, at least as far as I'm aware! However I can do a bit of digging and asking around with the reps if it'd be any help?

I would think that technological advances could equate to more industrialization, which (could) lead to more polution, etc. The vineyards could find themselves contaminated by the polution and whatnot.

I don't see "home wine making kits" really making that big of an impact... heck, you can make your own ice cream at home, but most prefer to hop on down to the neighborhood store for some good ol' Ben and Jerry's.

Hmmm, a real mind boggler if you ask me. Guess you'll need to think outside the box, as it were.

About the only thing that comes to mind is the replacement of corks with either those plastic things or screw tops. Quite an expierance the first time you fork out $30 for a good bottle of chablis to find it has a twist top

(Refraining from making Redfern jokes here for any aussies reading)

The state gov at one stage greenlighted coal mining in the Hunter Valley which would have destroyed the NSW wine industry in that region apparently.

Does Canada make wine ?

Know a number of people in the wine industry down here if that's any help.

Yeah they're replacing the corks with screw tops because they're running out of cork. Also because it's a million times cheaper AND makes the bottle of wine fresher. It essentially tastes as it should be, and the change of having a "corked" bottle of wine is drastically reduced, although not impossible.

However they look crap, and it's awful to serve it at a table.

The solution: rubber bungs.

They reckon within a few years (ie within the next 20) that champagne bottles will have "pop" rubber bungs, such as on certain bottles of beer... mainly continental.