Dr Vino's wine blog

SIPPED: tranche
The wine word of the moment is “tranche.” The final dash of pricing the Bordeaux 2009 futures has concluded with a clap of thunder: controversial Cos d’Estournel at $3,600 a case, ditto for Leoville Las Cases, La Mission Haut Brion at $10,000 a case, and Lafite at about $15,000–if you can find it. And that’s just it: the top producers release fractions of the total production for pre-sale so what demand there is, pays top dollar.

SPIT: wine’s a Bitch
Grateful Palate International and R Wines are in receivership, a court-administered bankruptcy reorganization according to these filings with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. Wines in the company’s portfolio include “Bitch” and “Evil.” An email yesterday seeking comment from Grateful Palate, the importer in California, received no reply.

SIPPED and SPIT: Bourgogne blanc
Per a new arrangement, white wine from Beaujolais will not be able to be labeled “Bourgogne blanc,” or white Burgundy, ending a decades-long loophole/tradition (depending on your perspective). [vitisphere]

SPIT: men
The brewer SABMiller has quadrupled the number of women on their tasting panels over the past decade. Why? Women may be better tasters than men. Maybe the company will start orienting their advertising toward women? [WSJ]

SPIT: human interaction
After many years of discussion, you can now buy wine from a vending machine in select Pennsylvania grocery stores. Added bonus is that consumers must take a breathalyzer test before making the purchase. In their lengthy Q&A, the PLCB doesn’t state whether the grocery stores–not known for giving up precious square footage without slotting fees or a profit incentive–are profiting from the sale of liquor on the premises. If so, then maybe it’s time to simply liberalize wine sales?

SIPPED: Coca-Cola wine
The French group Anivin thinks the best way forward for French wines is to offer a consistent product like Coca-Cola, brands, and emulate the New World to regain market share. Small growers fear they will have to sell to wine “factories.” The Anivin view gets an extensive write-up in The Independent.

SIPPED: pathos
President Nicolas Sarkozy has pulled the plug on the 14 juillet garden party at the Elysée palace. Last year’s fete cost €732,826, including €43,128 on wine and Champagne. The president’s office told Le Parisien they were trying to set an example because of the economic crisis. [Connexionfrance.com]

SPIT: organic labels
The EU said no/non/nu to a harmonization of national standards for an “organic wine” designation. According to Vitisphere, the main point of contention was reducing the level of permitted sulfites. The EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Cellos, shelved the issue indefinitely.

SHOTGUNNED?: one pound wine
The British chain 99p Stores has announced a wine for 99p a bottle. Given the excise tax on wine in the UK is now £1.69 and VAT is 17.5 20%, someone will have to explain to me how this is even possible. And while they’re at it, perhaps they can offer tasting notes of the 99p wine.

SIPPED: visits
The most visited winery in the United States is in…Napa? Sonoma? No, Asheville, NC! According to sunherald.com The Biltmore Winery on the 125,000-acre Biltmore estate, welcomes 600,000 visitors a year while producing 170,000 cases. They’re all there for the wine, right?

SPIT: going nuclear
Tired of sharing a name with a problematic nuclear facility, a French wine region opts for a new one that anglophones can’t pronounce. [The Independent]

SPIT: damned wine saloons
Some UWS residents fear a proposed (and, now, approved) wine bar at 25 Central Park West will bring “hookers,” “drugs,” “drunks” and “celebrities” to their neighborhood. The wine bar would have portraits of Ethel Merman and other famous erstwhile residents of the building. Check out their website–crack den, yes or no? [1010wins.com]

SIPPED: olde tyme bling
Today, we have plastic and Styrofoam for our wine cooler needs. Behold the above had bling bucket from the 18th century! Residents of 25 Central Park West–and beyond–can pick it up for an estimated £2 million at auction. [Telegraph; source of resized image]

SIPPED: a challenge
Blind wine tastings at this Paris shop involve some guessing. Would be fun to see in the States–especially for a prize! [Spring boutique]

VERBATIM
“”I am worried about pensions. I am worried about the debt of our countries. We will have less money. But we will always have the time to make love and drink champagne, and we will do it even more.” –Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger [Reuters]

SPIT: the wrong end
In Tuesday’s post about wine closure preferences, some commenters expressed frustration about not being able to reinsert a synthetic cork back into an unfinished bottle. That reminded me that a winemaker once told me that if you do that with a regular cork, be sure to keep the same side facing down, since the top may no longer be sanitary.

SIPPED: cash
Vinfolio, a wine retailer buffeted by financial crisis in January, has received an investment (amount unspecified) from Steve Case, founder of AOL, through his investment company, Revolution, LLC. Even though he’s far from investing his whole fortune, Vinfolio must feel that half a Case is better than none.

SPIT: past merger
Foster’s announced that it will split its beer and wine businesses, considered a prelude to selling one or both of the units. Foster’s wine portfolio includes Penfolds, Lindemans, Wynns, Rosemount, and Beringer. The shares leaped 7% in Australia. While speculation about suitors for the beer business quickly emerged, the future of the wine brands was less clear. UPDATE: Ray King, who ran the wine unit for three years, told The Australian that the merger was a “disaster,” adding, “It proved the old adage that you don’t mix the grape and the grain.”

SIPPED: exploring the “noble experiment”
Ken Burns will release a new documentary about Prohibition. I explored the the odd but astoundingly important chapter in American wine in my book Wine Politics. The subject gets a fuller treatment in a new book, Last Call: the Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Hear a podcast with the author here.

SIPPED: wine weather
Yesterday’s New York weather was scorching with a chance of vinho verde. Today, it’s cloudy and warm, with a chance of Chablis.

SPIT: paying bills
A few years ago, the New Yorker profile of Gordon Ramsay let drop the nugget that wine was the real profit center at The London. Now, in what is a sign of different times, two New York wine distributors, Wineberry and VOS Selections, have sued Gordon Ramsay’s The London for about $40,000 each for wines sold to the restaurant. The new “F” word: finances? [NY Post but see also Grub Street for Jamie Oliver’s taunting of Gordon Ramsay.)

SPIT: red wine stain remover
Bruce Willis has also been sued over wine, in this instance, for returning a rug with red wine stains in it. Bruce, here are some suggestions for the next time: white wine, salt, Wine Away, hydrogen peroxide and dishsoap. Willis denies the spill happened while the rug was in his possession. [TMZ]

SIPPED: controversy down under
An Adelaide business paper publishes a scathing opinion column on the state of the Australian wine industry, using the lens of the National Wine Centre of Australia.

SIPPED: fashionista box wine
Vanity Fair discovers box wine. Will it soon be available for Gwenyth, Gordon & Co at The Waverly Inn?

SIPPED: new terms
Southern Wine & Spirits, the wholesaler with $8 billion in revenues according to Forbes, seeks to restructure $2 billion in debt.

SPIT: extortion
In what seems to be a caper ripped from the pages of a Peter Mayle novel, a bumbling criminal tried to extort Domaine de la Romainée Conti for about $1.5 million by threatening to poison vines at the revered estate. [Telegraph]

SIPPED: good times?!?
The Silicon Valley Bank released their annual report on the California wine industry. It strikes a surprisingly optimistic tone: “We are forecasting improving conditions in the fine wine business. The trading-down trend will end this year.” But they caution that “Wineries selling sizable production above $50 will again find 2010-2011 a difficult time.”

SPIT: non-wine resveratrol
GlaxoSmithKline paid $720 million for a start-up company that was developing a “red wine pill,” or a concentrated dose of resveratrol developed by the red-wine hater David Sinclair. Reuters reports that clinical trials of SRT501 have been suspended because of “unexpected safety events.” Back to red wine for all your resveratrol needs? Just don’t end up like the guy with the mouse from the NYer.

SPIT: flattery
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but we wine enthusiasts are not amused by a Greenpoint (Brooklyn) coffee shop charging $12 a cup, which even led the Post to compare it to a glass of wine. Note: it’s not really like a glass of wine unless you can send it back if it’s corked.

SIPPED: wine keggers
The SF Chronicle reports on the continued rise of keg wines. Quotage from Matt Licklider of Lioco: “Fine wine isn’t the exclusive domain of bottles anymore.”

SPIT: the free in freedom of speech
Effective immediately, the forums on eRobertParker.com will convert to subscriber-only. End of an era.

SIPPED: Greenwashing?
Blake Gray, formerly a staff writer at the SF Chronicle, posts about the new Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing program. After reviewing each of the 227 points and finding many of them redundant or meaningless, he concludes “This is not sustainability, it’s greenwashing, and it’s done just to get greenwashed SKUs for Whole Foods.” [Gray Market Report]

SWALLOWED: conclusions; SPIT: eco-labels?
Reuters reports on a consulting group’s survey that found wine consumers cared most about price and least about organic or other eco-friendly labeling. They did not provide a link to the survey results, nor did they state who commissioned the survey, or anything about the respondents, such as their age or if they are wine drinkers. Details!

SIPPED: free wine information
Paul Gregutt rounds up free wine sites that he likes–including this one. Check out the story for others. [Seattle Times]

SPIT: egos
And if any free sites think they can conquer the world, there’s always the Hosemaster to take ’em down a notch. Check out the blog for some LOLz.

SIPPED and SPIT: wine as an investment
A new research paper shows that wine as an investment class beats the Russel 3000 equity index. But journoblogger Felix Salmon punches holes in their methodology and conclusions. [Reuters]

SIPPED: legal action
William Koch, the billionaire wine collector, has sued Christie’s auction house in Manhattan federal court over the disputed Jefferson bottles. He claims to have found two engravers in Germany who put “Th.J.” on the bottles. [AP; WSJ law blog]

SIPPED and SPIT: smoky pinot
The smoke-tainted (and some smoke-free) 2008 Sonoma Pinot Noirs are hitting the market now (as we tasted earlier). And they get page A1 treatment in the WSJ complete with a picture of the machine that removes the “wet ashtray effect.”

SIPPED: the wine talking; SPIT: Earth’s precious resources
In what may well have been an April Fool’s spoof, Sharon Kapnick draws to our attention a new label on the Allegrini Pallazo della Torre 2006. It blurts out information about the wine and winery in seven languages! Only thing standing between you and having the wine literally doing the talking at dinner is a handheld scanner.