Dr Vino's wine blog

Downing at Churchill Downs
What are the odds? Good-bye mint julep, hello chardonnay? [BusinessWeek]

Vino Volare
Vino Volo, the wine bar behind security at Dulles airport (IAD), is now opening an outpost at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). Southwest passengers can rejoice! Vino Volo also operates at Sacramento and Seattle airports. Next up: JFK. [via Upgrade: Travel Better]

Seeing green
Fetzer announces a $1 million marketing campaign trumpeting their high-volume organic wines. But are they doing it to be green or make green? Or both? [Courier-Journal]

Wine diet
Want to bulk up? Forget Weight Gainer 2000. Try wine. Such is the logic of a new diet for the size zero Victoria Beckham, fka Posh Spice. Wine “gives her the munchies.” According to Closer magazine, “It’s the reason she has a drink. If she has a wine or two then she’ll have an appetite like everyone gets when they’re on a night out and drinking.” Um, OK. Maybe her diminutive size has to do with the fact that she only eats one meal a day? [via NZ Herald]

Gold medal
Congratulations to Jonathan Gold, restaurant critic of LA Weekly, for winning the Pulitizer Prize for criticism!

How great it is
“2005 was my best vintage–until 2006.” Franz Pichler of FX Pichler in Austria told me at a tasting.

Why drink wine?
“Twenty five years ago people drank wine for three reasons: 1) allegedly because it made dinner better; 2) because it made the people at dinner better; and 3) to intimidate others. Now, the first two reasons are still valid but the third is to ensure you will have sex within six hours of drinking the wine.” –Josh Wesson, founder of Best Cellars, at a Vinexpo panel about “millennials” in New York yesterday.

All for one?
“It is a reasonably well-known fact that the largest buyer of classified growth Bordeaux…..with a heavy emphasis on FIRST GROWTHS, is the Asian chairman of a major…and I mean major company….of course all his activity is done through third/fourth/fifth party strawmen….and not one auction house or wine merchant would dare reveal the name(and they all know who it is)….purchases to the tune of 40-50 million dollars per year for about 4-5 years.” [Robert Parker, on his BB, ellipses in original]

Vodka, aka, diluted ethyl alcohol
“The European Union would define vodka simply as diluted ethyl alcohol, which is, of course, what it is. That suits members like Britain, the Netherlands, France and Austria, which wring “vodka” from anything from grape mush to sugar cane. The quotes are important here, because countries of the Vodka Belt around the Baltic Sea, which have distilled the stuff for centuries and produce two-thirds of the European Union’s vodka, insist their traditional use of grains and potatoes to make vodka should be enshrined in the definition. All else, they insist, is mere regional swill, and should be labeled as such.” [Serge Schmemann in the NYTimes]

Truth in labeling
“It might be disenchanting if the label also listed the chicken, fish, milk and wheat products that are often used to process wine.” Oh those? Not so much. But what’s this Mega Purple? [LA Times]

“Housecleaner, boyfriend arrested after brazen wine heist”
My hopes for a Catherine Zeta-Jones movie called “Inside Job” crashed and burned after this news story about the recent heist in Atherton, CA. Catsuits and wine will remain the sole domain of Aureole in Vegas.

Parody becomes prophecy
On April Fools Day I posted a spoof about a new wine bar that serves wines based on point scores including a flight in two ounce glasses. Shockingly, a commenter pointed out that one such points-based wine bar already exist in California! Now there’s news that Sauvignon Republic, a brand that sources sauvignon blanc from three continents, is offering on-premises establishments two-ounce shooters for their flights. Eegad! Next year I’ll have to be much more outrageous.

Distiller-in-chief
While Thomas Jefferson had a love for fruits of the vine, it turns out that his predecessor and Father Of Our Nation, preferred the grains of the plains, specifically, rye. Lost among the stories of chopping down a cherry tree and wooden teeth is the fact that George Washington was also the biggest distiller of his day. Now $21 million reconstruction (paid for funded in large part by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States and the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of America) at his home in Mount Vernon offers visitors the chance to see steps in the distillation process–and even buy a bottle of the “ardent spirit” at the gift shop. [Courier-Journal]

Wrap it up
Wine corked? Try cling wrap. Crinkle and put in carafe. Pour wine in. Shake. Voila! No cork taint. But mmm, love that cling wrap flava! [LA Times]

Will Cooked be Wined?
Will Smith may play the role of Chef Jeff Henderson of the Cafe Bellagio. Reprising his rags-to-riches, overcoming-adversity success in Happyness, Smith may play the lead role in a film adapted from Henderson’s autobiography, “Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras.” Just think if he throws in a scene extolling the virtues of wine–it could be a boom bigger than Sideways with his starpower! [via Slashfood]

Jay-Z holds an Ace
Jay-Z makes Page Six today. Not news for us. But what is news is that the gossip hounds say the Cherry Coke and Budweiser pitchman is getting throw some more bubbly in the mix by formalizing an ownership stake in Armand de Brignac, aka Ace of Spades. The champagne brand was cooked up last summer. Page Six reports that 100 cases of the bubbly has gone missing from a Florida warehouse. But for those willing to pay, it is now available from select retailers for $300 and up (find ace of spades). [NY Post]

Wine that loves…food
A new line of “wine that loves” certain types of food is to be launched in coming months. Cute label images tell drinkers which food to drink it with starting with three popular meals–roasted chicken, pasta, and pizza. No word on whether the back label reveals trivial details such as the grape variety, region, or vintage. And what if I like pinot noir with my salmon but their “salmon” wine is a chardonnay? Or if I like the pizza wine with my pasta? Eegad. Insurrection! [BusinessWeek]

Bluffing wine
A waiter from Chanterelle in Tribeca tells NY mag how one of his diners didn’t drink wine but wanted to look as if he were drinking wine in front of the rest of the party. So the waiter substituted ginger ale for champagne and pretended to spill water in the red wine glass returning with organic grape juice in the wine glass. Very odd. Didn’t anyone at the table wonder why he was pounding the “wine”? [Grub Street]

Related:
“Jay-Z puts an Ace in play” [Dr. V]
“Reader mailbag: finding Ace of Spades champagne” [Dr. V]

No F&*%# Merlot!
Miles may have had a rant against merlot in Sideways, but now officials in Utah are piling on the grape–and wine itself. The officials have revoked a personalized license plate in use for ten years with the word “MERLOT” on it citing a state ban on words of intoxicants to be used on vanity plates. Wow. The owner should file for “VINO,” which should give him another 10 years. [AP]

Binge 1
Taking their campaign against DWI to a new, um, level, New Mexico has introduced the talking urinal cake. A woman’s sultry voice intones, “Hey there, big guy. Having a few drinks?” and then advises a taxi. A laudable goal for sure, but what’s up with the sultry voice? Don’t want guys to lean on the urinal and ask it out on a date! [Free New Mexican, with video!]

Binge 2
One Chinese traveler blew $30,000 in a 15-minute shopping spree at a duty free shop in Charles De Gaulle airport. His haul included a 200 year old cognac, a 100 year old armagnac, and a 45 Mouton–but if he’d only shopped around, he could have found it for half the price! [news.com.au, thanks U:TB!]

What’s hot?
Everything. Grape varieties across the board from riesling to pinot gris/grigio were up; only lowly white zin (not even a grape, but a style that’s out of style) was down according to Nielsen scanner data for 2006. Screwcaps gained acceptance and New Zealand zipped higher. More details at Uncorked.

Cheap wine, it’s fine
The Gray Lady has run tests to determine what I have practiced for a long time out of my sheer miserly tendency: using cheap wine is fine for cooking. [NYT]

Puck says no duck
A three-year campaign against Wolfgang Puck has brought the chef to his knees–he’ll stop serving foie gras in his restaurants. [AP]

Varietal, crushed
Frank Bruni one-stars the wine-themed restaurant Varietal. He can’t seem to stop giggling about the “grower champagnes,” which reinforces my thinking that they should be called indie champagne. He also trashes the desserts, which “don’t so much eschew convention as pummel and shatter it — literally, and often pointlessly.” I found the same with molecular gastronomy desserts in my experience at Moto. [NYT]

The FBI may be targeting the big boys, but does Eric Asimov sound the death knell for winecommune.com and winebid.com?

Ordinary wine lovers, even those who buy a few cases of great wines each year, are unlikely to be affected by scammers, unless they buy old wines or buy their wines from secondary sources, like brokers or through Internet auctions. [NYT]

Also:

• Wine Cops, on the Case [Newsweek]
• Winemakers Deploy Chips, Codes to Battle Fake Bottles [Elin McCoy, Bloomberg]
• What You Need to Know When Buying Wine at Auction [John Mariani, Bloomberg]

Wine by the jug
Ernest Gallo, wine salesman, dies at 97. Jon Bonne writing in the SF Chron is my obit pick since he mentions the word “controversy.” His predecessor Linda Murphy sounds like she has some provocative thoughts in her piece “No Hall of Fame for Gallo.” But since it is behind a subscription barrier on jancisrobinson.com, we’ll never know without paying.

Wine by the glass
Alternative closures may be getting attention, but what about tin foil? Yes, pre-filled wine glasses will be on sale this summer in the UK, sealed with tin foil. Mmm, wild flower aromas with hint of aluminum? [Gaurdian]

Wine by the class
Stephen Dubner, of Freakonomics fame, reports on a “whole new spin on college drinking.” California State University at Fresno is the only university in the country with a license to bottle and sell its own wine. Seems like easy alumni marketing for reunions–providing it is as age-worthy as the alumni.

Wine by the magnum
In Moscow, “the petrodollar classes no longer drink vodka (so lower-class) but very expensive red wine.” [Vanity Fair]

Sauternes shocker
State Senator Pamela Althoff, announced two bills last week that would ban the manufacture, sale and consumption of foie gras in the entire state of Illinois. The sales ban in Chicago has been widely scoffed and mocked. But would State Sen. Althoff also rely on citizens’ arrest? [NW Herald via Ethicurean]

tags: wine | foie gras

Perks
Become a non-executive member of the Board of Directors of UST Corp (NYSE: UST), which owns several wineries as well as Skoal “smokeless” tobacco, and you can get a $5,000 worth of the company’s wine! (That’s 555 bottles of $9 Columbia Crest.) Other officers get a similar allowance and the CEO Vincent Gierer gets a $6,500 allowance “to foster the use of the Company’s wine products at events they host.” Mmm, yummy wine products. Granted, some of this sum goes for “the maintenance and/or installation of security systems” for all that wine booty. But you’d think with his $6 million salary, he could have afforded that anyway. [SEC filings via footnoted.org]

Declines
Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), the biggest publicly traded wine producer announced disappointing earnings thanks to “pricing pressures that it blamed on rising supplies of competing Australian wines and reduced consumption in Britain.” The shares fell to a multi-year low on Thursday. [Forbes]

Rises
French wines tacked on two percentage points in the US market–at the expense of Australia, according to an AFP story. “The export figures show that we are going in the right direction. We must advance toward the path of committed reform,” said Louis Regis Affre, managing director of the Federation of Exporters of Wine and Spirits in France (Fevs). [Sapa-AFP]

Fakes
Sir Ian Kershaw, author of an award-winning two-volume biography of Hitler, said he was “immediately skeptical” when reading reports of the sale of an $8,000 “Fuehrerwein” at auction. Was it the fact that Hitler was a teetotaler? He doesn’t mention that but he points out that “a Tafelwein, a low-class table wine, was, even in 1943, not a particularly dignified present, even allowing for Hitler’s scant knowledge of wines,” he said. “Beyond this, an earlier wine bottle carrying a picture of Hitler – or at least a Nazi emblem – had been banned as kitsch.” Indeed. [thisislondon.co.uk]

Let’s get critical
Critical Wine, a new movement that “aims to raise awareness of the potential ills of globalization,” will hold an event April 3-4 in Verona, just after VinItaly. Wolfgang Weber writes “participating wine producers work with indigenous grape varieties, practice organic or sustainable viticulture, and exhibit some sense of their particular territorio.” The marketing of resistance? [Wine & Spirits, no link available]

Cuvee chez soi
Home wine making is on the rise. [BusinessWeek]

Armagnac fights cancer the scientific journal Thrombosis Research reports. No word on the effects of cognac. Or E&J Brandy. [via decanter.com]

Legendary investor Warren Buffett has his own elixir, and it’s not red wine: “The good news: At 76, I feel terrific and, according to all measurable indicators, am in excellent health,” Buffett said. “It’s amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow.” [AP]