Charlemagne Wine Club - News
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What's New?
Tastings by Paul Mapplebeck
Paul runs a tasting of top quality wines most months at the Civil Service Club, 15 Great Scotland Yard in Westminster.
Normal price £30 . Coming soon are:
14th July: "Top Australian Shiraz" – how often do you encounter 1990 Penfold Grange?
11th August: "Rhone - Hermitage" – big names going back as far as 1978
8th September: "St Emilion Up and Comers"
13th October: "Bordeaux - Paulliac"
For details, please contact Paul Mapplebeck, 65 Grange Gardens, Pinner HA5 5QD. tel 0208 866 9314
Wondering if the recession is over yet?
At 2 recent wine auctions in Hong Kong, any remaining signs of 2008's wine lull seemed nonexistent. Acker Merrall & Condit's auction rated as the second-largest wine auction
of all time worldwide in terms of volume and value - over 19,000 bottles were available to bidders, and reported sales were $19.5M. The Christie's auction also produced some
spectacular results, including the "Liquid Gold Collection," a super-lot of 128 750 ml bottles and 40 magnums of Château d'Yquem spanning three centuries. The lot sold for
an unprecedented US$1,032,092. It seems, at least in Hong Kong, that the demand for blue-chip wine is unstoppable.
Still to come, Sotheby's will auction a 162-pound English silver wine cistern from the early 18th century (estimated value: $2.8 million) in London. The cistern is larger
than a laundry bin, reaching more than four feet across at its widest. It was commissioned by Lord Thomas Wentworth. The basin was crafted by Philip Rollos, one of the most
celebrated goldsmiths in London at the time, and engraved by his son, John, with Queen Anne’s crest.
Man U and Concha y Toro
Chilean wine producer Concha y Toro has announced a partnership with Manchester United. Beginning in August 2010, Concha y Tora will be featured prominently billboards at
Old Trafford as well as in the stadium’s lounges and bars. Sir Alex Ferguson claimed: “This is a partnership that unites the two great passions of South America,
football and wine. I’m looking forward to it".
EU withdraws plans for rules on organic wine production
The EU Commission has withdrawn draft proposals to introduce standards for the production of organic wine, citing an unwillingness to dilute organic rules. Wine has so far
been excluded from the EU organic regulation, which only extends to the grapes used in wine production. Organic wine has therefore been marketed only as wine produced from
organic grapes. Draft proposals had been under consideration within the Standing Committee on Organic Foodstuffsto develop specific standards for organic wine. Based on an
independent study under the Orwine project, these proposals included a lower limit for sulphites and a smaller list of permitted additives and processing aids than in conventional
wine. It had also been proposed that five oenological practices be disallowed and three others restricted. Despite several months of discussion, attempts to find a credible
compromise with respect to organic standards failed.
High Tech Wine vending machines
USA has a lot of strange restrictions on the sale of wine and alcohol. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's high-tech toy planned to sneak wine into grocery stores while still
reaping the profits, has finally arrived at two locations in the state. Two supermarkets are testing the pilot kiosks, which come with a computerized menu to help you select the
right wine, a state-ID scanner to ensure that the buyer is over 21 (or has a card that says they are), and a Breathalyzer that will shut down the sale if the would-be buyer has
more than a .02 blood-alcohol level. The state receives the profits from the sales of the 53 wines available in the machines, and if all goes well, they plan to install 100 more.
Golf celebrities into wine
First, it was golf legend Jack Nicklaus partnering with Terlato Wines in Illinois, to create Jack Nicklaus Wines, Bordeaux varietals and blends sourced from Napa Valley appellations.
Now 10-time LPGA major championship winner Annika Sorenstam is introducing Annika Vineyards Chardonnay 2008, her first white wine, made in conjunction with Karl Wente of Wente Vineyards
in California’s Livermore Valley.
Old News
Record auction prices for '61 Hermitage
A case of French wine fetched a record price this week as springtime auctions of fine jewellery, luxury watches and wines in Geneva marked a return to top price selling.
An unnamed Asian private buyer snapped up the six bottles of iconic 1961 Hermitage La Chapelle for 109,250 Swiss francs (98,587 dollars, 77,469 euros) at Christie's,
during sales in the Swiss city that outstripped estimates.
Lurid wrapping for Turning Leaf 
E&J Gallo has hired British fashion designers Basso & Brooke to design new labels for their bottles of Turning Leaf in the U.K. The designers, known for their bright psychedelic
prints on fabric, will outfit 2,000 bottles of Chardonnay and Zinfandel with neon leaves, erupting volcanoes and ikat prints inspired by their spring/summer 2010 collection.
Wine is good for your heartbeat
Two years ago, a study from Harvard Medical School found people with high blood pressure need not give up the moderate consumption of alcohol. Now Harvard Heart Letter claims that
it is also OK to have a glass or two of wine a night for those with a slow heart rate. Bradycardia, or a heartbeat under 60 beats per minute, may actually be helped by a little wine,
since alcohol in responsible amounts can speed up the heart rate.
Robots could help grape havesting
The era of wine by robots could be dawning. Professor Toyama of Japan’s Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology recently demonstrated a voice- and motion-sensitive Power Assist
Suit, a robotic exoskeleton that enables workers to pluck and hoe all day with 62 percent less physical effort than puny flesh-people usually expend. Grape picking is a strain on the arms,
neck and lower back. Although Japan isn't well known for its wine production, this could be important as in Japan, two-thirds of the agrarian workforce is over 65
Grapevine Moth spreading across California
Restrictions and quarentine areas in Napa Valley are rapidly expanding since the very destructive European Grapevine moth (EGVM) was detected in September last year.
The EGVM has already demonstrated its ability to do serious damage to vineyards. Last autumn they totally destroyed a 10-acre Chardonnay crop at a Napa Valley site.
The moth lays its eggs inside the grape berries and on flower clusters, eating fruit and opening the door for fungal infections such as botrytis.
It is suspected that this outbreak can be traced back to grapes imported to Californmia l;ast year from Chile, where the moth is now widespread.
The inventor of the wine box dies
Australian winemaker Thomas Angove has died at the age of 92. He was managing director of Riverland winegrower Angove from 1947 until 1983, but will be most remembered for
revolutionizing wine packaging by developing the wine cask in 1965. When Thomas first brought the cask prototype home, his teenage son, John, told him, “That’s ridiculous,
nobody will buy wine in a plastic bag stuck inside a cardboard box!”
Police arrest wine fraud suspects
Police in the UK have arrested two more people in connection to a suspected GBP3m wine investment scam. A total of eight people have been arrested in the operation,
codenamed Operation Iceman, since the beginning of March 2010.
"Police believe that victims of the alleged fraud were persuaded to invest large amounts of money in specialist wines from Australia that did not actually exist,"
said DCI Robin Cross, head of the Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad: "This kind of investment fraud is becoming far too common."
Bowl shaped champagne glasses
Simon Hoggart in "The Guardian" reports that the bowl-shaped glass (now most associated with Babycham) is making a comeback against the long thin champagne flute. Alledgedly
it's easier to pour, gives a quicker hit of bubbles, and you don't get your nose stuck. The bowl shape that was supposed to be modelled on Marie Antoinette's breast.
Now Dom Pérignon and Karl Lagerfeld have got together and produced, for some ridiculous sum, a champagne glass that is allegedly modelled on Claudia Schiffer's breast. Hoggart
comments "a quick trawl of the internet shows that Ms Schiffer's bosom, while delightful, is of a perfectly normal shape, so if moulded and turned through 90 degrees, would
create a rather impractical, unbalanced glass".
Lighter weight champagne bottles
The Comité Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) announced the launch of a new bottle to reduce the region's carbon emissions. The new design will be more than 2 ounces
lighter, yet can still withstand the 6 atmospheres of pressure within the bottle, shipping and handling. Because growers and houses still prefer different bottle shapes to
distinguish their vintage and prestige cuvées, those bottles will remain the same for now. The new design should not spoil the fun of champagne drinkers used to opening their
bottles with a sabre, though.
Latest Australian research on Screwcaps
The last decade has seen tremendous progress in research into and understanding of wine closures. Ten years ago, if you’d scanned the supermarket wine aisles,
screwcaps would have been non-existent. The only alternative closures was first-generation injection-moulded synthetic corks. The vast majority of bottles then
were cork sealed, and cork wasn’t doing a particularly good job.
The global market today for bottled wine is some 18 billion bottles per annum. Screwcaps are now sealing just over two billion of these bottles, while synthetic
corks seal four billion. There are countries where cork is in danger of extinction: screwcaps now seal 90% of New Zealand wine, and in Australia the situation is
fast heading that way.
But perhaps even more significant has been the change in understanding of what wine bottle closures actually do. Ten years ago, the consensus was that the closure
simply sealed the bottle. The results of a significant 10 year study conducted by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) have blown this idea out of the
water.
This study began in 1999. The trial took a single wine – a Clare Valley Semillon – and bottled it under 14 different closures, including synthetic corks, natural
corks, technical corks and a screwcap with a metal layer in the liner. The researchers at the AWRI followed these 14 versions of the same wine for years, using
both sensory and chemical analysis.
Findings were clear: from the moment of bottling, the wines developed differently. By 21 months post bottling, they were different wines. The synthetic-cork-sealed
wines developed quickly and showed evidence of oxidation. Conversely, screwcap-sealed wine was freshest and was developing most slowly.
But, whilst screwcap-sealed wines were the freshest and fruitiest of all, they also showed a trace of a burnt rubber/struck match character. The study’s authors
identified this as being due to some complex post-bottling wine chemistry involving sulfur-containing compounds, known more widely in the wine trade as reduction.
At five years, the distinctions were even more marked. The synthetic-sealed wines were undrinkable by this stage, but the remaining closures showed distinct
differences.
The conclusion from this study is that perhaps the most important property of its closure is its oxygen transmission properties. At one extreme, the first-generation
synthetic corks allowed too much oxygen transmission, and the wines developed fast and then oxidised. The screwcaps allow very little oxygen transmission, the wines
developed more slowly, and this slow development came at the cost of some reduction.
A new industry group made up of suppliers and service providers to the wine industry called Oxygen in Wines has been established. Their ultimate objective is trying
to gain an understanding of how oxygen, in combination with the closure, influences winemaking, leading to better closure design.
The picture that is emerging is a complex one. Much more is now know about closures and their role in post-bottling wine chemistry than we did a decade ago, and for
that we have the screwcap to thank.
Picky baboons develop a taste for pinot noir
Largely undeterred by electric fences, hundreds of wild baboons in South Africa's prized winelands are feasting on ripe, succulent grapes. Growers say the picky primates are
partial to sweet pinot noir grapes, adding to the winemakers' woe, for pinot noir sells for more than the average merlot or cabernet sauvignon. Baboons have raided South Africa's
vineyards in the past, but farmers say this year is worse than previous ones because the primates have lost their usual foraging areas due to wildfires and ongoing expansion of
grape-growing areas. Crop loss due to baboons of about 5% have been reported.
What a waste!
On March 12, a KiwiRail train hauling tankers full of wine bound for a bottling facility in Auckland was derailed near the town of Tokomaru, resulting in significant spillage of the
liquid cargo and causing cancellations and rerouting for passengers commuting from Palmerston North to Wellington. Most of the wine found its way to a drain. A spokesman commented
“There were no drunken sheep and cows,” and that nearby farmers should not expect their grazing livestock to experience “a sudden flush of wine in their milk.”
World's oldest malt released at £10,000
Whisky specialist Gordon & MacPhail has unvieled the world's oldest single malt whisky. The 70-year-old Speyside single malt will be selling
for a mere £10,000 per 70cl, and £2,500 for the 20cl minibottle. The Gordon & MacPhail's ‘Generations' brand, Mortlach 70 Years Old Speyside
Single Malt Scotch Whisky was filled into a Spanish oak, ex-bodega sherry hogshead cask on October 15, 1938. It is the first in a series of
extremely rare malt whiskies to be released by Gordon & MacPhail under its ‘Generations' brand.
Plans for mineral exploration in West Cape winelands dropped
African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation has decided to withdraw its application to prospect in the Western Cape. South African winemakers had been protesting long
and hard about the proposal.
Gallo rationalises its UK brands to concentrate on core ranges
E& J Gallo is to stop distribution of a number of key lines in the UK including Sycamore Canyon and Winemaker's Seal and concentrate on its five core brands:
Gallo Family Vineyards, Turning Leaf, Redwood Creek, Carlo Rossi, and Barefoot. Gallo also announced that 2010 would be "the year of the foot" and claimed
that its Barefoot brand (currently the leading US brand) will be the biggest wine brand in the world "within the next three to five years".
Thresher franchisees win legal battle to re-open
Former Thresher franchisees have won the legal battle to be allowed to trade as independents. The administrators of First Quench Retail Ltd have
offered to surrender leases to the majority of franchisees' stores, leaving it open for owners to now negotiate directly with their landlords. Franchisees
taking their stores independent will need to rename as the brands Thresher, Wine Rack, Bottoms Up and The Local have been sold.
Colours affect how we taste wines
Research in Germany (in the Journal of Sensory Studies) contends that lighting can influence both how wine tastes and how much consumers are willing to pay
for it. The lighting experiments involved “blind” tastings using controlled fluorescent lighting. People rated the wine's quality higher, in general, when they
drank it when ambient lighting was red or blue vs. green or white. The test wine was found much sweeter and fruitier when sampled in a room illuminated by
red-tinted fluorescent lamps, and were willing to spend more for it. When dry and semi-dry Rieslings were tasted, “Participants perceived a wine to be spicier
when they tasted it under blue or green light rather than red or white. Interestingly, blue lighting made the wine taste bitter, but subjects nonetheless liked the wine more."
Charlemagne has no plans to change the lights in Broughton Road for our tastings.
UK Vineyard Guide 2010 by Stephen Skelton MW
A guide to the vineyards and wine producers in the UK, Ireland and the Channel Isles. The guide contains chapters on the history of viticulture in the UK,
the current situation and vine varieties. There are details of 450 vineyards.including a more or less definitive list of vineyards in England, Wales, Ireland
and the Channel Islands - extensively researched and featuring useful information on each. Additional lists identifying the organic and biodynamic vineyards,
vineyards of four hectares and above and a breakdown of vineyards by country and size. The book is available exclusively from www.lulu.com
Sparkling Rosé for Marks & Spencer seized by Italian police
More than a thousand cases of sparkling rosé intended for Marks & Spencer was impoundeded by the Conegliano (Veneto) office of the Ispettorato centrale per
il controllo della qualità dei prodotti agroalimentari (Central Inspectorate for the Monitoring of Food and Farm Products). The wine, produced and bottled
by Trevisiol Spumanti (based in Valdobbiadene, Prosecco’s heartland), is believed to be made with Chardonnay, Pinot Nero, and Prosecco grapes.
Agriculture minister Luca Zaia called the seizure a blow against “agropiracy.” The contentious wine was labelled as Rosecco, and according to Italian appellation regulations,
Prosecco cannot be made using red grapes and cannot be produced as a rosé wine.
Wines That Rock
Wines That Rock is a partnership between the rock business managers of RZO (who work with The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Sting and U2) and
Mendocino Wine Co. They are offering three varietals, each with a rock’n’roll-inspired label. Forty Licks Merlot features the classic Stones
logo on the label. The Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon of course features Pink Floyd’s most famous album cover. Woodstock Chardonnay
pays tribute to the three-day festival of peace and music. Wines That Rock embraces “green” practices, from use of solar and wind power at the
winery to eco-friendly packaging.
€12million advertising campaign promoting cork
Decanter reports that the Portugese government is launching a €20million campaign promoting cork
as a traditional but innovative and sustainable industry.
60% of the money will be spent promoting cork closures. Under pressure from the rapid growth in screwcap closures, the market share for cork closures
has gone down from over 90% in the early 1990s to around 75% today.
A wine to celebrate Mark Twain
Glenora Wine Cellars, in New York’s Finger Lakes region, has recently released its Mark Twain Riesling, a wine bottled and labeled to mark the
175th anniversary of the writer’s birth and 100th anniversary of his death.
What Mark Twain would have thought is uncertain - his professed feeling about anniversaries is clear: “What ought to be done to the man who
invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light.”
Kiwi Cuvee banned in Australia
A Loire Valley Sauvignon named Kiwi Cuvée has been blocked from registering its name in Australia following an Australian tribunal hearing. New
Zealand Wine Growers has successfully blocked the registration of the name, arguing that the name deceptively suggested the wine came from New Zealand.
Lacheteau, which produces the wine in the Loire, argued that the term "Kiwi" was not a colloquialism for the origin of the wine. However, New
Zealand Winegrowers accused Lacheteau of deliberately emulating a New Zealand product, saying that Sauvignon Blanc is the “archetypal” New
Zealand wine variety, adding that screw-cap bottles (which is the closure of choice for the Kiwi Cuvée) are anathema to traditional French winemakers.
Dangerous vine disease 'threatens to be as destructive as Phylloxera' in Bordeaux
A vine disease, Flavescence Dorée, is taking hold in Bordeaux, and threatening to become as big a problem as Phylloxera. The disease is carried by the
cicadelle (a leaf hopper insect) and causes the slow destruction of vines. This leads initially to heavy loss of yields, and eventually to the
loss of entire vineyards. The disease itself is not new, and is now apparent in almost every wine region of France, but has been resurgent in
the vines of Bordeaux in recent years.
Chateau de Seuil in the Graves region is due to grub up plots of Sauvignon Blanc vines, and all the vines outside the Maison des Vins de Graves
in Podensac have been entirely removed.
A new worry for wineries - bacteria that can eat stainless steel and possibly concrete
The owners of Tamanend Winery in Pennsylvania filled currently unused plastic wine tanks with water for ten months to help keep temperatures in
the winery stable. When the tanks were needed for wine, they were drained and the tanks and stainless steel cooling coils were cleaned -
and what appeared to be rust on the welds of the cooling coils was found.
The stainless steel manufacturer eventually identified the problem as microbiologically influenced corrosion - an oxidative/reductive species of
bacteria can aggressively attack and live off the iron in metals such as stainless steel. In essence, these bacteria, Gallionella metallireducens
can “eat” stainless steel at the rate of as much as 3mm per month.
Three months into the summer, one particular area of concrete in the winery started pitting and eroding. In another several months, this area
looked much like floors in other wineries where the concrete has been eaten down to the aggregate. Many winemakers believe this pitting is due
to the acids in the wine and the sulfites from either barrels or other sources - but Tamanend owners believe that this concrete corrosion may also be due to the bacteria.
Château Mouton-Rothschild's 2007 vintage and label
In the estate’s grand tradition, the label features the work of a master artist. Bernar Venet joins the ranks of Picasso, Warhol and Francis Bacon,
whose creations have all graced the first-growth’s bottle. Venet has sketched an uncluttered, harmonious design described as curvatures that
“evoke chalices rooted in the earth and open, like vinestocks, to the precious gifts from above.”
As is the custom, Venet will be paid not in money but in Mouton — 10 cases, including five from 2007.
St.-Emilion Vintners try to replace pesticides with natural predators
St.-Emilion winegrowers have launched an ambitious, community-based biodiversity project to create miles of interconnected "green" corridors
throughout the 20,000-acre region of Bordeaux in a bid for sustainability. Given the patchwork layout of St.-Emilion, the initiative required
the cooperation of virtually every property.
Spiders, ladybugs and other natural predators of vine pests are expected to move freely between the 1,100 wine estates, vanquishing mites, grape
berry moths and green leafhoppers and reducing the vintners’ need for chemicals. Various flowers and plants that attract these predators will
also be planted. But greenbelts won't solve the problem alone. Monoculture — row after row of immaculate vines, nary a blade of grass in sight
— has filled Bordeaux's coffers, and created the perfect habitat for pests. For decades, chemicals provided the answer, albeit an imperfect one,
to pest control. And so far, biodiversity doesn't offer any solutions for two of the biggest threats to Bordeaux's vineyards, mildew and oïdium.
However, there may be another advantage to biodiversity. Growers claim that limiting chemical interventions will reinforce the identity of the terroir,”
Wine Spectator "Top 100 Wines of the Year"
Wine Spectator, the authoritative US wine magazine, has announced its choice of the Top 100 Wines of the Year. The selection is based upon a combination of quality, value, availability and an X-factor called excitement.
The top 10 selections are almost exclusively red, and geographically split between Italy (4), North America (4), France (1) and Spain (1). The top 10 list is:
1) Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Reserve 2005
2) Numanthia-Termes Toro Termes 2005
3) Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau 2007
4) Kosta Browne Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2007
5) Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico Castello di Brolio 2006
6) Chappellet Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Signature 2006
7) Renato Ratti Barolo Marcenasco 2005
8) Fontodi Colli della Toscana Centrale Flaccianello 2006
9) Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley 2007
10) Brancaia Toscana Tre 2007
Domaine du Vieux Télégraphe is the only producer to appear in both 2008 and 2009 Top 10.
If simple quality is what interests you, Europe becomes pre-eminent, with four out of the top 5 wines:
. Fontodi Colli della Toscana Centrale Flaccianello 2006
. Domaine St.-Préfert Châteauneuf-du-Pape Collection Charles Giraud 2007
. Carlisle Syrah Russian River Valley Papa’s Block 2007
. Clos des Papes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2007
. Uccelliera Brunello di Montalcino 2004
For more details, see http://top100.winespectator.com/index.html
Bordeaux tonight, Josephine
A new museum exhibit at the National Museum of the Château de Malmaison shows that Napoleon’s Empress Josephine had a penchant for
fine Bordeaux, particularly Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion and Lafite. The inventory of Josephine’s cellar following her death in 1814
shows she had the equivalent of 13,200 bottles tucked away, 45 percent from Bordeaux.
It also included a great deal of fortified wine as well as Champagne, such as Moët and Ruinart. Josephine’s cellar also boasted
generous amounts of Hermitage, Saint Péray and Côte-Rôtie alongside her collection of luxury Bordeaux wines.
New Zealand Wine Fair - 12th January at Lords Cricket Ground
A fabulous array of more than 600 New Zealand wines, winemakers, prizes galore, a showcase of New Zealand food, travel and lifestyle products.
Tickets £25. For more information, visit www.newzealandwineevents.co.uk
Christmas Gifts 1 - Charles & Diana champagne
If you’ve got one of those difficult-to-please wine collectors on your shopping list, consider going to the Reeman Dansie auction in
Colchester later this month, where a magnum of Moët & Chandon Brut Champagne Cuvée Dom Pérignon 1961 will be auctioned. What makes this
already-prized bottle particularly noteworthy is that it is one of 12 that were specially packaged for the 1981 royal wedding of Prince Charles
to the late Princess Diana. Six of the 12 magnums were donated to charity, while the remaining six were presented to the royal household.
This bottle was later given as a 50th birthday gift in 1988 to Harrods manager Brian Ames. While the bottle’s royal provenance should be enough
to drive up its selling price, it should be noted that the attempted 2004 auction of another bottle from the series failed to meet its £1,000 reserve.
Christmas Gifts 2 - La Tour d’Argent wine cellar
Anyone anxious to own a piece of Paris’ legendary La Tour d’Argent wine cellar will have the opportunity Dec. 7 and 8, when 18,000 bottles from
the restaurant’s 450,000-bottle collection go on the block at Piasa auctioneers in Paris. Selected by head sommelier David Ridgway, the
consignment embraces all of France’s major wine regions, with several vintages from the 19th century. Provenance is pristine, as the offerings
were acquired directly from the properties.
Ridgway explained the sale will free up needed cellar space. There could be some values to be had: Château Cheval-Blanc 1928 is estimated at
£700 - £850 a bottle, well below the £1,250 average listed in current auction records, and Château Gruaud-Larose 1870 is estimated at £800- £950 per bottle
Militant Languedoc winemaker group CRAV strikes again
Militant Languedoc winemaker group, the Comité Régional d'Action Viticole (CRAV), has claimed responsibility for an explosion outside a
bottling plant run by a subsidiary of French cooperative group Val d'Orbieu in Maureilhan.
The group has been orchestrating protests targeting retailers and merchants who are accused of enjoying high margins despite the current
crisis in the sector. The group has waged its campaign intermittently over the past few years. In March, it blew up a winery's visitor
centre following an attack on a co-operative where a few weeks earlier vats were emptied.
Holy Wine
A Catholic priest in Wisconsin is taking the union of wine and the church a step further with the introduction of Holy Spirits wines. Father
Dominic Roscioli has partnered with private label wine specialist Windsor Vineyards in Sonoma. The wines are named for saints whose attributes
and earthly experiences purportedly match the contents of the bottles. The labels feature first-person descriptions of the wines from the
perspective of their respective saints, such as Our Lady of Mount Carmel's explanation that "I chose a pure, clear Riesling wine to reflect
the sweet bouquet of mystery whispered to me by God's angels during my life on earth."
Smoking is bad for wine
In June 2008, thousands of lighting strikes sparked wildfires throughout California and smoke lingered over vineyards for weeks, casting a
pall of anxiety over growers and winemakers. Now a research paper from Australia by Kristen Kennison (a viticulture R and D officer for
Western Australia's Department of Agriculture) and Mark Gibberd (professor of viticulture and enology at Curtin University of Technology)
for the first time connected smoke in the vineyard with tainted wine. The paper encourages developing a long-term plan, as droughts continue
to trigger wildfires near vineyards worldwide.
Retirement for wine drinkers?
Thinking about different retirement? Consider Canada, specifically the Canterbury Gardens retirement home in Peterborough, Ontario. The
retirement community recently employed its own sommelier to pair its seasonal menu with the appropriate wines, a feature available every
night of the week to the community’s residents. If that wasn’t enough, the establishment has partnered with Ontario’s Colio winery to make
their own private label, made up of four wines in all: a Cabernet/Merlot blend, Gamay, Chardonnay and Riesling.
Wine Tycoon - the newest winemaking computer game
Entirely Francocentric in scope, this simulation game has a lot to offer. You start your career off in Alsace and your “vineyard cred”
increases from there as you make your way up the grape chain to big properties in Bordeaux and Burgundy, and the issues that come with them.
There are budgets to keep, vines to select, bottling and blending, staff to hire, etc… All in all, probably the most faithful reproduction
to date of the challenges of winemaking. The promised “enchanting French atmosphere,” is essentially a continuous loop of accordion music,
which gets very wearing. Wine Tycoon is only available on PC for now.
Simply Red wines
Yet another celebrity wine producer is Mick Hucknall. His Sicilian wines aren't named for the rock group he fronted since 1985, but are
called Il Cantante ("The Singer" in Italian). The winemaker is Salvo Foti, who has been making wine in Sicily since the early 1980s.
Il Cantante's lineup includes three wines (Etna Rosso, Etna Bianco and a Nero d'Avola) grown in the volcanic soils surrounding Sicily's Mt. Etna.
Biodynamic Wine Tasting
As if the subject of biodynamic farming principles isn’t complicated enough, just try to fathom the world of biodynamic wine tasting. A new
book, When Wine Tastes Best 2010: A Biodynamic Calendar for Wine Drinkers by German biodynamicist Maria Thun pinpoints specific days
and even hours when wines are likely to show their best. The calendar begins with December 2009 to help wine drinkers plan the holiday wine
drinking season. And just in case you’re curious, Christmas Day is not a particularly auspicious day for opening a prized bottle, but Dec. 27
shows great promise.
The Wine Show 2009 Thursday 22nd - Sunday 25th October
Touted as "The UK's Biggest Wine Show", The Wine Show will be at Business Design Centre, London N1. Attractions include
• Meeting the Experts (even An Hour with Oz)
• Wine Walks and Tasting Theatre
• Wine Market and French Growers Fair
• Opportunities to buy direct from producers.
For more information, visit www.wineshow.co.uk
Sideways - again
Did you see the road-movie-meets-winetasting film "Sideways"? A Japanese remake of the film was premiered in the Napa Sonoma Film Festival this month.
The film's location moved from Santa Barbara to Napa Valley, and its launch in Japan in October is expected to provide a fillup for Californian wine and tourism.
What's in that fizz?
Researchers from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in France have been conducting serious research into what's in a chaqmpagne bubble.
They estimated that an average 75cl bottle of champagne produces 100m bubbles and releases 5 litres of carbon dioxide. With a mass spectrometer,
they found "hundreds" of chemical components in bubbles which affect the senses, through taste, odour, colour or feel, and notably either aromatics or the precursors of aromas.
Champagne from shoes 
Piper-Heidsieck are collaborating with famed haute couture shoe designer Christian Louboutin, who has created a crystal stiletto
heel-shaped “Champagne flute” that Piper-Heidsieck is selling, for about €500, in a fancy shoebox along with a special Louboutin-edition
bottle of Champagne Piper Heidsieck Cuvée Brut. The designer was inspired by the female cabaret dancers of Belle Epoque Paris, who would
serve sips of Champagne to gentleman admirers from the inside of their dancing shoes,
Friday 20th - Sunday 22nd November - CHAMPAGNE, XMAS MARKET AND JAZZ WEEKEND
Organized by Friendship Wine Tours, and escorted by Christos Ioannou.
This trip catches the beginning of the Reims Christmas Fair, and the end of the Reims Jazz Festival
Visiting 3 Champagne producers. Places are limited, so please let Christos know as soon as possible if you would
you are interested - numbers must be finalized by mid October.
Please call Christos on 020-8993-2006 or email christos@criterionwine.com
Underwater wine
You may have heard of the Cavas Submarinas in Chile, where bottles of wine are stored deep under water for a peaceful maturation. A Californian adopted a similar approach to save his precious vintages when his house was threatened by wildfires recently. As the fire closed in on the house in Big Tujunga Canyon, the family was ordered to leave. Bert Voorhees submerged eight cases of wine in his own swimming pool. When he returned after the fires had passed, he found his house and other belongings were gone, but the wine was safe. Voorhees later opened a few of the bottles with some friends and "the wines tasted fine" .
Swine flu and Wine
Churches in central and northern Sweden are making planning to replace the table wine used in the Communion sacrament with higher-alcohol fortified wine. Church officials hope that fortified wine, with its higher percentage of alcohol compared with table wine, will prevent the spread of the swine flu virus via the communal chalice.
A Chicago doctor is trying to make the swine flu vaccination process a little bit more relaxing. Dr. Scott Hanlon is teaming up with the South Loop Wine Cellar for a night of shots and flights. For customers interested in the wine-and-vaccine pairing, $40 buys a swine flu inoculation and a flight of five wines.
Nutrition Facts… Coming to a Wine Bottle Near You
The US government, through the Treasury’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Trade Bureau (TTB), is considering proposals that would require wine producers to include the same sort of label information on wine bottles that is required on tomato ketchup and chicken noodle soup. No one is sure exactly when TTB will make a decision (originally scheduled for 2008). What is certain is what TTB has been considering:
• Equivalency measurements; that is, how many servings of beer or cocktails is the same as one glass of wine?
• Ingredient labels, where everything—from egg whites used for fining to grape concentrate added at the end of fermentation to boost sugar levels—would be included
• Nutritional information, including calories, fat and carbohydrate content
French wine and spirits exports fell by almost a quarter in the first half of 2009
Champagne sales plummeted by 45% in value with Bordeaux declining 24%, according to the Fédération des Exportateurs de Vins and
Spiritueux (FEVS). Burgundy exports fell 30%, while Côtes du Rhône was down 14.3%. The vin de pays category was less badly affected while
vin de table grew by 1.2%. Both wine and spirits have been hit by the global economic downturn, with FEVS predicting that exports in 2009
would reach 2004 levels 'at best'. This has been exacerbated by de-stocking in the supply chain, as suppliers slimmed down inventory to
increase cash flow.
Can miniature sheep reduce wine's carbon footprint?
Peter Yealands, a New Zealand winemaker believes he has found a novel solution to reducing the carbon footprint of wine.
Wine producers often use sheep to keep grass short, but flocks must be removed when the vines bud because the sheep will eat them too.
To prevent the grass using up precious nutrients and water, and to prevent the spread of disease and fungus, growers normally use tractors
to mow the grass.
To avoid using a tractor, last year Yeaslands experimented by letting loose giant guinea pigs. That worked initially, he said. "But once the
hawks had a taste for them they were sitting prey. We were losing them by the hour. Besides, we would have needed 11 million of them to make
it work."
The new answer is Miniature sheep. There are only 300 babydoll sheep in the world and they were originally bred as cute miniature pets,
and only reach about 60cm tall when fully grown. Because the grapes tend only to start growing from about 110cm off the ground
the sheep can't reach them. Yeaslands believes that they could help him to reduce the environmental footprint of his wine.
By allowing the babydolls to graze on the grass between his vines, he can dramatically reduce the energy his wine takes to make and
ultimately enable the process to be more sustainable.
Alabama bans "pornographic" wine from California
The Alabama Beverage Control Board has banned Cycles Gladiator wine produced by Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, Calif.
The Cycles Gladiator label, a replica of an 1895 French bicycle advertisement, features a fanciful image of a nude woman flying
alongside a bike amid a star-filled sky.
The control board had approved the label in previous years, but now even went so far as to ask the winery never to submit the label again
"because it's offending people in the office."
The American Approach to appelation - large scale
The USA will soon have the world's largest wine appellation - the 30 thousand square miles Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA.
The AVA averages 120 miles from east to west, 225 miles from north to south. It encompasses some or all of ten counties in
Minnesota, nine in Illinois, 18 in Iowa, and 23 in Wisconsin. The northern boundary begins near St Paul, Minnesota in the north
to Moline, Illinois in the south. This AVA is fifty times greater than Bordeaux.
It contains producers of some repute. The Wollersheim Winery of Prairie du Sac, for example, has earned some 267 medals over
the past 20 years. The application for the UMRV AVA was based upon evidence of a glacial retreat 15,000 years ago. The resultant
water flows combined with the St Croix River and what became Lake Superior to form this bedrock. Due to the abundance of cold
and humidity, French and other hybrids dominate the region.
UK vineyard expanding
UK vineyard area has grown by 45% over the last four years with 1,106 hectares now under vine according to the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, The number of vineyards has also increased year on year since 2002,
with 416 now recorded according to the Wine Standards Branch of the Food Standards Agency.
The extra vines have been mostly planted by or by suppliers of two of the biggest producers, Chapel Down and Nyetimber.
Another major new entrant is the supermarket Waitrose, which has started planting Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and
Pinot Meunier grapes at its Leckford Estate in Hampshire.
VDP medal awarded to Freddy Price
During the 36th VDP wine show held in Mainz, attended by 3,000 visitors, Freddy Price (a regualar speaker at Charlemagne) was
awarded the VDP Herkunft Deutschland ("Origion Germany") medal. The prize is awarded to publicist who rendered an outstanding
service to the german wine.
The citation for this award highlighted his work in the wine trade since 1953 and his authoritative book "The Reisling Renaissance".
Parker rates Bordeaux 2008 highly
Robert Parker's scores for Bordeaux 2008 are finally out and he is
hugely positive about the vintage:
"The 2008 vintage is dramatically better than I had expected. It had all
the qualities that make an excellent and in some cases, a great vintage
so special: exceptionally dark opaque colors, gorgeously ripe fruit,
stunning purity almost across the board, great freshness, slightly
higher acids than normal, and remarkable density as well as
concentration ... a number of superb wines are close to, if not equal to
the prodigious 2005 or 2000 vintages" - Robert Parker
If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
Next time you pop out to buy some Champagne, steer clear of labels sporting unfamiliar names and bargain price-tags.
The names Raymond Vadim, Pierre Plantard and Charles Debussy were on thousands of bottles of bubbly fobbed off
as real Champagne to unsuspecting customers by a mafia ring recently dismantled in north Italy. The counterfeiting may have
been going on for years, with up to 300,000 bottles exported from France and distributed in Italian grocery stores at around €15 a bottle.
Italians to form coalition against EU proposals on blended rosé
Rosé producers in Italy have joined forces to fight EU proposals to allow the mixing of red and white wines to make rosé.
Two Lake Garda rosé associations – Bardolino and Garda Classico – are working together for the first time since they were
created in 1968. The groups hope to attract producers from Apulia and Abruzzo to form a larger Italian coalition to oppose the reforms.
The EU wine reform management committee delayed a vote on the proposed regulations on 27 April until 19 June,
after the World Trade Organisation requested more time to scrutinise the proposals.
2004 Grange a 'great, benchmark' wine
The 2004 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange, to be released on May 1, is tipped to be one of the great vintages of Australia's top wine.
The pre-release retail price has already reached $600, the highest ever for a new vintage Grange. Penfolds' chief winemaker,
Peter Gago, put the wine in the same league as the 'wonderful' 1990 and 1996 vintages.
Not so sweet for Beaujolais producers
Fifty Beaujolais vignerons have been severely fined by French courts in Villefranche-sur-Saône for adding
excessive sugar to their wines in order to boost alcohol level in fermentation ("chaptalization").
Wine Spectator “Best of 2008”
The authoritative US wine magazine has released its list of the 100 most exciting wines of 2008. Of the top 10,
five were from France, with US, Australia, Portugal and Italy also showing. The number 1 spot was taken by
2005 Casa Lapostelle Clos Apalta from Colchagua Valley, Chile.
President Obama celebrates with Prosecco
President Barack Obama celebrated his inauguration with Virginia wine – and Prosecco. At one of many dinners on 19 January,
also attended by outgoing president George W Bush and former president Bill Clinton, guests were served two wines from
Virginia: Barboursville Vineyards Cabernet Franc Reserve 2006 and Barboursville Vineyards Octagon 2005. They also worked
their way through 100 bottles of Italian Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene. Charlemagne members will have their
chance to sample several Virginia wines at our June tasting.
Three bottles for the price of two?
Two for the price of one. Forty per cent off this. Five pounds off that. The
supermarkets and off-licences offer a dazzling confusion of 'bargains' and
'special offers'. But are they for real?
Read an expose of commercial marketing of wine and the role of the major
vendors which keeps the average price of a bottle of wine down to £4.08
- and is it really worth that much?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,2050339,00.html