Archive for October, 2008
Tattinger Buys Vineyard in Savoie (?)
If you hang around the wine geek set long enough, someone will try and convince you that Vin de Savoie is one of the wine world’s great undiscovered pleasures. Apparently the Grande Marque Champagne producer Tattinger agrees:
In partnership with Savoie negociant and producer, Philippe Viallet, Taittinger stumped up €2m (£1.58m, US$2.58m) for the 18ha (hecatare) Domaine Les Fils de René Quénard.
The domaine is in the Chignin-Bergeron appellation, producing 100% Roussanne wines – Bergeron is the local name for Roussanne.
My main complaint about Vin de Savoie is that it is too rare and too expensive. Perhaps with the Tattinger muscle behind it that will change.
No commentsLa vin de Merde
You have to give credit to someone who is willing to admit that their wine is shit.
No commentsBoycott Beaujolais Nouveau?
I would have thought that the taste of Beaujolais Nouveau would have been enough to prompt a boycott, but via Tyler Colman, I see there are environmental reasons too:
1 commentRegulations prohibit the bottling of the wine more than one week before the arbitrary date, when signs all around the world used to proclaim triumphantly “le Beauolais noveau est arrivé” (the Beaujolais nouveau has arrived!”) Now, the dreadful slogan is “It’s Beaujolais nouveau time!” which sounds perilously close to a rip off of a Miller ad.
The short allowable time between bottling and release sets off a global sprint to transport the wine as far afield as Tokyo, San Francisco and Santiago. This has involved motorcycles, trucks, helicopters, regular jet planes and even, in a previous era, the Concorde!
As my research on the carbon footprint of wine has shown, airfreight is hardly the best way to transport any wine even if it were good. A bottle of Georges Duboeuf flown to New York has four times the carbon footprint than if it were sent by ship.
David Lett is Dead
David Lett has died at age 69. Lett was the Pinot Noir pioneer in Oregon, planting the first vineyards in the Willamette Valley despite being told it was too cold and wet to grow vines.
These days, when Oregon Pinot Noir enjoys such an exalted status, it is good to remember that, in wine as in a great many things, the things we take for granted did not simply apparate one day fully formed. They are the result of vision and hard work, being willing to make ends meet by selling textbooks on the side, and eventually, maybe, seeing a dream realized.
No commentsFrascati on Tap
1 commentThe residents [of the Italian village of Marino] thronged the steep cobbled streets to celebrate the Sagra dell’ Uva – annual wine harvest. At the heart of the festival is the moment when the year’s newly pressed vintage spurts forth from the Fountain of the Four Moors, decorated with grapes for the occasion, to a backdrop of fireworks, dancing and – not least – drinking…at last, the pipes began to gurgle. Instead of emerging from the fountain, however, the wine surged through the pipes into nearby homes.
Housewives doing the washing up or boiling water for the pasta suddenly noticed a strange smell of alcohol, residents said.
Adriano Palozzi, the embarrassed Mayor of Marino, said that water engineers had inadvertently misdirected the flow of wine into the domestic supply.
The mistake was spotted quickly and reversed, but not before many quick-witted residents had the presence of mind to fill jugs, pans and any other receptacles that came to hand.
Changes in Champagne
Catherine Fallis has a good overview of the changes in Champagne in Sommelier Journal:
- Demand is outstripping supply: “The 2007 harvest produced the equivalent of 335 million bottles of Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée (AOC) wine and 53.1 million bottles of wine in reserve (wine that can’t be sold), which should fulfill current market needs. But what about next year and the years after that? If the current pace continues, the 85,950 planted acres now producing the wines of the Champagne AOC will not be enough.”
- Quality is suffering as a result: “Virginia Philip, MS, sommelier at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Fla., believes that market demands may already be dictating changes at the grandes marques(the major Champagne labels): “Stylistically, I would argue that the wines are being released earlier and the vintage Champagnes too consistently. In the past, we would see vintage Champagne released three to five times per decade. Now it seems as if all the big houses are releasing every year.””
Champagne, more than any other wine, is a triumph of marketing. (for more on this see Champagne by Don & Petie Kladstrup). It seems that the grandes marques are becoming a victim of their own success. However, excellent grapes are still being grown there, and excellent wines being made. They are just a bit harder to find.
Where’s that from again?
I guess I thought this was already the case:
Country-of-origin labeling finally became a reality on Tuesday for meats, produce and some nuts sold in American supermarkets…Under the new rule, grocery stores will have to identify the country of origin for meats, produce and certain nuts; seafood is already labeled. Though it took effect on Tuesday, the Agriculture Department gave retailers six months to comply with the new law.
I imagine this is prompted by the Chinese melamine scare among other things.
No commentsThe SF Chronicle likes Chardonnay a lot
In the past few years, it has been popular to trash Chardonnay from California. I have certainly done my share of whining about the oaky, buttery style that, to my palate, was borderline undrinkable. But more recently, I’ve gotten the sense that the pendulum was swinging the other way and that not being snobby about California Chardonnay was the new trend. ABC? Please:
- John Kongsgaard: Treat [Chardonnay] With the Respect it Deserves
- The Extraordinary Potential of Chardonnay Vineyards
- Grow Perfect Chardonnay Fruit and leave it be