Bordeaux
Primeurs under attack, again
Jean-Claude Berrouet, ex-winemaker at Château Petrus in Pomerol, one of
Bordeaux’ most expensive wines, writes critically about the primeur releases
in Bordeaux. “The Primeurs” are presented each year in March after the
vintage to a great hullabaloo of wine merchants and journalists who gather
in hundreds if not thousands in Bordeaux for the event. Berrouet says that
it is unreasonable to judge the wines “in a moment of madness” and that the
wines have become more of a financial speculation item than a drink. Read
more:
decanter.comClos
Fourtet buys Chateau Poujeaux
Philippe
Cuvelier, owner of Clos Fourtet in St Emilion, has bought Chateau Poujeaux
in Medoc. Poujeaux is one of the ex-Cru Bourgeois wines (before Cru
Bourgeois was suspended) and is located in Moulis in Medoc. The transaction
is said to be valued at around €25 million for the 75 hectare property.
Cuvelier bought Clos Fourtet a few years ago for a rumoured €45 million.
decanter.com
New Australian appellation:
New England Australia
In Australia they call it Geographical Indication, and the rulebook is
no doubt thinner than in France. A new GI has just been created: New England
Australia, some 200 miles north of Hunter Valley in New south Wales.
decanter.com
Moët fined €30,000 for an ad
- Newspaper fined €5000 for publishing an article on wine
The French anti-wine lobby has collected another win. LVMH, owner of the
Champagne house Moët & Chandon, has been fined €30,000 by a Paris court for
an ad campaign they ran in 2003/4 on the theme “la vie en rose”. It’s the
state financed organization ANPAA (Association Nationale de Prevention en
Alcoologie et Addictologie) who took the campaign to court.
The judgment says that the
slogan used, together with the image (a champagne bottle surrounded by pink
rose petals against a black background) violated advertising norms in that
it had as aim to create an idea association between consumption of champagne
and having a euphoric view on life (‘voire la vie en rose’).
One can only assume that the
ANPAA sees the judgment as a great step forward in the fight against drug
abuse and alcoholism in France. In some way they should no doubt motivate
their allocated budget (70 million € if we remember the number correctly).
And now they will have another €30,000. Perhaps they can spend it on
celebrating the victory in champagne.
This
comes close on the heels of another judgment where the French daily Le
Parisien was fined €5000 for and article on champagne that did not carry a
health warning (a purely editorial article that is. Not any advertising in
this case). We understand that Le Parisien has no intention to appeal the
ruling. Perhaps they think €5k now is cheaper than €30k in an appeal…
Presumably their wine correspondent need to find another job. No doubt this
will have an impact on the advertising revenue that French media will get
from champagne houses (and others).
Read more about this
astonishing development here
decanter.com and here
actualite.aol.fr, and why not the triumphal press release from the ANPAA
www.anpaa.asso.fr. One wonders how long the French will stand having the
ANPAA pushing this kind of activities. Some more background here:
thepost.ie. ”This is a potentially dangerous product” says Patrick
Elineau, director at ANPAA.
FIJEV, the international
association of wine journalists, has created an online petition to protest
against the court ruling that implies that editorial text, written by a
journalist with the aim to inform, is considered equivalent to publicity.
About the verdict in Le Nouvel Observateur
nouvelobs.com. And in
Decanter. Do sign this petition if you support the view that journalism
is different than publicity and advertising:
the petition. Read more about it:
Drinksmediawire.com
Wine entertainment on
American Airlines
Grape Radio is a podcast (internet based radio channel) that is only
about wine. It was founded in 2005 and has around 20,000 listeners. The
“station” only broadcasts programs on wine – interviews, commentaries etc.
Grape Radio recently sold the rights to a selection of their programs to be
broadcast on American Airlines flights. Jay Selman, Grape Radio producer,
says to Decanter that he thinks it may be a deciding factors when travellers
choose airlines. Well perhaps. On the other hand, all you need is an iPod
(or any modern phone) and you can download the programs to it and listen on
any airline, or even in the car on your way to the airport.
Decanter.com and
podcastingnews.com.
New wine film: Bottle Shock
A
new wine film will soon open. It’s called Bottle Shock and is based on the
real story of how an Englishman working in a wine shop in Paris in the 80s
(now a famous wine writer and consultant, Steven Spurrier) organizes a blind
wine tasting pitching classic French wines against unknown New World ones.
The result is that the New World wines “win” to everyone’s surprise. The
event goes under the name “the Judgment of Paris”. The movie is a (free)
interpretation of the events. The main character is played by Alan Rickman
(know e.g. as Snape in the Harry Potter films). Se the trailer here:
Bottle Shock.
Belgian customs snaps the
cork on 3288 bottles of ”champagne”
The
Belgian customs has seized a shipment of 3288 bottles of sparkling André
wine (produced by the Californian producer E&J Gallo) and destroyed the
bottles (se video here:
Decanter). The bottles were marked with the word “champagne” on the
label. In California it is still permitted to use “champagne” as the
description for any sparkling wine but within the EU (and in many other
countries) it may only be used for wine from the Champagne region in France.
Which was the reason for the crush.
reuters.com
Soon time for the wine fair
in Porto
Between March 6 and 9 Porto in northern Portugal is host to a wine show:
Essencia do Vinho in the Palacio da Bolsa in Porto. Wine professionals, as
well as the general wine loving public will be presented with a wide range
of wines from all over Portugal, as well as Portuguese gastronomic
specialties. More info
essenciadovinho.com
PS: this autumn BKWine
introduces a
new wine tour - to the Douro valley and Porto. A great opportunity to
get to know this exciting wine district in Portugal. (The program will be
finalised and up on our site any day now.)
Chateauonline appoints new
managing director
Chateauonline is the biggest internet retails for wine in France, active
also in some other countries in Europe. Eric Brousse has recently been
appointed managing director (CEO). He was previously heading Marie Brizard.
Chateauonline is one of the pioneers in the sector. It was founded in 1998
by two enthusiasts and has since seen several ownership changes. This year
they expect to reach break-even. Chateauonline is now owned by CL Financial
Ltd (Trinidad & Tobago) (yes). Also included in the wine portfolio is
Repaire de Bacchus, as chain of 37 retail shops in the Paris region. Brousse
aims to double the sales on the internet in two years time to reach €25
million.
vitisphere.com
Australian wine exports up
6%
2007 saw a growth of 6% in Australian wine exports according to the
recently released figures from Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. The
biggest export markets are the United Kingdom and the USA, even if the latter
declined substantially in 2007.
vitisphere.com
Italian exports up 14%
Italian wine exports are expected to grow with 14% in 2007. Italy is
today the number one supplier of foreign wine in the US with a market share
of 30% (compared to France in second place with only 22%). The second
largest export market is Germany, but mainly for low budget wines (average
price €1.10 per litre). The UK is in third place and, perhaps surprisingly,
France takes fourth place (but with an average price per litre of a measly
€0.59).
wine-business-international.com
Bordeaux classic Lillet up
for sale?
Lillet
is the classic Bordelaise aperitif. It is made from a base of wine with some
herbs and spices added – a bit like a vermouth. There is both a red and a
white variant, the white being the classic colour, a touch drier that the
red one. Reports have that the privately owned company is now up for sale
and the drinks giant Pernod Ricard is rumoured as a potential buyer.
wine-business-international.com
Expensive wine tastes better
conclude scientists
Sounds perhaps self evident to you and me. A scientific study at the
California Institute of Technology designed an experiment where the same
wine was served to a tasting panel and sometimes they were told it was cheap
and sometimes that it was an expensive wine. The same wine was considered
much better when the tasters had been told it was expensive. And it was not
simply a question of them saying so. Magnetic resonance scans of the brain
activity of the subjects showed that they actually perceived the wine as
better. (On the other hand, is that so surprising? Did they ever hear about
the placebo effect?)
timesonline.co.uk
Scientific conference on
vines and wine in Collioure May 29-32
VDQS,
means in this case, the Vineyard Data Quantification Society. They organize
on May 29-31 a scientific colloquium on vines and wines in Collioure in the
south of France. Themes that will be discussed range from climate change, to
marketing and terroir and more. The conference is open for submissions of
papers until the end of February.
www.vdqs.net
Economics and wine
The American Association of Wine Economist (also welcoming
non-Americans) will have its second annual meeting in Portland, Oregon on
August 14-16. they are currently welcoming submissions for papers to be
presented at the conference.
www.wine-economics.org
Australian plans a vineyard
in the centre of London
The Australian wine producer McGuigan Simeon plans to install (rather
than plant) a vineyard in central London, in a square near Broadgate Arena.
The public (passing pedestrians…) will be encouraged to take a walk among
the vines and will then have the possibility to taste some of the McGuigan
wines in a wine bar next to the vineyard. Seems to be a grand scale
marketing stunt but it will no doubt cheer up a boring city square.
thedrinksbusiness.com
Global
warming and wine debated in Barcelona
Barcelona is perhaps a good place to discuss warm weather. They are
hosting a conference on the theme “Climate Change & Wine” on February 15 and
16. Special guest star (and invited speaker) is ex-vice president Al Gore.
More info
climatechangeandwine.com
Invest in a whisky
distillery
Ladybank Company of Distiller is a project behind a new single malt
distillery in Scotland. They claim to be different than other distillery
launch projects in that it is owned by the members of a club and not by
shareholders (in what respect that is different is not clear). They are
still open to new “members” / potential investors in the project so if you
are interested in a foot hold in Scotland look here:
www.whisky.co.uk.
Taste wine on Saturday
afternoons in Paris
Each Saturday between 3PM and 6PM you can taste a range of 4 whites and
5 reds at the restaurant Le TasteMonde. They are priced at a very reasonable
1€ or 2€ per glass. You find Le TasteMonde close to Place de la Madeleine,
on 8 rue de Surène (ph 06 20 62 60 86).
Have a news
item you'd like to see here or have a news tip? Send me an email:
winebrief@bkwine.com
En français
There
are not that many novels set in a winery setting. (I tried to write a
detective novel once where the victim had his head smashed with a bottle of
Petrus but I didn’t get much further than just that.) Well, some writers are
more successful than me, as for instance Sarah-Kate Lynch with this small
(in format) book about a champagne house with problems. The issue is not
that the champagne is not good, on the contrary. But the personal problems
of the heroine stack up when her father dies and his testament includes some
unexpected things. It is both funny and sad, and sometimes quite hilarious.
And a bit sentimental with a touch of romance. Add a pinch of wine knowledge
and you can look forward to a few hours good entertainment.
