Wonder wine, Claudia Schiffer, Bailout, US exports — sipped and spit

colbert_usSIPPED: American wine in the UK!
America California overtakes France to move into second place in the UK wine market, thanks to high volume supermarket brands, particularly rosé (aka white zin?). British observer Malcolm Gluck doesn’t think much of the low-end American wines and has this to say: “If you are looking for wine under £5, France knocks America into a cocked hat.” [Telegraph]

SIPPED: resveratrol

Australia is known for its brawny shiraz. Now an Australian doctor has made a new amped up wine though not with tannins, rather, with the possibly life-extending and sloth-inducing resveratrol. Will he prescribe to take two (glasses) and ask you to call him in the morning? [news.com.au]

SPIT: recession!
Crushpad, a custom wine maker San Francisco, has released the pricing on a 2007 Napa Cab. Pre-buy the wine now for $39 a bottle. Every 100 points the Dow falls between the day you pre-buy and when you take delivery in August 2009, they lop $2 a bottle off the price and will cut you back an “economic stimulus” check with the difference. If, by some miracle, the Dow is higher, you pay no more. [Bailout wine]

schiffer_domSIPPED: Claudia Schiffer’s anatomy!
German designer Karl Lagerfeld has designed an uber-kitshy Champagne glass (or is it a bowl?) for Moet & Chandon inspired by a part of supermodel Claudia Schiffer: her bosom. According to Decanter, the glass sits atop three “diminutive” Dom Perignon replicas. The only way to get the glass is with the 1995 Dom Perignon Oenotheque (find this wine) for $3,150, or $2,750 more than the bottle itself. That’s a lot of lift!

6 Responses to “Wonder wine, Claudia Schiffer, Bailout, US exports — sipped and spit”


  1. Malcom Gluck is right- France beats us for under $5, $6 every time.

    And I’ve been wringing my hands incessantly waiting for the next breast glass after Marie Antoinette’s, and I guess 2008 all my praying paid off. Best year ever. I’m buying two!


  2. […] clipped from http://www.drvino.com […]


  3. I’m really impressed by CrushPad’s strategy. It takes the recession, which we are all feeling in one way or another, and puts a positive spin on it for positive sales in their direction. This is the kind of smart thinking that says it’s only over when you’ve given up.


  4. The recent strength of the dollar against the pound hasn’t helped: £5 ~= $7.50 these days, when it was closer to $10 a year ago. Throw in import duty, excise duty and VAT, and you’re basically left with producers who have the economies of scale to make profits on $5 wine in the US. And yeah, it’s basically E&J’s bottom-tier stuff, sometimes under private label, including White Zin, squeezing out the 1990s Aussie old-reliables like Jacob’s Creek which are now closer to £7.50.

    I disagree with Gluck, though: you don’t get consistency from French producers until you hit £10 a bottle. There are some real bargains below that price (I’ve long been a fan of some VdP d’Ocs, or Minervois wines w/ Carignan and Mourvedre) but there’s also a lot of dull, dull stuff.

    [I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the UK has the most competitive market — and some of the best choice from Old and New World producers — in the world, for a variety of reasons. (I know a few very good, smallish producers in California who find it easier to supply British sellers than navigate the various state laws to get wine in stores across the US.)]


  5. Very interesting article, as are some of your other posts. I have bookmarked your great site for future visits.


  6. Well, I don’t know about Crushpad’s deal anymore… although it’s certainly great for anyone who bought from them! At this rate, they’ll owe more money on the wine than the buyer paid!


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