SPIT: reporting on Champagne
An article on JancisRobinson.com criticizes recent coverage of Champagne’s 2009 harvest. Main quibble: “After the harvest there will not be masses of grapes left to rot on the vine.”

SIPPED: changes in Chicago
Sam’s Wine & Spirits closed their South Loop location last month and now will close their Highland Park store. Meanwhile, Illinois now has an increased tax on wine, rising $0.13 per bottle to $0.28. As a result, distributor Rocky Wirtz has sued the state. Five other states recently raised taxes on wine.

SIPPED: Binge shopping
Annual wine sales at big box stores in France bring out “legions” of consumers. Carrefour sold six million bottles during its sale last year. [AP]

For exhibit A, we turn to an anonymous clubgoer who, according to the blog Guest of a Guest, spent $20k on a methuselah (six liters) of Armand de Brignac. Yes, Ace of Spades, so 2006! But still going strong, apparently. NY mag’s Grub Street terms this bling spend an example of “douchebauchery.”

For exhibit B, we turn to the Charles de Gaulle airport, where an anonymous Christmas eve shopper (desperate for a gift?) dropped 46,423 euros ($65,013) during a wine spending spree! Bloomberg details what he brought the the register: “a Cote du Rhone [sic] La Tache from 1991 and several bottles from the Bordeaux region, including a Lafite Rochschild bottled [sic] in 1947 and a Chateau Latour from 1976.” Paper or plastic? Seriously, this dude needed to think of structuring his gift so the recipient could spend the $65k at auction, where all the deals are!

Instead, a few days ago I stumbled on an actual bottle of the Hennessy Beauté du Siècle cognac (find this cognac). Introduced last year in its display case designed by ten artists using mirrors and molded aluminum (!), the cognac is supposedly hand delivered in a limousine by one of the directors of LVMH when a bottle is, in fact, purchased. I twisted the Baccarat crystal bottle around in its holder (I didn’t lift it because I thought it might trip a sensor and since I’m not Indiana Jones, I didn’t have a 750g bag of sand to put in its place). There’s no label, save for the government warning! Ah, the surgeon general’s reach escapes no one.

Perhaps there is an aluminum lining for those interested in purchasing: introduced at €150,000 last year, the price has gone down based on exchange rates alone!

What’s your company doing this year to cut back, if anything? All the Dr. Vino interns were disappointed that this year’s magnum party has been downsized to a 375ml party. But hopefully we will all have something to cheer after the election!

Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, has announced the release of a $400 beer called “Vintage No. 1.” According to Bloomberg, the beer, which costs 357 times more than the regular Carlsberg lager, “has been developed to challenge luxury wines in the gourmet restaurant market and capitalize on rising individual wealth.”

But don’t they know that bling is only allowed in wine country! (OK, maybe cognac too.) How dare them try to pry our white-gold encrusted jerobaums out of our wine stained fingers! Bling beer, you’re on notice!

Related:
- “Research subjects think more expensive means better wine!”
- “Are restaurants pushing wine for profit?”
- More on notice

For a summary of this study, check out this BBC account, the best I’ve seen (with blog-worthy reader feedback too! And thanks to readers Grayman, Brian, Stephen and Terry for sending in versions of the story.).

Unfortunately using price as a proxy for quality happens all the time in the world of wine. That’s why, for example, Ace of Spades $300 nonvintage Champagne sells out when it tastes remarkably like the $50 version from the same producer. Hmm, maybe that’s why no samples of it were available during Vinexpo, a savvy crowd of trade tasters? Examples also abound of new producers who release wines at high prices in an attempt to signal quality that may or may not be there.

But, fortunately, price and quality are not always perfectly related. Just last month I poured two wines for participants at a tasting. One was quite a storied Napa producer and another was an unheralded producer from some dustbowl in Spain. They could see the bottles and some knew the Napa name. Which did they prefer? The Spanish one. And when I told them it was $15 vs $115, they rejoiced!

What do you say, is a higher priced wine always better? Share your thoughts and stories in the comments.

It’s too bad that the researchers’ next project is about pain–I was hoping they would repeat the wine quality test with Parker scores. I bet it would have an even higher correlation with perceived quality than price!

Image used with permission from DeLongWine.com

This ancient land was known for precious metals and wine–a fine pairing for any society! If we were teleported there right now, we could try wine from gold or silver vessels while wearing gold-spangled robes. And you thought wine and bling was sooo 2007!

In fact, some residents were so rich that they were buried with their gold wine service. And some were so kinky as to be buried with their servants or horses. But that doesn’t concern us.

Get a load of that silver cummerbund thing above! The scene depicts some grand poobah, complete with five o’clock shadow, getting served wine. Peeled grapes coming up next, no doubt.

Archaeologists have also unearthed a shrine to the god of wine complete with a large, ornate bronze cauldron presumably filled with the fruits of the vine.

Where was this ancient land? And why is it timely now? Win our respect and admiration–and a link back to your site if you have one–by being the first with a correct answer in the comments below.

UPDATE: We have a winner–in record time! RichardA nailed it that it is ancient Colchis in modern day Georgia. The society felt the influence both east and west in the form of Persia and Greece. Chaz nailed the timely relevance since the exhibit ““Wine, Worship & Sacrifice” runs through February 24 at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian. He even gave you the link to the exhibit! Here’s a map to help you get a better lay of the land.

I’m not going to be able to see the exhibit myself. But I’m looking forward to the sword and sandals movie set in Colchis with Brad Pitt.

Last year at this time, I wrote a post called “Give the gift of big red,” which suggested giving wines big in flavor profile and in heavy bottles. However, since my research into the carbon footprint of wine, I’m reformed. Now I know that magnums (1.5 liters) produce less carbon dioxide emissions per ounce of wine than regular bottles because of the more favorable wine-to-glass ratio.

So this year, here’s a list of impressive magnums that will impress your friends and relatives–and even with the bigger bottle, they’ve got a smaller carbon footprint. Providing they drink it all, of course.

While there are many magnums that are ridiculously priced since they are a favorite of collectors, these are in the realm of reasonable, under $100. All prices are for magnums.

Pierre Peters champagne, $90 (find this wine). This champagne is a “grower champagne,” made by the people who grew the grapes (unlike the big houses who buy grapes from the 10,000 growers in the region). It’s from Mesnil, the home to big names such as Krug and Salon, so the vineyard site is excellent. So is the resulting Champange, a blanc de blancs, which I have served many times this year to guests and once from magnum to a class. Great bling at a fraction of bling price! Magnums are particularly good for aging so feel free to keep it for a few years.

Pepiere, “Granite de Clisson,” Muscadet 2005, $40 (find this wine). This producer is a leading quality in the area where the Loire river meets the sea. The wine is his richest and smoothest thanks to two years of aging but it still has good, zippy acidity to compliment seafood such as oysters. It’s also a doubly green wine because the grapes are hand harvested from an organic vineyard.

Schloss Lieser, Riesling Spatlese, Mosel, 2004, $68 (find this wine). I stumbled on this bottle in a wine shop and couldn’t resist it. The Riesling magnum is long and fluted and towers above other magnums. I served it at a party last weekend and the crowd loved it and had fun pouring from such a long neck. The wine has a whiff of flintiness on the nose but had a beautiful balance of light sweetness and acidity on the palate.

Dard & Ribo, Saint-Joseph, 2005, $68 (find this wine). I almost didn’t get a chance to taste this wine because I served it at a party and the revelers almost finished it off before I got to it. But fortunately I did since the wine inside the magnum is terrific with a great balance of red berry fruit, tannin and acidity. This is also a “double green” wine since it is totally natural and this producer is a staple in the trendy natural wine bars of Paris. It makes an especially good gift for someone named Joseph as I found out at the party where a friend named Joe tried to run away with the bottle.

Niepoort, 1997 vintage port, $65 (find this wine). Vintage port is generally very expensive with recent vintages pushing $100 a bottle. Magnums, however, get a significant discount presumably because nobody can drink that much sweet wine in one sitting. Tip: have a party and serve it at the end with some Stilton and it will be an amazing farewell. Another tip: drink as much as you are able and decant it into a regular sized bottle and recork where it will stay good for a good while longer. Whatever you do with it, the stout bottle is an impressive gift.

Choose your Christmas magnum wisely.

Item 1: Hennessey has launched Beauté du Siècle, a limited release cognac for $150,000 euros ($220,000; find this cognac). A blend of 100 year old cognacs yadda yadda, it comes in a Baccarat crystal bottle (of course!) and a display chest that “was made by 10 different artists using mirrored glass and melted aluminum” according to Decanter. A member of the Hennessey board will deliver it personally to whoever buys it–in a stretch Hummer, I’m sure! Any bets on which city will see the first delivery? I’m going with Moscow.

Item 2: A bottle of whisky fetched $54,000 (including commissions) at auction in NYC. One of forty bottles, this 1926 Macallan was housed in a humble wood box. Half the bids came in from overseas.

Item 3: It pays to shop around for bling! A reader writes to say that Sherry Lehmann has a Methuselah (6L) of Dom Perignon 1995 for $9,999 instead of the previously discussed jerobaum (3L) for $17,000 at Crush . Only drawback: it doesn’t have the white gold bling since “This rare bottle is packaged in its own locked case with a metallic finish to preserve and protect this fine wine.”

Item 4: bonus bling for 2008! As tucked away in a quick mention here, the new, 250-case 1995 Krug Clos d’Ambonnay (find this champagne) will be coming out for $3,000+ a bottle.

Related: “Judge this cognac by its bottle“

It was the December lunch of the Wine Media Guild with a theme of prestige cuvées. You got it–Krug, Dom Pérignon, Cristal and 20 other top wines from top houses. Leading us in the packed-house tasting was WMG member Ed McCarthy, photographed at right, author of Champagne for Dummies. I felt like calling him E Diddy with so many bling bubbles around him.

I’m not going to do a run-down of all the wines but here are some of my takeaways.

Best Value
* Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle NV may be the best value of all these wines (find this champagne). Ed said that it can be found for less than $70 retail in part because the house has never made a big push in the US market. I loved the wide, olde fashioned bottle as well as what was inside the bottle. This house also owns Salon and Delamotte, which are operated separately.

Discoveries
* Deutz was a wonderful discovery for me. The 1998 Cuvée William Deutz (find this champagne) was wonderfully rich, with some good apple acidity under the layers. One experienced taster deemed the best of the tasting. Ed said that it was underrated. Owned by Louis Roederer.

* Alfred Gratien, Cuvée Paradis NV (find this champagne) I’d never had a champagne from this producer before and I liked the rich, barrel-fermented style.

* Taittinger Comtes de Champagne blancs de blancs (find this champagne) started blanc de blancs after WWII and still going strong.

* Perrier-Jouet blanc de blancs 1999 (find this champagne). They’ve never before had a blanc de blancs. I found it big, powerful, and leesy with a lingering finish.

* Pommerey Cuvee Louise 1998 (find this champagne), rich and leesy, but not overdone this had a good weight. It was popular at my table during lunch.

* Taittinger Comtes de Champagne brut rose 2000 (find this champagne): subtle, great structure but I preferred their blanc de blancs.

* Henriot, Cuvée des Enchanteleurs 1995. (find this champagne) I’d never had this champagne before and I certainly won’t turn it down again. Warm toasty style.

Not exactly news that these were fantastic:

* Bollinger is big. Barrel-fermented, this 1999 Grande Année brut (find this champagne) is still very young, it’s big. At $90 or so retail, it’s almost bargain bling.

* Cristal 2000 is, in fact, very good, despite the bling value (find this champagne). Age needed, however! Ed relayed a story about how he and his wife, Mary Ewing-Mulligan, had some delays during Thanksgiving travel a couple of years ago and when they finally returned home, they opened a bottle of 1985 Cristal. He said it blew them both away and showed him just how excellent Champagne can be. He recommended aging almost all these prestige cuvees for at least a decade. Too bad we only had current releases…

* Dom Perignon 1999, when tasted right after Cristal, is not as good as when consumed with lunch (find this champagne).

* Krug “grande cuvée,” brut NV is, well, Krug. Mmm. (find this champagne). And with the new, 250-case 1995 Clos d’Ambonnay (find this champagne)rumored to be coming out for $3,000+ a bottle, this grande cuvee is a bargain! Yoink.

* Pol Roger, Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, 1998. (find this champagne) Top notch, and with a new label to boot!

* Charles Heidsieck, “Blanc des Millénaires” 1995. Really terrific. World class bubbles. Showing well now with over a decade of age. (find this champagne)

Some relative disappointments
* Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame 1998: somehow seemed lacking compared to the others available, even from LVMH. (find this champagne)
* Mumm de Cramant NV: a nice one to open with but the tasting took off rapidly. (find this champagne)
* Nicolas Feuillatte Palme d’Or brut rose 1999: seemed oddly candied to me, but others liked it. (find this champagne)
* Piper-Heidsieck, Cuvée Rare, brut, NV: Last weekend I had some Piper brut NV in a mimosa and it was great. Apparently the house has had some changes so maybe they’re headed in the right direction. This tasted quite mature for an NV but perhaps too mature?

A few final notes from Ed:

* Although a vintage has been declared almost every year since 1995, his favorite recent vintages have been 1996, 1990 and 1988.

* He also recommends tasting prestige cuvees out of a tulip glass rather than a champagne flute to capture some more of the aromas. We had flutes at our tasting.

If you’re interested in joining the Wine Media Guild or seeing the calendar of upcoming lunches, surf on over to the site.

If the bling is the thing this holiday season, check out this Methuselah (6 liters, or the equivalent of eight regular bottles) of Dom Perignon champagne on display in a midtown Manhattan wine store. The elegant photo and lighting is thanks to my cameraphone.

Care to guess the price? I imagine the glass case is included. Be the first to guess correctly and you will win…OK, not the bottle. Just our respect and admiration this time–or maybe an hour in Mark’s Petrus cage?

FYI check here for a baseline price on the regular bottle, sans white gold.

UPDATE 12/1: When is a Methuselah not a Methuselah? When it is a Jerobaum!

Tom Stephenson wrote in saying that he erroneously told me that the bottle that I saw in Crush Wine & Spirits, the store where he is general manager, is a Methuselah. In fact, it is a mere Jerobaum! (3L, or 4 regular sized bottles) But the price remained the same: $17,000!!!

Those of you who checked the price of the regular sized bottle saw that it was about $200 for a regular 99 Dom. So we’re talking $800 worth of bubbly for $17k — more than 21x premium! Bling-tastic! With gold at $800/ounce, I’d take four regular bottles with a side of 20 one-ounce gold coins, in case anyone was feeling generous.

Props to commenter Chris C for working this into a food-pairing post! And commenter Chaz below for being the closest to the actual retail price without going over!

How does this affect the auction market for collectibles? Billionaire Eli Broad recently told Bloomberg that he thinks prices will decline for the high-end art market. As the fall auction season kicks into high gear, auctioneers must be wondering if the same fate awaits them for wine.

I think not for three reasons. First, there’s gotta be a pretty limited number of people who would pay $100 million for Damien Hirst’s diamond skull, while fifty cases of 1982 Lafite can be broken down to 50 different buyers if need be. Even 25 percent of last year’s bonus still buys a lot of wine. Ferrari? Maybe that gets the ax, but wine stays.

Size matters too: total US wine auction sales last year were $162 million, strong growth year over year, but at the rate of a skull, that doesn’t even add up to an entire diamond encrusted skeleton should Hirst ever do one of those. The $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry may be down, but it’s by no means out. And if you’re trading down from big ticket art, why not shift into lower-ticket but still investment-grade wine? There are a lot of new empty cellars in Greenwich, CT and beyond just waiting to be filled up.

Finally, it’s tangible. At the end of a day trading, going home and sitting in the 55 degree cellar and looking at the wine is fun. It’s there. It’s real, unlike many mortgage backed securities or derivatives thereof. And alluring. It might even make you want to uncork a bottle. As Napoleon is reputed to have said, “Champagne. In victory you deserve it; in defeat, you need it.”

What do you think about the market for collectible wines this fall? Have your say in the comments below.

Select wine auctions fall 2007: (after the jump)
September 8, New York City, Sotheby’s
September 12, London, Sotheby’s
September 14-15, NYC (Daniel), Zachys
September 15, Chicago (Tru), Hart Davis Hart
September 15 NYC (20 Rockefeller Plaza), Christie’s
September 17, London, Christie’s
September 28, NYC (Daniel), Zachys (the Stormby cellar)
October 10, London, Sotheby’s
October 12, Los Angeles (Peninsula), Zachys
October 13, NYC, Christie’s
October 25, LA, Christie’s
October 27, Chicago, Hart Davis Hart
October 29, NYC, Sotheby’s
October 30, NYC, Christie’s (the Mähler-Besse cellar)
November 3, LA, Christie’s (the Christen Sveaas collection)
November 8, NYC (Daniel), Zachys
November 30-Dec 1, NYC (Daniel), Zachys
December 1, Chicago, Hart Davis Hart
December 8, NYC, Christie’s

(image)

I spoke with Alexandre Cattier last week at Vinexpo about the wines that he provides to the US market, sold mostly through nightclubs and a handful of stores (find this wine), where the prices range from $300 – $375.

About the opportunity to develop the Ace of Spades, Cattier told me “It’s incredible–it’s one of the occasions that you have once in a lifetime as a negociant.”

I have not tried the wine myself and there was none offered, I might add, since Cattier said that the production was “very limited.” He did tell me that the wine is a brut nonvintage. Hmm, a “limited” brut NV?

Anyway, the brand is expanding. I saw samples of the new bottles, which will now include a shiny pink embalmed brut rose NV and a shiny silver emblamed blanc des blancs brut NV. Feel free to poke around the Cattier web site and see their existing line that includes a rose NV and a blanc des blancs NV. These are available in the US from $25 – $55. (Find these wines)

Related:
“Reader mailbag: finding Ace of Spades Champagne”
“Jay-Z puts an Ace in play”

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]

Congratulations on your nuptials! Sadly if your wedding is in the US, the wine–formally known as Armand de Brignac–won’t be here in time for your big day. According to the American importer, Sovereign Brands, a December launch is planned. But even then the wine will be in limited supply. (search for the wine)

Via email the manager at Crush, the hipster wine shop in midtown Manhattan, told me they are 99% likely to carry the wine but do not have all the details sorted out yet. The wine may even be available directly from the importer according to their website.

If you’re getting married in France you stand a chance of finding it. According to the WSJ, Michel Platini, French soccer legend, ordered 100 bottles of Cattier champagne for his son’s wedding this month.

More details on the brand development:
“Jay-Z puts an Ace in play” [Dr. V]
My interactive map of NYC wine stores

UPDATE: An anonymous tipster has sent in this photo of Armand de Brignac as seen in New Jersey! It HAS hit our hallowed shores! I just guess you need some clout to get it.

Beyonce and Jay-Z at his 40/40 club in Atlantic City.

tags: wine | Jay-Z | champagne