Dr Vino's wine blog

Think pink: The NYT discusses trendy rosé and the $30 Domaines Ott. Lettie Teague is quoted saying, “‘An expensive rosé is oxymoronic,’ she said. ‘Domaines Ott is good but not so significantly better than wines that are $10 cheaper or half the price.’ She suggested that Domaines Ott is ‘a good wine for those psychologically unprepared to drink rosé, because it’s so beautifully packaged and expensive.'” [NYT] I agree. Sorry, “D.O.” my picks can save you over $20 a bottle. All together now: do not overpay for a dry rosé!

Randall Grahm cashes out: Big House Red and Cardinal Zin are jettisoned from the Bonny Doon portfolio and sold to The Wine Group. Perhaps Grahm can now focus more on his biodynamic vineyards? [WBM]

Bordeaux adds a vin de pays category called vin de pays de l’Atlantique. More varietal labeling to come. [Vitisphere]

Beer regains the lead: a Gallup poll this year showed beer to be the drink of choice by 41-33-23 breakdown over beer-wine-spirits. Last year wine edged out beer for the first time. [WBM]

Illinois beer distributors, who are against shipments directly from wineries to consumers, have made record contributions to state legislators. [StL Today]

Illinois also approved a “doggie bag” bill so that diners can take an unfinished bottle home with them–just don’t forget to put it in the trunk! [Sun-Times]

Evan Rail chugs 70 cent beers on a quest for the best brew in the Czech Republic. Is this a new wave in going to the winery brewery? [NYT]

Jeffrey Stambor, winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyard in Napa, tells the NYT about his favorite travel companion: wine, particularly the rare and valuable. [NYT]

Blogging is economically rational! The Economist says so! [Economist]

UPDATE: A comment from Pat expressed the opinion that because the fasionistas at the New York Times (hear my Stephen Colbert impression) liked Domaine Ott rosé, that means it’s out. A good point. Fashionistas may know their Dolce from their Gabbana but as we saw earlier this year, they also fell for the “Eccotini” brought to them by Gallo.

tags: wine | wine news | beer?!

On Friday I sent out the latest installment of my vinogram, the free monthly email that clutters up your inbox and keeps you apprised of Dr. Vino doings. If you want to subject yourself to this, then surf on over to www.DrVino.com and enter your email address in the top right. If I were more technologically savvy, then I would give you the chance to do that on this page. Your email address is safe: I promise to never to sell nor exchange, lend nor lease, truck nor barter the email list. There are other ways to keep up with the site:

Dine-in: bookmark this page and check back often!

Delivery: sign up to read the “feed” from the site as it rolls out. Bloglines is the most popular feed reader for subscribers, but Netvibes, My Yahoo!, and Firefox live bookmarks are also well used. Mmm…Feed…Delivery…

Mail: If you are mysteriously hooked to this web site, you can have every posting automatically sent on your Outlook or crackberry via Squeet, a service that sends site feed via email.

Any which way, thanks for your support and comments!

tags: wine | blogs

It’s been too long! Here’s a round-up of some wine news you can’t drink:

Mark Fisher explores the pay-to-play side of the annual Wine Spectator dining awards. He gets a note from publisher Marvin Shanken and publishes it on his blog. Don’t forget Amanda Hesser’s vintage piece that examined the high profit margins of the awards three years ago [link].

Beau is back! Fellow wine blogger has posted a round-up of his reporting from Austria includig many tasting notes, producer interviews and photos. [BasicJuice] R. W. Apple of the NYT also visited Austria.

Juanita Duggan, head of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association for the past six years, has left without many accomplisments. Tom thinks she was pushed and didn’t jump.

Meanwhile in NYC, two big wine and spirits distributors, Charmer and Peerless, are merging. This furthers the consolidation that started when Southern Wine and Spirits entered the market in 2004. The new name of the merged company? Empire Merchants…And in Illinois, National makes a bid for Glazer’s.

Matt Kramer debunks the idea of critics who are “supertasters.” Reprising a recent NYT theme of whether a star is born or made, I’d go with “made” too. [NY Sun]

“Already famed for angry labor strikes and philosophical debates in smoke-filled cafés, the French have now brought these passions online to become some of the world’s most intensive bloggers.” [IHT] Um, could have fooled me!

And finally, I spotted the UK version of the popular book Freakonomics. Not only is the cover the most interesting by far I have ever seen for an economics book, but the ironic thing is that it sets up an arbitrage situation: because the book is only in hardback in the US, it can be had for less than half-price via amazon.co.uk. Out freakin’ the freak! [link] (OK you caught me, that had nothing to do with wine.)

tags: wine | wine news | freakonomics

In France, wine is a better way to riches than the internet. According to latest Challenges magazine, which ranks the 500 richest people in France, the first telecom fortune appears 15th on the list but the first purely internet fortune doesn’t appear until 233rd place. Thirty-one of the fortunes, by contrast, came from wine including nine of the top 100.

Couple underperformance in this powerful medium with a potential restructuring of the wine industry that could result in large job losses and there may be a winning idea: a blog in every pot.

There’s no excuse for the lamentable state of internet access today in (particularly rural) France. One good thing about the internet is that it empowers people in rural areas. Whether you’re buying an airplane ticket or selling hand-made ceramics, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Boston or Bergerac are as long as you’re online. Since part of the reason that the EU has subsidized low-end winegrowers is to prevent rural depopulation, introducing a national plan for broadband access would mean that, through some retraining, people–particularly young people–could stick around in the countryside. Skip manufacturing, which sucks people to factories and cities, and jump right to information technology. Graft a vitis vinifera onto American rootstock, as it were.

So here’s my proposal: take a fraction of the budget for rural development and run broadband wires into the countryside. In fact, don’t even run wires and just go straight for wi-fi. Have it free or low cost for people in their homes. It will be liberating to think about being online all the time for a fixed price instead of being charged by the minute as with phone service.

Need help or training local people? How about an internet training facility next to every tourist office with free access for locals and everybody else pays 3 euros an hour. Any country with 75 million tourists a year should have internet cafes at every turn.

Granted, visiting a room full of active eBay PowerSellers hunched over computers has no value for tourists–even if it were in Provence. But the project is more about getting at bounty of France on line, be it artisanal goods or even information (doing research on France can often dissolve into a dizzying spiral of frustrated google searches, followed by phone calls, and ultimately visits during the appropriate hours). In wine, since many appellation rules prevent the listing of grape varieties on the label, the web is a likely place to turn for such information–and it is the very rare AOC that has a comprehensive web site. Further, a small vigneron could take orders through a web site and relieve the burden on supply staff who are limited to 35 hour work weeks.

But my plan assumes too much of an “old-school” perspective in thinking of redirecting government funds. Really I should be more entrepreneurial. Maybe this idea would catapult me into the top 500 richest people of France? Excuse me while I go talk to venture capitalists…

tags: wine | France | broadband for life

Tis the season–for dry rosé. And I’m doing my best to drain the wine lake while in France. Combine these two things and that means a whole lot of rosé.

I bought a 5 liter bag-in-a-box rosé from a winery last week just outside Bergerac. How much did a pay for it? Whoever is closest without going over (true Bob Barker style) gets a link back to their site–or your name in lights. I paid euros but will have my currency calculator handy to field dollar-based guesses.

tags: wine | rosé

Is wine a path to riches in France? The two-sided market that is French wine today, which sees some wines pre-release at $750 a bottle while other winemakers go out of business, has in fact made some of the richest people in France.

Fully 31 of the 500 richest people in France have a hand in the wine (or spirits) biz according to according to Challenges magazine dated July 13. Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH is the richest man in France according to the annual survey, with his 48% stake in the luxury goods company valued at over 17 billion euros.

Some other people on the list own chateaus, such as Serge Dassault and Francois Pinault, but I didn’t include them here since they made their fortune in other industries (aviation and retailing, in those two examples). Also, two barrel makers are on the list (Jean Francois and Henri de Pracomtal) but I didn’t include them either.

Sometimes the magazine includes “and family” but for the sake of brevity, I just include the individual.

Individual or family (500 rank), brands/company: net worth (millions of euros)

Bernard Arnault (1), LVMH–Moet Hennessey: 17,205
Patrick Ricard (26), Pernod-Ricard: 1,278
Pierre Castel (28), Castel Freres: 1,200
Chandon-Moet and Hennessy families (45), LVMH: 905
Dominique Herlard-Dubreuil (53) Remy Cointreau: 726
Jean-Claude Rouzaud (88) Louis Roederer champagne: 375
Bernard Magrez (96) Pape-Clement: 335
Eric de Rothschild (100) Lafite Rothschild: 311
Corinne Montzelopoulos (116), Chateau Margaux: 260
Nonancourt family (146), Laurent Perrier champagne: 202
Paul-Francois Vranken (191), Vranken champagne: 154
Albert and Robert Cohen-Skalli (194), Les Vins Skalli: 150
Philippine de Rothschild (194), Baron Phillippe de Rothschild: 150
Pierre Cointreau (233), Remy Cointreau: 127
Michel Reybier (242), Domaines Reybier: 120
Lurton family (276), Andre Lurton Vignobles: 100
Bollinger family (310), Bollinger champagne: 90
Jacques Marnier-Lapostolle (324), Grand Marnier: 85
Antoinette Coury (329), Grand Marnier: 83
Carol Duval-Leroy (336), Duval-Leroy champagne: 80
J. Helfrish and G. Bimmerle (336), Grands Chais de France: 80
Bruno Paillard (355), Boizel Chanoine champagne: 78
Christian Moueix (374), Antoine Moueix et fils: 72
Gerard Perse (376), Chateau Pavie: 70
J-H Delon and G. d’Alton (402), Ch Leoville Las Cases: 65
Jean-Michel Cazes (426), Ch Lynch Bage: 60
Jean Pol-Roger and C. de Billy (426), Pol-Roger: 60
Didier Cuvelier (457), Leoville-Poyferre: 55
Leroy and Villaine families (477), Romanee-Conti: 54

tags: wine | French wine | high net worth individuals

I am currently in foie gras country in the south of France. I understood that there was going to be limited internet access but instead there is NONE! Yes, several years ago we logged on to the Net from a shack on the beach in Thailand, but alas, internet access and even cafes (of the internet variety) are hard to come by here…

I’ll save my tales and post when I can.

Cheers,

Dr. Vino

tags: wine

Bling
On the stratospheric pricing of Bordeaux 2005 futures, Elin McCoy suggests how to avoid the $500 Haut Brion: “So what to buy? Go for second growths such as Leoville- Barton, one of my top picks of the vintage ($100 a bottle), and Pichon-Longueville-Baron ($120). I’d also be happy to drink Lynch-Bages, Pontet-Canet and Leoville-Poyferre (all $85), Lafon-Rochet, Beychevelle and Dame de Montrose ($40 to $50), and Chasse-Spleen ($25) if my ‘investment’ turned south.” [Bloomberg]

The IHT “your money” column urges investment in 2005 Bordeaux futures suggesting a five year timeframe. It’s odd, however, that the piece does not caution about the high price of these futures. So I will. Watch out! Are you really buying low when the price is $500 a bottle? [IHT]

Bust
Mariann Fischer Boel, EU Agricultural commissioner, formally outlines her proposals to drain the EU’s “wine lake.” Nothing that we hadn’t already seen coming, but the details are now out. Expect action sometime next year. [EU]

An article summarizing the reform appears here and it underscores “French and Italian” opposition to the plan. However, the opposition is not across the board, as a senior wine official in Bordeaux told DrVino.com recently.

Apologies to Kieslowski for the title of this post.

tags: wine | EU wine policy | Bordeaux