Dr Vino's wine blog

SIPPED and SMASHED: Lafite empties
After tasting older vintages of collectible wines before an auction, the bottles are routinely smashed. Why? An empty bottle of Lafite 1982 fetches $1,500. [CNN]

SIPPED: counterfeit bottle
William Koch, the billionaire wine collector, bought a bottle of 1870 Lafite from a Christie’s auction for $4,200, discovered it was fake, and sued the auction house. A judge has now thrown out the suit, saying that Koch knew the bottle was fake before bidding. Here’s hoping anyone else bidding on it also knew! [Bloomberg]

CHUGGED: Box wine up 18% last year. [PR web]

CUT: subsidies
The Texas wine industry has received $4.2 million in state funds the past two years. However, the subsidy is likely to be cut to zero. Fun fact: there are estimated to be 1.3 million wine tourists a year in Texas. [Dallas Morning News]

DAMAGED: some tentative information on the state of Japan’s sake breweries. [sake-world.com]

SIPPED: a new meaning for, “wine, down the hatch!” [source via reddit]

SIPPED: skulduggery
Alder Yarrow has one of his quasi transcripts up about a fascinating panel discussion on alcohol, levels and balance. The voluble Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat had some provocative statements and Adam Lee of engaged in skulduggery with sommelier Raj Parr–and everyone! [vinography]

SPIT: scores
What drives Bordeaux prices? A post on the Liv-Ex blog suggests a change from scores to brands.

SPIT: “Operation Suckling”
James Suckling’s recent promotion with Quebec’s state monopoly draws a raspberry (or was it 51 points?) from a local critic. [montrealgazette.com]

SIPPED and SPIT: chilling reds
Gallo to introduce the masses to chilling reds w new 10.5% abv wine. Wait til the masses discover good Beaujolais! [Marketingmagazine.co.uk]

SIPPED: excellent reporting
Fans of Krug may enjoy this excellent NYT story on LVMH/Hermes protagonist Bernard Arnault. Critics claim he “broke” families he bought from and “compromised the artisanal essence of their companies.”

END OF AN ERA: Patrick Campbell sells Laurel Glen winery in Sonoma to Bettina Sichel. [Decanter]

SIPPED: more Zin Man
The ad about Zin man, riffing on the Old Spice guy, got a big thumbs up from all of you. So I asked the Paso Robles folks for a few more details about their ad. While they wouldn’t provide details about how much it cost, they did say the ad was shot in Paso Robles using a professional actor (not a vintner) as the star. They are planning 8-10 more ads this year.

SPIT: Celebrity status
Out of disbelief, a wine store clerk in Manhattan refuses Matt Damon’s credit card for the star’s impulse purchase of $1,200 of wine, insisting that he pay cash. Which store was it? And which wine was it? [latimes with video]

RUNG: alarm bell
A French researcher warned a Bordeaux trade group this week that the region will be too warm to grow red wine grapes to long-lived wines–by as early as 2050. When will Norway develop a premier cru? [AFP]

SIPPED: foreign takeover
Concha y Toro, Chile’s #1 wine producer, is buying Fetzer’s three million case production for $238 million. How will this affect consumers of Bonterra, or Fetzer’s other brands? Probably not at all. Concha y Toro shares in Santiago were up 7% on the news. The Chilean currency has appreciated by 21% against the greenback in the past two years. Will other domestic wineries be in the sights of foreign companies? [WSJ]

SPIT: critter labels
In case we needed any further indication that critter labels have jumped the shark right off the wine bottle, Yellow Tail is now suing a more recent arrival for infringing on the wallaby. [WSJ]

SPIT: counterfeiting?
The BBC explores laser bottle etching, stealth mineral placement, and bubble codes at Chateau Margaux, all weapons in the current fight against counterfeiting. Whether these measure can outsmart fraudsters remains to be seen.

SPIT: wine shelf
Looks like they’ll need a mega cleanup in aisle 7! [Fail blog/youtube]

DESTROYED: international treasure
In Austria, vandals have uprooted and chopped to bits a 500-year-old vine. Hit the comments on what their punishment should be. [AP]

UPGRADED: the wine blogosphere
Mike Steinberger, wine columnist at Slate.com, has started a new blog. He says it is mostly for tasting notes, but he has already served up some juicy commentary about wine fraud. Add it to your feed reader! [WineDiarist.com]

SPIT: spelling
A BBC story highlights potential counterfeits of $8 supermarket wine in the UK. The tip off? Misspellings on the label.

SPIT: wine in New York supermarkets
Misspellings or not, wine is not likely to be sold in New York grocery stores this year since it was not included in Governor Cuomo’s budget. However, a group is still pushing the legislature to adopt a measure. [NACS]

SIPPED & SPIT: New Zealand’s bountiful vintage
Grape harvest in New Zealand may surpass 300 metric tons this year. Related: as volumes have been rising, bottled prices for exports have been falling. [Bloomberg]

SIPPED: baton passing
Robert Parker has announced editorial changes at the Wine Advocate, including the fact that he will no longer be reviewing the wines of California. Antonio Galloni will assume those duties and add the Cote d’Or and Chablis to his bailiwick that already includes all of Italy and Champagne. And who said criticism was getting more regionalized?

SPIT: recession
The drinks division at LVMH reports a 19% rise in revenues to €3.3 billion. Dom Pérignon and Krug were standouts. [Guardian]

SIPPED: creative shipping
Maryland wine consumer can’t have wine shipped to them. So many have it shipped to friends in Virginia or offices in DC (remember how DC is the thirstiest non-state in the nation?). It’s a miserable inconvenience and the Maryland law should simply be changed. [WashingtonPost.com]

GULPED: Trenta
Good to know: the Starbucks “trenta” size can also serve as a decanter. [cockeyed]

SPIT: repurposed content
Snooth.com, a site that ranks high in search results yet often offers frustratingly little hard information, has been scraping Cellartracker content, the Vintank blog suggests. The Snooth co-founder admits the content has “slipped through” their Ph.D. programmers since 2007 and apologizes. The Cellartracker founder comments on the post to say he has emails from 2008 contradicting several points in the apology post. As they say in the Twitterverse: oh, snap!

SPIT: sex
According to a new study, wine grapes lack genetic variation because of asexual reproduction, making them susceptible to pests and/or disease. This may raise use of pesticides or fungicides to unacceptable limits, which leaves growers three options: developing genetically resistant grape varieties, going organic, or cross-breeding grapes to have naturally sturdier varieties. [NYT]

SIPPED: cool wine
FedEx announces temperature controlled trucks to certain hubs, but the last stage of delivery will be in regular trucks. Is half a trip better than none? [winebusiness.com]

SPIT: frozen grapes
The head of the Canadian Vintners Association points the finger at China in recent icewine fraud. [Reuters]

SIPPED: bidding
The auction of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s wine in Hong Kong grossed $5.6 million, surpassing estimates. Sotheby’s cited the consignor’s “proven reputation.” [AFP]

SPIT: suds
Australians are drinking less beer than any time in the past 61 years, according to government statistics. Don’t worry, they’re not on the wagon: wine is growing in popularity. Will “wine” ever be Australian for “drink”? [smh.com.au]

SIPPED: silence
Michael Madrigale, who runs the innovative wine program at Bar Boulud, has put together some “silent movies” that show his nightly by-the-glass pours from large format bottles. This one is for the rare Yvon Metras Felurie ’09 from magnum; other videos include an ’06 Barbaresco from Jero anda ’70 Jordan Cab from mag.

SPIT: recycling bin
WANTED: empty bottles of 1982 Lafite in “best condition possible.” Price: 2,900 yuan. [Montreal Gazette]

SIPPED: profiting from pain?
The yen’s strength compared to the euro is not lost on a bigwig enofile at Japan’s Ministry of Finance. [great pic – WSJ]

SPIT: social networking
As a sidebar to our recent discussion about who makes money in wine writing, Gary Vaynerchuk has decided to pull the plug on Cork’d, the social networking site he purchased in 2007.

SIPPED: wine from the pre-score era
In an Armenian cave, archeologists have discovered the world’s oldest winemaking paraphernalia–including animal horns as drinking vessels–dating back 6,100 years. But how did the consumers know if it was any good since it didn’t have a score out of 100? [NYT]

CHUGGED: Pinot?
If you missed the Japanese remake of Sideways, check the trailer above. Glad the dump bucket scene was included! For more details, check out the Wine Economist’s post who says that they changed several key plot details, notably making it a paean to Cabernet, not Pinot.

CONQUERED: world wine bars
The Bordeaux wine trade unveils a plan to boost sales of lower priced wines from the region. A part of that is opening wine bars selling only Bordeaux in London, NYC and Hong Kong. I can hear the dust falling in the NYC one already! [theaustralian.com.au]

SIPPED: bargain bubbly?
Champagne under $20? A blogger explores who makes the Kirkland Champagne at Costco ($19.99). [Goodcheapvino.com]

SIPPED: honey laundering
Off topic, but check out this fascinating story about fraud in the world of honey. [Globe & Mail]