Dr Vino's wine blog

Just a quick reminder that I hope you are getting ready to “go native” one week from today!

That’s right, I’ve chosen the theme of indigenous grape varieties for this month’s theme. So you still have a week left to select, drink and write a brief tasting note about your wine made from an indigenous grape variety. Bonus points are available for those who drink said wine actually IN the region and even more bonus points can be yours if you do a comparison between old and new. The “big six” grape varieties are banned. Get the whole scoop in the original announcement.

So what are you waiting for? Get your agioritiko into gear!

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With the sale of wine prohibited in grocery (aka “food”) stores, this is what we’re left with at the A&P, etc. Mmm, “wine product.”

SPIT: fake wine
Italian police (these cops?) have made arrests in a case where about $1 million in cheap wine passed off as expensive. The scariest part is one official who says that the lack of border controls in the EU means that ‘It is illegal to transport unlabeled wine across European borders, but… it’s very difficult to enforce the law.” [Decanter]

SIPPED: beer writing
Michael Jackson is dead at 65–no, not THAT Michael Jackson. Instead, the British beer writer. Is he remembered for his tasting notes? Not so much. I liked this praise from a colleague in his NYT obit: “He was simply the best beer writer we’ve ever known. He told wonderful stories about beer, breweries and far away places. He told the story of beer through people, and he was humorous and erudite at the same time.” [NYT]

SPIT: 2007 vintage, Bordeaux version
Bordeaux may allow chaptalisation, or the addition of sugar to the wine to raise the alcohol level. Remember that rain I reported on in June? Seems like there wasn’t enough ripeness in the end. Funny, and we were all just thinking it was warming up–the Bordelais had been adding water in recent vintages to cut high alcohol levels. [Decanter]

SPIT: glass bottles
Fully 95 percent of wine bottles in the EU come from three manufacturers: Saint-Gobain, Owens-Illinois INC and Ireland’s Ardagh Glass. There’s already a shortage and importers and distributors are complaining to the EU, hoping to break the glass oligopoly. Why? Probably because price increases eat into their margins and can’t be passed on to the consumer. Think about the box, people! [AFX News]

SPIT: bulk wine
The EU puts the distillation of bulk wine up for a tender offer. [Reuters]

SIPPED: Indiana reform
Thanks to a federal court decision, things might just get better for Indiana wine consumers. [Indy Star]

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My locker is bigger than your locker. Maybe not. But it is more expensive!

Yes, that might just be the exchange between chef-preneurs Alain Ducasse and Daniel Boulud. As mentioned on this site in March, the wine-y Bar Boulud will be charging $1,250 a month for a three cubic foot locker in the bar. Patrons can store their wine there and uncork at will with dinner.

Not to be outdone, NY mag reports that Ducasse will be opening a wine bar this fall, and “he has enlisted David Rockwell to install such oeno-geeky touches as temperature-controlled armoires and 50 private wine lockers.” Sadly, they did not reveal the price of the lockers. But I doubt he will be outdone by Boulud! One to watch this fall.

More wine bar openings, after the jump. No word on whether they too will join the towel-snapping chefs in the locker room festivities. Read more…

“I’ve bought so much art, so many guns, so many other things, that if somebody’s out to cheat me I want the son of a bitch to pay for it,” he told me, his color rising. “Also,” he said, smiling, “it’s a fun detective story.”

Indeed it is. That was billionaire Bill Koch as quoted in the fantastic New Yorker story about potential fraud in the fine and rare auction market. The story surrounds Koch’s four bottles of 1787 Lafitte (sic) allegedly from the cellar of Thomas Jefferson. He acquired them for $500,000 total and, upon learning that their origins could not be verified, he has now spent $1 million in investigative and legal action.

Great stuff–consider the article by Patrick Radden Keefe an absolute must read. It’s got a great cast of characters ranging from a dead president, the billionaire sheriff, the possibly gullible and definitely eager auctioneer, the gumshoe, the man with a hidden past, prone to excess going by the name of Hardy Rodenstock…All written in the classic, thorough, and engaging style of the New Yorker. Pass the popcorn and savor it like a glass of 45 Lafite–a real one.

There’s a fascinating section about just how easy it is to perpetrate fraud in high-end wine since many of the wines are never opened, instead simply displayed. And when they are opened, a lot of times those pulling the corks don’t know what a certain wine should taste like, thus they can easily be defrauded, or it is many years after purchase, and the statute of limitations has passed.

Oh yeah, the rest of the issue is “the Food Issue.” Might as well pick it up and read the whole thing over the holiday weekend.

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La Rioja, the Grande Dame of Spanish wine regions, has seen the theme of modernists versus traditionalists playing out in winemaking circles. One house that captures this all in one portfolio is Muga.

In a recent blind tasting of 42 Riojas, ranging in price from $10 to $300 a bottle, I tasted through a good portion of the wines from this venerable estate. This producer encapsulates the dual trend in the region, looking both forward and backward. While the I found the new style wines to be overly extracted, the old style wines displayed a beautiful touch. Read more…

I was chatting with a friend over the weekend and he said that one of his co-workers was leaving the company to return home to Sweden. My friend wanted to give his co-worker a gift of three “iconic, American wines,” so he gave him a bottle of Schramsberg reserve 2000, Caymus Special Selection 2004, and Far Niente Chardonnay 2005. A very thoughtful gift, indeed!

Which three wines would you give if you were giving away three-packs of iconic American wines?

Comments are open.

UPDATE: Read more…