Dr Vino's wine blog

Craig Foss is madder than hell. And who has caught the ire of this New Zealander? The Times of London, for running a table suggesting that British wine consumers could switch from New Zealand wines to French wine to reduce their carbon footprint.

The Times had the audacity to reproduce a table from the new book The Low Carbon Diet by Polly Ghazi and Rachel Lewis. In it, the authors suggest that such a wine switch would reduce carbon usage by 0.068kg/bottle. That’s in an overall annual diet of 10,000 kg of carbon consumption.

Why should the world care if Craig Foss is mad? He’s New Zealand’s opposition National Party horticultural spokesman, people! Do try to keep up.

So let’s help Foss channel his anger correctly:

1. Get mad at Ghazi and Lewis first, then the Times.

2. While Brits may care about the carbon footprint, British wine drinkers don’t really care about it (yet). Heck, they don’t even care about organic and biodynamic according to a recent study. Maybe focus on that shade of green instead of transport.

3. Don’t get mad, get even. The fact is, New Zealand is always going to be a long boat ride (note: not air) from the UK. So how about making a push for kiwi growers to all become sustainable and swear off synthetic fertilizers and pesticides? That would make the long sea voyage a wash. Now that’s something eco-conscious wine drinkers could raise a glass to (once they become eco-conscious, that is–see point two).

“Carbon footprint puts boot into wine” [NZ Herald]
“Low carbon diet masterplan” [The Times UK, pdf]

Did you know that the world had turned into a planet of the…grapes? Nor did I until I checked out the Vinexpo 2007 logo.

Yes, I’ll be in Bordeaux (somewhere between a green grape and a dark one) the third week in June covering the massive wine trade show. Given that I have previously written that France is a wine lover’s paradise yet an internet purgatory, I can only hope that the press tent will have wifi since I know there will be plenty of wine.

I’ve bought my plane ticket (ouch!) and am bracing for the full, sobering effect of the dollar’s decline. Ack.

The hottest place in the wine world in mid-June may also have high temperatures. The last time I attended, during the heatwave of 2003, almost 50,000 people packed into a series of exhibit areas that had little or no air conditioning. (Now they could do it in the name of reducing their carbon footprint.) Mmm, hints of barnyard aromas in the wine? Try: hot convention center.

This time, I’ll be able to taste some 2006 barrel samples from Bordeaux and will be on the lookout for some of the yummy 2005s. All with the goal of keeping you informed, dear reader. But with more than 2,300 exhibitors from 43 countries, there will be a lot of swirling, sniffing–and spitting! More anon!

Related:
Vinexpo.com
“Tasting sized notes from Vinexpo 2003” [Dr. V]

They read it for the articles
Playboy had a launch party last week in Shenzhen for some wines they will launch on the Chinese marketplace. The wines may not be valued for what’s inside the bottle since “Playboy wine can enter China market quickly by wide international influence of Playboy brand.” No label image available. [CWIW; via wineconsultant]

Drink me, I’m Irish
If you had a $40,000 a year wine buying budget and a cellar filled with 1,500 bottles, who might you be? Why, Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs! They’re not outrageous ranging from 10 to slightly over 100 euros in current value with the oldest vintage a 1982. Many of the properties represented have Irish connections, such as the obscure Chateau Vignelaure in Provence, which is owned by David O’Brien. Chateau Kirwan and Leoville-Barton feature in the cellar logs, even if their Irish connections were 200 years ago. [independent.ie]

Napa exists!
We might not be able to make new “champagne” brands any more in America, but now Europeans can’t make “Napa.” Take that! [NVR]

Not THAT Georgia
“Want to try Georgian wine?” Mamuka Tsereteli booms, holding out a plastic cup. Seeing a blank look, he helpfully adds, “Caucasus mountains?” Selling Georgian wine in America. [WaPo]

Bottle age
Two Buck Chuck does what none of its wine could do: turns five years old. [AP]

How sweet it isn’t
Mariann Fischer-Boel, the reformist EU Commissioner of Agriculture, has taken aim at Southern European wine producers with the threat of uprooting vines and reducing subsidies. Now she takes aim at Northern Europeans with a potential ban on chaptilization, a method of adding sugar to wine. [J. Ro]

Jules, the “twenty-something Wellingtonian” who writes the winewanker blog, guessed in no time flat that the mystery winery is in fact Craggy Range in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

I really like the photo since it shows such contrasts between the vineyard and the surrounding area. The photographer, Alastair writes that after visiting the winery, he “drove up one of the most frightening roads I had ever been on and took a photo from the Te Mata Peak facing east.” He snapped the above photo too (click to enlarge; see a satellite image here). See more of Alastair’s photos on his site, 18percentgray.com.

Related: “Grapes on the half shell“

I made the pages Sports Illustrated! Whodathunk I’d be in SI?!? All those “curls” with the wine glass must have paid off. 😉 And, no, it is not the swimsuit issue.

Last week I sat down with reporter Lisa Altobelli to taste three wines whose profits benefit various charities associated with the Boston Red Sox. As a Cub fan (why bother?!) I may have been the only non-partisan taster in New York.

The Chilean wines were the Schilling Schardonnay, Manny being Merlot, and Caberknuckle, selections from Red Sox stars Curt Schilling, Manny Ramirez (described as “a budding enophile”) and Tim Wakefield. Check out the May 28 issue, p. 26 for my detailed comments but I’ll tell you here that is the order that I preferred them. Even though they won’t be available to Red Sox Nation and beyond until next month, 264,000 bottles have already been pre-sold.

And if you’re stopping by the blog for the first time because of the story, then consider subscribing to the site’s feed or monthly email updates on the right. And feel free to poke around and see some wine picks or explore any of the categories on the first sidebar, including wine and sports!

“A very good year: three Red Sox enter the world of wine” [pdf, from SI]

UPDATE: if you’re looking to order the wines, surf on over to Charity Wines to order directly. They say specific stores will be posted soon. Or try wine-searcher for the Shcardonnay, Merlot, or Caberknucle.

Hey, can this magician do this with $2,000 bottles of Petrus? If so, he’s invited to my next party!

Reader Jeff J wrote in yesterday asking for a case of wine, probably red, about $150 – $200 to give to a friend in New York who recently got married.

Great question! And thoughtful gesture! Some retailers put together pre-fab cases but I have generally approached them with skepticism. Why? I probably don’t want one or two or three of the wines in the set case. And I suspect there’s something in there that the store might be trying to move for reasons other than necessarily serving the consumer.

But I put my skepticism aside and decided to put my money where my mouth is. I recommended Jeff check out Chambers Street Wines, which has a selection of pre-fab cases at $100 and $200 both red and mixed. I also recommended the mixed “Memorial Day” case at Le Du’s Wines in the West Village. Maybe it was the thought of grilling this weekend but for some reason I found myself clicking “buy now.”

Tuesday I clicked and Wednesday my doorbell rang. I have to confess a certain amount of excitement pulling out bottles I’ve never tried before. Even if I don’t know the producers’ names, the back labels sport the names of some very solid importers–Neal Rosenthal, Jon David Headrick, Classical Wines among others. And they were selected by the knowledgeable staff, headed by Jean-Luc Le Du, formerly the sommelier at the restaurant Daniel.

But the best part? $145.99! Free delivery in New York State. I’ll keep you posted on how the one-click convenience works out in the glass. The list follows below for your perusal. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go put a bottle in the fridge since it is heading to 84 degrees today… Read more…

Winery trivia: which winery is this? (click to enlarge) First correct comment will win…I dunno, something! (Probably your name in lights and our admiration)

Photo sent in by reader Alastair. Send in your photos!