Dr Vino's wine blog

News appeared today that thieves broke into Chateau d’Yquem and stole 380 (half) bottles of the famed sweet wine. The wine theft was valued at $166,000. Sadly, wine heists have become more common of late. Where does the d’Yquem debacle rank in the top twelve? Read more…

Consolidation strikes the Empire State: The Vintner Group, the Virginia-based distributor, is acquiring Martin Scott Wines, a distributor based in Lake Success, NY.

Founded in 1990 by Martin Gold and Scott Gerber, Martin Scott Wines has grown to have a thick “book,” distributing wines from about 450 wineries, ranging from Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Bonneau du Martray, and Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier in Burgundy to Ponzi Vineyards and Chateau Montelena from the US.

The Vintner Group, formerly known as The Country Vintner, is an importer and wholesaler of fine wine and spirits. CEO David Townsend has led the company on an acquisition spree of late and the company now has operations in nine states in the mid-Atlantic and southeast. They now add New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut to that list. According to Shanken Daily News, the company recapitalized in the mid-2000s and now have Brockway Moran as a private equity partner.

What does this mean for the New York City wine market? If you’re in the trade, share your thoughts in the comments. Here’s a link to the press release.

I can tell that Father’s Day is rapidly approaching: my email box is full of pitches about wine suitable for the occasion. Wait, isn’t pretty much any wine suitable?

Well, as I’ve written before, all wines are enhanced by good stemware. The titanium-infused line of “impact-resistant” stemware from Schott-Zwiesel have their virtues. At about $10 a stem, you could even break a few but they really are pretty resistant.

I recently splurged on a pair of gorgeous Zalto Universals, hand-crafted crystal stems from Austria. They are so elegant and weightless that they almost take the glass out of wine drinking–somehow, the fermented grape juice is constrained beautifully on display, the aromas concentrated, and the wine ultimately swishes over the palate while hardly sensing the glass rim. They are so thin it took my wife a couple of weeks to overcome a fear that they would shatter merely upon casting them a wayward glance. But we’ve had the set for a couple of months now, enjoying Champagne, Burgundy and Barolo in them, with nary a break (hope I didn’t just jinx it). I have yet to find more pleasurable stemware.

I bumped into Aldo Sohm, the head sommelier at Le Bernardin whose signature adorns the glasses, a few weeks after I got mine. He shocked me by telling me to throw them in the dishwasher to clean them. Eeegad! I continue to hand wash but good to know that the dishwasher is authorized by the highest authority.

Even though they are pricey at $60 each it sure would be nice to share a pair with a wine geek dad.

Available at Crush and Winemonger.

Media outlets are reporting that Jennifer Aniston has installed a 1,600-square foot wine cellar in her Bel Air home for $3.2 million. She and her fiance Justin Theroux apparently delayed their wedding to complete a total of $12 million of renovations on the home that she purchased two years ago for $21 million. Oh, the house has a small vineyard on the 3.5 acres.

The above image from her previous home would now be the emergency wine storage area.

But, don’t worry, even though Aniston is clearly into wine, she might just get a little bit bored of it sometimes. Since she “loves Mexican food” they’ve installed a “margarita fountain,” which is described as a “special machine for mixing drinks that looks like a water feature.” Come on, where’s the Petrus fountain??

One wine that likely won’t be in the spacious cellar: the Brangelina rosé.

“Inside Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux’s $22 million Bel Air mansion” Adelaidenow.com.au

China is waving a broken wine bottle in international negotiations: in retaliation for EU tariffs of 11.8% against Chinese solar panels, Chinese authorities have threatened to place trade barriers on EU wine. The EU alleges that China dumps solar panels below the cost of manufacture and China alleges the same thing for EU wine, pointing to subsidies to the industry. See this Reuters account for details.

But who really stands to lose, European wine producers or Chinese consumers who have acquired a taste for European wines? Well, surely the Lafite crowd in mainland China won’t be crying into their Riedel stemware as they could likely afford to pay any new duties. (Notably, wine coming into Hong Kong would still be exempt.) But it could shift Chinese consumption to other parts of the wine world, such as Australia or the US. Or maybe it would spur interest in domestic wines from China. Or maybe it would snuff out their newly stoked interest in wine. There are always unintended consequences in trade wars.

And, more often than not, tough talk is just a bargaining tactic.

Want to buy a five-pack of Bordeaux wines that Robert Parker scored 100 points? Given the proliferation of 100-point wines these days, that’s not the hardest thing to come anymore. No, the ne plus ultra now is a five-pack of RP 100s, sold as a signed set by Robert Parker!

SudOuest has the full story (picked up en anglais over at wine-searcher). Suffice it to say that the five-packs don’t include Haut Brion and Petrus. Interestingly, the negociant who put it together said that this would not have been possible before Robert Parker sold a substantial stake in the Wine Advocate late last year to Singaporean investors. The negociant didn’t reveal the details of this autographing arrangement, but said there was no commercial angle to the transaction.

No photo was available of the five-packs, so we run one of KISS, who similarly cashed in on autographed items. What will be the next in the Robert Parker line? Stemware by Christmas? After all, Suckling already beat him to that one. Maybe there will be some signed Ralph Nader memorabilia for old times’ sake.

We flagged the 7% tasting in Sonoma last month for you. But the folks over at Chow Studios have had even more fun with the event, making your Wine Infographic of the Day about it.

While I have some quibbles with it (why call it a 7% “majority”? Why is Merlot mentioned in the middle graphic?), it nonetheless provides some good information at a glance. Check it out in reduced size here or in full res over at the Chow Studio site (or a KCET story about the tasting). It might even make you want to seek out something new–or even try for an uber-difficult domestic version of the Wine Century Club. Read more…

Stephane Derenoncourt, a high-profile consulting winemaker recently told LeMonde.fr that the wine samples poured for critics and the trade at “en primeurs” received a “special preparation.” Decanter.com quotes Derenoncourt in the lemonde story ($) saying that “each parcel and put them through a special process to speed up the elevage.”

Robert Parker and other critics have long denied that there are special barrels for en primeur tastings. In the Decanter story, and one from drinksbusiness, the trade downplayed the notion, wondering aloud why would anyone do such a thing.

But one proprietor, Yann Bouscasse of Chateau Cantinot, told Decanter that he showed different samples to different critics, with Americans (or American publications) getting the new oak treatment:

‘James Suckling, Neal Martin or Robert Parker will get a new barrel, while Gault Millau, or Revue du Vin de France, will get second and third use. American tasters can cope better with oak – Suckling likes a wine with more body.’

Neal Martin tweeted in response, “I think someone should inform Mon. Bouscasse where I come from.”

In other Bordeaux news, a researcher suggests that Bordeaux red wines may be susceptible to premature oxidation, which has previously plagued white wines. Denis Dubourdieu, a winemaker and professor in enology at Bordeaux University, performed the research, placed the blame on wines with low acidity and excessive new oak making overripe wines and vintages as the most susceptible to the effect.

Finally, Michel Rolland cashed out, selling his Pomerol estate, Le Bon Pasteur, to the Hong Kong financier Pan Sutong.