Dr Vino's wine blog

Advice columns this time of year frequently suggest wine gifts. Such columns often target the generalist reader who’s not that into wine but is looking for a gift to give to a wine-loving friend or relative. Flipping this model on its head, here’s what wine geeks need to give their friends and relatives who are marginally into wine: good stemware.

Yes, there’s certainly a strong argument to give them a bottle of wine itself–we certainly need plenty of it at this time of year. But wine itself can be a hit or a miss and, either way, it’s here today, empty tomorrow and, all too often, forgotten when the recycling bin is emptied. Certainly books have a tendency of sticking around longer and as the author of two wine books, I highly recommend giving the gift of wine books. A good corkscrew (such as pulltaps) is a nice touch, but really not essential since even the dreaded butterfly corkscrew can get the job done.

Thus, glasses. I think this even came up in the Bible: give a friend a bottle of wine, and you give him or her enjoyment for just one evening. But give him or her good stemware (or a good wine book for learning more about how to choose good wine!), and you will will elevate your friends’ wine enjoyment for months if not years to come. Many are under $10 a stem. Riedel makes handsome stems but, in my experience, I have found them very easy to break. Ravenscroft also has solid stems, starting at $7.50 each. And the Tritan forte Schott-Zwiesel makes a titanium infused line of crystal glasses that really does reduce breakage. And, no, you don’t need to give a different glass for each grape variety.

So go crazy and help your friends say cheers with style this holiday season with some good stemware, the best non-wine book gift that you can give to your friends and relatives who are getting into wine.

Cork producers continue to roll out their $22 million promotional campaign. Their current ad is even worse than the one about killing kittens. In the video, a woman jumps on top of a man because he brought a wine closed with a cork harvested by “swarthy Portuguese workers.”

Really? That’s the best that $22 million can buy? Below, find a video that the folks at Stelvin (screw cap) closures could have easily made in about 10 minutes with no budget had they wanted to engage in this sort of silliness. Maybe cork producers need to call whoever made the Mac-PC ads. Or the Old Spice guy.

(Note: The opinions portrayed in the video do not necessarily belong to DrVino.com or any subsidiaries. Any likeness to real people is a coincidence.)

I finally got around to reading the food issue (Nov 22) of the New Yorker, and was amazed to find not one but two–two!–articles extolling the gustatory and health virtues of sauerkraut (sauerkraut!). In one brief piece, David Bezmozgis describes the making of this pickled cabbage as “part wrestling match, part science experiment.” That’s because after dumping the sliced cabbage in a large container, adding salt (about two tablespoons per head), the cabbage must be mashed or kneaded until it releases its juice, then kept submerged as fermentation occurs. The other, much longer article profiled Sandor Katz and his wild fermentations that transform, among other things, cabbage into kraut, rich in vitamins and isothiocyanates.

But does it taste any good? I went to my local farmers’ market and bought a pint from a vendor. I also bought a loaf of organic bread from the excellent baker Wave Hill, and some microgreens. At home, I spread Dijon mustard on a slice, added some cheddar, heaped on the kraut, cherry tomatoes, and greens to make a sort of a cold, vegetarian, full-of-flavor, crunchy, tart riff on the reuben. Next up I will have to try Schupfnudeln, a regional dish (with an odd name) from southwestern Germany that amounts to homemade gnocchi fried up with bacon fat and sauerkraut.

What do you say? Help the fermentation foodies. Which wine would you pair with sauerkraut (in any preparation)–or is pairing fermented grape juice with fermented cabbage…impossible?

I joked yesterday on Twitter that no blog post seems complete today without mentioning either China or Lafite! So indulge me in one more post about the wine flavor of the month/year/decade….

News is out today that Lafite (DBR – Domaines Baron Rothschild) has left their Chinese importer and distributor, Summergate, after seven years. Jim Boyce in Beijing talked with Ian Ford, an American and founding partner of Summergate. Ford says that they rebuffed Lafite’s offer to buy a stake of the company. Thus Lafite will be shifting their distribution to ASC wines (which is 70% owned by Suntory).

But the crazier story about wine in China is the one involving the building a Scottish castle, typhoons, explosives, and 600 tons of chicken poop. These are all part of various vineyard developments occurring in the Shandong province, which lies on the eastern coast. The Daily Mail (!) visits the location and files a fascinating story with many pictures. Lafite is among the players, developing a 50-acre vineyard (with 350 acres in reserve) in with the state-owned CITIC. (To make the terroir just right, the Daily Mail writes that “explosives are being used to smooth out the broad vine terraces.”) Be sure to see Jim Boyce’s local take on whether or not the site is as “grand cru” as some have claimed!

Also, enjoy this parting shot of the Château Changyu AFIP outside of Beijing.

Image 1: reduced size crop of image by Lou Linwel/Sinopix
Image 2: reduced size crop of image by Janis Miglavs

SIPPED: spitting!
“The length and precision of the stream are just unbelievable.” No, this is not something from Urology. They actually have a wine spitting contest in France! [France24]

SIPPED: tariffs
Will India develop a thirst for wine? Maybe after it reduces its thirst for 150+% tariffs & taxes. [WSJ]

SPIT: human interaction
Remember those wine vending machines in PA? WalMart wants in. Redbox DVD? Check. Wine from kiosk? Check. Humans? Nil. [The Consumerist]

SPIT: 7-eleven wine
Millennial “would rather die” than drink wine sold at 7-Eleven. [Thomson Family Vineyards]

SIPPED: bankruptcy
A&P grocery stores, which purchased Best Cellars in 2007, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. Given that Royal Ahold (owner of Stop & Shop) is already circling, the new, merged company could be called Stop & P. [Bloomberg]

SIPPED: foreign ownership?
Speaking of distress sales, a French blogger wonders if a Chinese bidder may emerge for Heidsieck Champagnes. Sure, one may come forward, but it will have to do better than India’s United Breweries, which received a “frosty reception” bidding on Taittinger in 2006.

“Lloyd Webber to auction wine collection to affluent Asians,” read the headline on Reuters.

I posted about it over on the Dr. Vino Facebook wall. Reader Richard Henshaw commented there, pointing out that this wasn’t the first time that Lord Lloyd Webber had sold wine at auction and that when he had his first sale, many of the wines that were auctioned were, in fact, young wines. Henshaw writes “I remember thinking that this was a novel way for a celebrity to monetize his fame. (Suckers beware!)”

Indeed, this 1997 article from Slate (wait, State was around in 1997?), shows the premiums buyers paid over retail, sometimes on the order of 100%.

Ah, a mere 100%!? Given that Lafite 2009 futures were just snapped up at four times retail it will be interesting to see what premium this smaller collection that includes ’05 Mouton and Lafite achieves in January in Hong Kong. It may make Lloyd Webber laugh. Or make him cry. But it won’t be better than Cats (for him, financially).

Jim Boyce, a Canadian residing in Beijing and the author of the Grape Wall of China blog, tweeted this the other day:

exhausted after 3 bottles of Lafite but that’s a typical Beijing night (note: 7-UP > Sprite as a mixer) #ihaveagreatwalltosellyou

Given that Chinese drinkers are reputed for mixing soda with even expensive wines, I asked him if he was bring serious. He replied:

I’ve been in Beijing 6 years, had lots of wine, never seen anyone mix it w Sprite/Coke. But journos love wine/sprite as a lead…

If you’ve been in China recently, what’s your experience in witnessing the first growth with Coke phenomenon? Is this an overblown story that needs to be put to bed?

Incidentally, it’s not Lafite, but my youngest brother wrote me that when he was in Spain earlier this year, he saw some of them there young folks mixing Rioja and Coke, a concoction known as a Calimocho (aka kalimotxo).

I grabbed a few corks that I had recently pulled. Cut paperclips in half. Shoved half the clip into one end of the cork. Attached an ornament hanger.

Voila! My kind of cork tree. And Christmas tree!

Related: “Cork dork: Ten cool things to do with leftover wine corks“