Jun 23, 2006
The word on the street is that while the 2005 Bordeaux vintage is quite good, the pricing of the top wines is, well, quite ridiculous. Decanter has the story. But consider this: First tranche pricing of only a portion of Chateau Lafite’s 2005 bottling was announced at $375 per bottle for negociants. The negociants are selling a bottle of the wine to merchants for around $465. And we aren’t even at the marked up price for you….the consumer.If you are…
Jun 21, 2006
What a fascinating exercise the European wine producers and European Union is embarking upon. Europe appears to be in the early phases of a complete overhaul of their wine industry, from growing to producing to marketing. Yesterday the European Union’s European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development , Mariann Fischer Boel, made a statement that served as an introduction to the coming debate and staked out a rather progressive position on what needs to be done to make European wine…
Jun 20, 2006
This past fathers day was a hoot. We had four fine fathers gathered with their wives and children and grandchildren all in our newly renovated back yard. It was all good…Until I had to explain myself. You see it was warm outside. And while a chilled rose and gewurztraminer were on the table, I wanted to drink something red. But it was just too damn hot to really appreciate it. So I did what I often do with red wine…
Jun 19, 2006
Lest we forget that the wine industry is an agricultural industry, given to the whims of Mother Nature, the is now the 2006 Port vintage to consider. Apparently a storm that rushed through Portugal last Wednesday did extensive damage to what would have been the Port wine vineyards in that country. Initial reports had the loss in the neighborhood of 80% of the vines due to severe hail. Today the estimates of the loss and damage was said to be…
Jun 15, 2006
There is an interesting AP story making the rounds today about an effort to combat various wine grapevines…using genetic modification. They ask the right question in the story: will the wine industry and consumers happily adopt the idea of vineyards planted with genetically modified vines, let alone the wines made from them? The effort is taking place in Missouri at a place called "Center for Grapevine Biotechnology", where it turns out they are also part of the global cooperative project…