QRW | Autumn 2007 | All Things Grape and Small

Two storied Napa Valley wineries changed hands this past summer. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and its famed Fay and SLV vineyards were purchased for $185 million by a partnership of Washington State’s Chateau Ste. Michelle and Tuscany’s Piero Antinori. And Duckhorn Wine Co., owner of the Duckhorn, Paraduxx, Goldeneye, Decoy and Migration labels, was acquired by a California equity firm, GI Partners, for about $250 million. Stag’s Leap leapt to prominence in 1976, when its 1973 Cask 23 Cabernet won the day at the now-famous “Judgment of Paris” tasting. Duckhorn also made its reputation in the late ’70s, becoming the first California winery to promote Merlot as a serious, stand-alone varietal.

June 2007, not April, was the cruelest month for some of France’s top vineyards. On June 20, a devastating all-night hailstorm hit northern Rhône, ravaging large sections of the famed 500-acre Côte Rôtie appellation. Early reports pegged the crop loss at 50 percent or more. And five days later, equally severe hail storms hit Alsace, destroying most of the harvest in five communes, among them Bennwihr, Beblenheim and Mittelwirh.

It appears that 2007 will be a good year for New Zealand wines. Not only is quality said to be high, but the harvest was up 11 percent from 2006, and brought in a record yield of 205,000 tonnes.

The U.S. gave new meaning to the term “bubble bath” last year, as imports of French Champagne were up 12 percent and hit a record high of $509 million. And this could be just what the doctor ordered. A recent Italo-British study says that drinking polyphenol-rich French Champagne may prevent brain injuries caused by strokes and other neurological maladies. (For more on this, see the April 18 Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry.)

If you’ve got a spare $11 million, you can own the former Fetzer Valley Oaks hospitality center and organic garden in Hopland, California. That’s what Brown-Forman, Fetzer’s owner, is asking for the 155-acre Mendocino County property, which also includes 45 acres of organically certified vines, three guest houses, a tasting center and a deli.

Vina Almaviva, one of Chile’s marquis wineries, has a new winemaker. He’s Frenchman Michel Friou, 41, who most recently has been winemaker at Baron Philippe de Rothschild Chile and prior to that spent many years at another noted Chilean winery, Casa Lapostelle. Plans call for Friou to divide his time between Almaviva and Baron de Rothschild Chile. Located in Maipo Valley’s Puente Alto region, and owned jointly by Concha y Toro and Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Almaviva produces 15,000 cases annually of high-end red wine from Cabernet and Carmenere.

Wayne Gretzky, the National Hockey League’s all-time leading scorer, is now a vintner, having just released three Niagara-based Canadian wines (a 2005 Meritage Red, a 2000 Chardonnay and a 2005 Vidal Icewein) under the Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines label. The wines were made by Craig McDonald and Rob Power at Creekside Estate Winery, but The Great One says he’ll have his own facility within the next two years. Gretzky’s not the only Canadian celeb in the wine business. In June, Dan Aykroyd, an Ottawa native, announced plans to build an eponymous $12 million winery in Lincoln, Ontario. The venture, a partnership between the actor and Diamond Estates Wines and Spirits, Ltd., will offer a full range of wines, from mid-priced ($15 to $25 a bottle) to very expensive ($100 or more a bottle).

How would you like to be scrubbed with Cabernet and massaged with Sauvignon Blanc? Well, Caudalie, a vinotherapy spa set to open in mid-November at New York City’s Plaza Hotel, promises to offer that and much more. The opulent 15-room operation is a spin-off of the Caudalie spa at Bordeaux’s Château Smith- Haut Lafitte, and will be run by Mathilde Thomas, daughter of Smith-Haut Lafitte owners Florence and Daniel Cathiard.

Mumm Champagne is launching a new prestige cuvée, “R. Lalou.” The debut wine, a 1998 vintage, hits the market this fall, and will retail for around $200.

Wine drinkers live longer than beer and spirit drinkers, according to a 29-year Finnish study. Indeed, over the course of the study, which began in 1974 with a pool of 2,468 men aged 50 to 66, moderate wine drinkers had a 34-percent lower death rate than beer and spirit drinkers, and enjoyed better mental and physical health as well. (For the whole story, see the February 2007 Journals of Gerontology.)

Here’s one from the Potty Idea Department. Piper-Heidsieck has begun a campaign in the U.K. to promote drinking Champagne on the rocks. That’s right: Champagne poured over ice cubes. “This exciting new way of enjoying Piper-Heidsieck Champagne,” says Lindsay Brown, the brand’s U.K. marketing chief, “is an impressively simple serve and adds a new dimension of luxurious indulgence.” Bosh! It’s simply another instance of dumbing down. What’s next: Château d’Yquem spritzers?

Jess Jackson has more than wine to crow about. Curlin, a three-year-old thoroughbred part-owned by the Kendall-Jackson founder, won the 2007 Preakness Stakes, edging out place horse Street Sense by a nose.

France’s troubled wine industry is not too happy with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, an avowed teetotaler. As one Provencal vintner told Reuters, “Every time you see [Sarkozy] on TV he’s jogging. He doesn’t like eating, he doesn’t like drinking, he doesn’t represent the culture of France.”

E.J. Gallo expanded its Napa holdings last June with the purchase of 182 red wine acres in Chiles Valley. Some of the new grapes will go into Gallo’s Louis Martini brand, and some into a new label, Ghost Pines, set to be launched this fall. A portion will also be sold, under contract, to outside wineries. (At press time, Gallo also bought William Hill Winery, further expanding its Napa base.)

The Burgundy wine towns of Volnay and Monthélie performed a bit of contraction and expansion last spring. Volnay consolidated some of its First Growth vineyards, as Chanlin absorbed Pitures; Le Ronceret subsumed Les Aussy; Pointes d’Angles and Les Angles became simply Les Angles; and Carelle-sous la Chapelle and Carelle-Dessous were bundled together as Carelle-Dessous la Chapelle. Meanwhile, in neighboring Monthélie, four new First Growths were added -- Les Clous, Le Clous des Chenes, Les Barbières and Le Clos des Toisières.

Europe’s wine industry is seriously ill and needs a complete overhaul, says the European Commission. As a result, they’re asking wine-producing members of the European Union (among them France, Italy, Spain and Germany) to cut production by uprooting a combined 617,750 acres of vines. In addition, the Commission says it will no longer subsidize the distillation of unsalable wine, nor will it buy up surpluses. Furthermore, it proposes to ban winemakers from adding sugar to their wines. Called chaptalization, this is common practice in Europe’s more northerly wine zones, where added sugar is often needed to balance acidity and to bring alcohol to acceptable levels. However, the practice can also be abused and lead to overproduction. The Commission’s proposals will no doubt spark a heated debate. Stay tuned.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could make a $10 bottle of wine taste like an $80 bottle? Well, Aaron and Sue Singleton, owners of The Way to Balance Healing Center in Amesbury, Massachusetts, claim to have invented something which can do just that. Called the Ring of Oden for Wine Aging, it’s a shiny brass ring that when placed around a bottle of wine, is supposed to accelerate aging and improve flavor. The $99 device works its magic, say the inventors, because it’s imbued with Net-Neutral Ionic Energy and can thus affect the wine on a subatomic level. Nobel Committee, please take note.

Randy Sheahan